The remains of the last victim of the Costa Concordia’s 2012 capsize has been found in the ship wreck, Italian officials have said.
Workers for the salvage company recovered the body from a cabin and handed it to the authorities to be identified.
They believe it is Indian waiter Russel Rebello, the last of 32 victims to be recovered from the wreck.
The Costa Concordia partially sank in January 2012 after it hit a reef off the Italian island of Giglio.
The Concordia was finally raised from the sea in July and towed to Genoa to be scrapped.
The captain, Francesco Schettino, is on trial for manslaughter and abandoning ship, charges he denies.
The remains of the last victim of the Costa Concordia’s 2012 capsize has been found in the ship wreck
This is the third time local officials have said Russel Rebello’s remains might have been found.
Tests on the other two occasions determined that the remains were not his.
This time, his brother Kevin said on Facebook he believed Russel was now coming home to India.
“I promised my family that I would bring back home my brother some day. When was the biggest question,” Kevin Rebello said.
“Finally, my younger brother’s body has been found.
“Thanks to everyone who prayed and believed that one day he would be found.”
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The remains of Indian waiter Russel Rebello – one of two people still missing from the Costa Concordia – have been found by Italian divers searching the wreck of the cruise ship, officials say.
An Italian passenger, Maria Grazia Trecarichi, is still unaccounted for.
Thirty people had already been confirmed dead after the Costa Concordia partially sank off the island of Giglio last year.
Salvage teams moved it to an upright position last month.
The remains of Indian waiter Russel Rebello have been found on the third deck of the Costa Concordia cruise ship
“The remains have been found by rescuers on the third deck” of the cruise ship, said a civil protection agency spokeswoman, Francesca Maffini.
“Several elements make us say that they could relate to the body of the young waiter of Indian nationality, Russel Rebello,” she said.
The agency the results would not be confirmed for several days, but said Russel Rebello’s family had been informed about the development.
An earlier announcement by the authorities that they had found the remains of two human bodies was subsequently played down.
The search for the two people who remained unaccounted for resumed on September 24, a week after the wreck of the cruise ship had been moved to an upright position and stabilized.
Officials have made the recovery of the remaining bodies a priority.
Divers had previously focused their search for the two missing people on the fourth deck of the Costa Concordia, where they had reportedly been seen for the last time on the evening of the accident.
The captain of the Costa Concordia, Francesco Schettino, is on trial over the disaster.
Francesco Schettino is accused of manslaughter, causing the shipwreck and abandoning ship, but says he is being made a scapegoat for the errors of others.
