TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) – Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology announced Friday afternoon that an alumnus of the university, Luis Pettengill, along with his wife and three children, are listed among those missing following the collapse of the Champlain Tower near Miami, FL.
The announcement was posted on Facebook.
Pettengill graduated from RHIT in 2007 with a degree in Computer Engineering.
His wife, Sophia López Moreira, is the sister of Paraguay’s first lady, Silvana Abdo.
Gilmer Moreira, press director of Paraguay’s presidential palace, told the Associated Press the first lady was planning to travel to Miami, Florida, on a private plane.
A total of 22 South Americans were missing in the collapse — nine from Argentina, six from Paraguay, four from Venezuela and three from Uruguay, according to officials in those countries.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio tweeted that almost a third of the missing are foreigners, and that he’s working with the consulates of different Latin American countries to help some of the families get U.S. visas.
The family’s assistant was identified as Lady Luna. In Asuncion, Paraguay’s capital, her cousin Lourdes Luna said she’s a nurse and has been working with the Pettengil-López Moreira’s family for two years.
“Before leaving home she asked me for my blessing,” Juana Villalba, Lady’s mother, said to a local television channel. “As a mother, I have no consolation because they do not give me information about my daughter.”
