A hacker is stealing the identities of people who died in the condominium collapse in Surfside, Florida, the city's mayor told WPLG Local 10.
''It's terrible,'' Charles Burkett told the news outlet. ''I can't wait to put a face to these deeds right now, and I think all of South Florida is eager to see who would do something like this — what kind of person would do something like this. But I'm looking forward to our police department apprehending them, and they are out there looking. I wouldn't want to be that person right now.''
Crews have recovered 97 bodies from the rubble since the building collapsed on June 24, according to a Thursday news release from the Miami-Dade mayor's office.
Rachel Johnson, a spokesperson for Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, told the Miami Herald the county would no longer offer updates on the death toll, only the bodies identified and families notified.
''We're not going to share updates to that number,'' she said. ''This is because the process of making identifications becomes much more difficult as time goes on, and we want to share the most accurate number with the public.''
Burkett said Thursday that five people are still unaccounted for and that search crews were continuing to use dogs to look for any human remains left in the rubble.
''I'm convinced that everything humanly possible has been done to pull everybody out,'' Burkett said. ''It is in God's hands now.''
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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