The body of the last New Orleans worker murdered in October 2019 when a building site of Hard Rock Hotel partially collapsed was finally recovered this week.
The remains of José Ponce Arreola, 63, were recovered Monday, and those of Quinnyon Wimberly, 36, were removed from the wreckage Aug. 8, the NBC News mayor’s office said. The body of a third man, Anthony Magrette, 49, was removed a day after the column.
Mayor LaToya Cantrell said at the news conference Tuesday that she expects the building to be demolished now.
“The main priority of the city, in connection with the Hard Rock collapse, in that tragedy, was to ensure public safety, as well as to ensure that the remains of José and Quinnyon were returned to their families,” she said.
The recovery mission began last month.
All three workers were killed on October 12 when part of the 18-story building collapsed during construction. Authorities said dangerous conditions prevented them from taking the bodies of Wimberly, whose remains were on the 11th floor, and Ponce, who was sitting on the 8th floor.
“We are grateful to finally have some measure of closure for both families, who have had an irresponsible delay,” Cantrell said in a statement On Monday, he admitted that Ponce’s family had a service for him.
“It is a terrible relief to finally begin this process. The safe and respectable removal of our people has been a top priority, and I am thankful to God that this day has finally come.”
Quinnyon Wimberly’s mother, Irene, has previously said she would not place the blame on why the recovery process took almost a year.
“It’s been a long time and it’s been almost 10 months, but it’s not because they did not visit,” she said in a telephone interview last month. “From day one, I told her I did not want to see anyone else killed or murdered. I would not want anyone’s life to be in danger trying to get him out.”
In addition to the three people who lost their lives that day, dozens of others were injured in the crash.
An Occupational Safety and Health Report (OSHA) on the collapse published in April found that Heaslip Engineering had committed “serious” and “intentional” violations and found that “structural steel joints were not adequately designed, tested or approved.” The company was fined.
The developer said in January that the cause of the column remains under investigation, and that it “relied on designer sons to build the building,” the Engineering News Record reported.
This week, Mario Ponce told Arreola, Ponce’s brother, the Daily Tennessean, “It’s been 10 months of pain, and asked him if they would find him. We had very little information about what happened.
Ponce, local news reported after the crash, had planned to retire to Mexico. Now he will be buried there.
