Memorial service set for bridge victims
By HENRY C. JACKSON and MARK SCOLFORO, Associated Press Writers 59 minutes ago
MINNEAPOLIS - Increasingly frustrated by the slow pace of recovery efforts, families of the missing in the Interstate 35W bridge collapse seemed heartened by a brief visit to the disaster site.
They also saw during their visit late Saturday why it has been so hard for search crews to find bodies amid the fallen ruins of the eight-lane bridge, a Red Cross official said.
After the visit, "they had a better depth of understanding of ... the challenges that the rescuers are facing now that they've seen it first hand," said Melanie Tschida, a Red Cross spokeswoman.
"That has been one of the ongoing frustrations all along — the lack of information and just the kind of endless wait of getting answers," she said.
The families were bused to the scene as divers were wrapping up a third fruitless day of searching for missing victims, finding no bodies inside a crushed car pulled from the bottom of the Mississippi River.
The search was to resume Sunday.
An interfaith service with songs and prayers for the victims of Wednesday's bridge collapse was set for 7 p.m. Sunday. Money raised will be distributed to victims' families.
The official death toll stands at five.
Police late Saturday released an official list eight people still missing, matching estimates that had been lowered from the hours immediately after the tragedy.
But police also cautioned that the number could still rise because it's possible some victims have not been reported missing. Investigators have names that haven't been connected to the bridge, and divers and recovery workers have found license plate numbers that don't belong to an identified missing person or survivor.
Among the newest names added to the list were Vera Peck and her son, Richard Chit, who were in the same car.
Family members said Richard Chit had Down syndrome, making him virtually inseparable from his mother.
"One of them wouldn't survive without the other so maybe that's just the way it's supposed to be," sister Caroline Chit told MSNBC through tears.
She and her sister said that Richard was 20 and about to turn 21. Authorities listed his age as 21.
The other six are Scott Sathers, 29, who worked at Cappela University, an online school; Christine Sacorafas, 45, a recent transplant to Minnesota who taught Greek folk dancing class; Greg Jolstad, 45, a construction worker who was operating a skid loader on the bridge; Peter Hausmann, 47, a computer security specialist; and Somali immigrant Sadiya Sahal, 23, a pregnant nursing student, and her 2-year-old daughter, Hanah.
Of the roughly 100 injured in the collapse, 24 remained hospitalized Saturday, five in critical condition.
Divers found no bodes inside a crushed car pulled earlier Saturday from the murky Mississippi River waters. They were unable to check at least one other car lying beneath another vehicle on the river bottom.
Memorial service set for bridge victims
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