The trip to Florida was meant to be best friends Michelle Pazos, 23, and Anastasia Gromova, 24,’s final holiday together before Gromova went to Japan to teach English. The young ladies, who met in their third year at McGill University in Montreal, where they both studied business, were living at Pazos’s father’s condominium in Surfside, Fla., when it collapsed on June 24.
Elena Pazos, an engineer, said she knew her daughter had died the minute she viewed photos of the Champlain Towers South debris. When a 12-story building near Miami partly fell, 97 people were murdered. Authorities said rescue and recovery activities necessitated the removal of more than 12,000 tonnes of rubble and concrete, even as search and rescue teams continue to identify the deceased.
According to county officials, Miami-Dade police have identified 95 victims thus far. According to Global Affairs Canada, Pazos’s estranged husband, Miguel Pazos, 55, and their daughter Michelle Pazos were the second and third Canadian fatalities identified in the apartment collapse. After three weeks, their remains were recovered.
