Bodies of the two Paraguayan sisters found; family of 5, nanny die in Surfside collapse
A joyful holiday photo shows Sophia López Moreira, husband Luis Pettengill and their three children smiling in front of a Christmas tree with Alexia, 9, wearing a reindeer antlers headband and her sister, Anna, 6, and brother, Luis, 3, dressed up in red and white.
Other photos capture the exuberant personality of their nanny, Leidy Vanessa Luna Villalba, vamping in a new dress and a bold hat or playing with one of her rescue dogs. The intrepid Villalba had left her rural village in Paraguay for the first time to work for the prominent Paraguayan family in Miami, send money home and discover the possibilities of a different life in the United States.
The remains of the entire family and the babysitter have been found in the rubble of the Champlain Towers South condominium collapse in Surfside. On Sunday, police announced they had identified the bodies of 6-year-old Anna Sophia Pettengill López Moreira and her 9-year-old sister, Alexia Maria Pettengill López Moreira.
On Friday, police announced they had identified the bodies of the rest of the family: Sophia López Moreira, the 36-year-old mother; Luis Pettengill, the 36-year-old father; their 3-year-old son Luis Vicente Pettengill López Moreira III; and 23-year-old Leidy.
As of Sunday, the confirmed death toll from the June 24 condo collapse had reached 90, with 31 still unaccounted for, authorities said.
The Paraguayan family lived on the 10th floor of the 12-story building. Leidy, 23, a nursing student from a poor farming town in Paraguay, came to Miami to care for the children and earn money to wire home to her parents. It was her first trip outside her native country.
López Moreira was Paraguayan President Mario Abdo Benitez’s sister-in-law. Her sister, Silvana López Moreira, is Paraguay’s first lady, wife of Abdo Benitez.
“I regret and sadly have to report the confirmation of the discovery of the lifeless bodies of Sophia López Moreira, Luis Pettengill and the youngest of their children,” Foreign Minister Euclides Acevedo announced, according to Telefuturo and ABC Cardinal radio. “We are still pending the search for the other bodies of our compatriots. We ask for solidarity and prayer of the citizens because finally they are compatriots, and in the face of a tragedy the Paraguayan people have to demonstrate their traditional solidarity.”
Pettengill was a cattle rancher and chairman of the meatpacking trade group CPC. Nine days before Champlain South collapsed, he was quoted in a Bloomberg Law article speaking from capital city Asuncion about how Paraguay’s beef exports could hit a record of about $1.5 billion this year.
Pettengill was a 2007 graduate of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana, where he majored in civil engineering with a minor in economics, played on the soccer and tennis teams and was a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers student chapter and the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity.
“We extend our sympathies to the family and others who were touched by Luis’s spirit and friendship,” said Rose-Hulman President Robert Coons.
Pettengill and López had recently received their coronavirus vaccinations and the family was celebrating Pettengill’s birthday, according to MEAWW News.
Villalba had communicated with her mother on Wednesday, June 23, to let her know she had arrived safely in Miami. She was excited to go to the beach and explore the city.
“Before leaving home she asked me for my blessing,” Villalba’s mother, Juana de Villalba told the media in Paraguay. “She’s the primary breadwinner of our family and she went to Miami for work. She went for us. My heart is broken.”
Villalba’s mother is in Miami with her niece Lourdes Luna awaiting news. Concerned Miamians helped finance their trip and started a GoFundMe page.
“The family was very hopeful when they sent us off. They hoped that we were going to bring Leidy back home. But now that we’re here, the reality is different,” Luna told NBC News. “Leidy is a beautiful person, inside and out, a girl with dreams like many of the Paraguayans who want to better themselves. She has always been an independent and hardworking girl.”
Here are the names and stories of the missing and dead in Surfside condo collapse
