Body found under collapsed Phoenix warehouse believed to be 22-year-old Oswaldo Montoya
PHOENIX - Phoenix Fire believe the body of 22-year-old Oswaldo Montoya was found on July 27, the worker who was buried under a building that collapsed in a monsoon storm on July 24.
"A little after 1 o'clock, our crews identified a victim we believe to be Oswaldo, the unaccounted for employee. PD has taken over the investigation. They will be working with the medical examiner to confirm the identity," Phoenix Fire captain Todd Keller said in a press conference.
The family of Montoya was distraught to hear the news after waiting for three days for workers to remove the rubble with the hopes of uncovering the new father alive.
Keller described the search as exhausting, both for Oswaldo's loved ones and for the crews that worked 12-hour shifts to search for him.
CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO THE GOFUNDME FOR OSWALDO
"These were racks of product 40 feet tall and when this roof blew off all these racks collapsed and it kinda corkscrewed and piled down so we had to obviously use heavy equipment. The complexities of an incident like this is such a large scale," Keller said.
The search was narrowed to a specific point in the building after two search dogs made a hit on the same spot on July 25. However, the compromised structure had stability issues that slowed the search process.
Cranes were also needed to remove the heavy slabs of concrete that had to be removed piece-by-piece to create a path to where investigators believed the body was located.
The victim's family has identified him as 22-year-old Oswaldo Antonio Montoya Torres, who's worked as a forklift operator at the warehouse for at least the past year.
He's also the father of a 2-week-old son.
Keller said there will be an investigation at a later day into the building collapse itself, but their focus was removing the body from the wreckage and making sure the family is taken care of.
Phoenix Police Department will now take over this investigation and the Maricopa County Medical Examiner will identify the body to confirm it is Oswaldo and then determine a cause of death.
Family mourns a life gone too soon
As Oswaldo's family mourns his tragic death, they choose to remember the many good times they had with him.
"We will never understand why, you know, we never wanted my brother to leave," his sister Judith said.
His sisters, Judith and Marian, say he was so excited to have a son.
"We actually have a great memory of last year on her birthday. He was just so funny, dancing, and he was just the happiest boy ever," his sister Marian said.
Oswaldo became a father two weeks before he died.
"His partner, she said that he would always call her during work to see his baby, 'What's he doing? Send me a picture,'" Judith recalled.
Marian says, "That was his little treasure. That's what he would call him, pequeño tesoro."
As the family grieves, Judith shared a message with the community.
"I wanted to say thank you because I know a lot of people sent their prayers and their love spiritually, you know, and for me that means a lot because I believe in God and I know God works in mysterious ways, and we'll never understand why my brother ... but we know everything happens for a reason," Judith said.
The women say one miracle from this week was Oswaldo's mother being able to come to Phoenix from Mexico – something made possible by authorities working with the family.
"They all worked together and brought my mom," Judith said. "Made it possible before they found the body. That was a miracle for us and maybe my brother worked it out, too."
While they'll never understand Oswaldo's death at such a young age, they're facing this tragedy with the help of their faith.
"God is giving us strength. He's giving us the strength. This is a very hard moment, but we feel him. He's with us," Marian said.
Judith says, "I love my brother so much. We're always gonna have him."