The body of a Loyola University grad from Chicago has been recovered from the rubble of the Surfside condominium tower in Florida, authorities said Thursday.
Juan Mora Jr., 32, was found along with the bodies of four other people on Wednesday. It brings to 64 the number of people who have died in the collapse of the tower just north of Miami Beach.
At least 76 other people are still unaccounted for, according to Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.
Mora had worked for Morton Salt in Chicago, and had been staying with his parents, Juan and Ana Mora, when the building crumbled to the ground. His parents are still unaccounted for.
Mora was working remotely to stay with his parents, Cuban immigrants who relocated to the Miami area, according to a friend Oscar Cepera, 31.
Cepera said he last saw Mora on June 19 when they went fishing.
“He was a grade-A kind of guy,” Cepero said. “He was the kind of person that when he made a commitment, he always stuck by it. [He] was honest, respectable. Kind of more old school than anything.”
Cepero said his friend had truly settled into his home in the Midwest. From graduating from Loyola to becoming a Cubs fan and favoring the deep dish from Lou Malnati’s, Cepero said, “Chicago is everything for him.”
