Rescuers in Colombia have recovered the body of 24-year-old Juan Felipe Giraldo from the rubble of a collapsed hotel in the city of Pereira, just days before he was due to marry his fiancée.
Giraldo had travelled to Pereira for work and was staying at the hotel when a powerful magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck the country on August 10. His fiancée, Natalia Patiño, had remained at home while awaiting his return.
According to a report by Magdalena Daily, Giraldo's father waited near the collapsed hotel for several days following the disaster, clinging to hope that emergency workers would find his son alive. Rescuers were eventually able to recover only his remains.
Hotel video and formal identification
Patiño had previously explained that her fiancé sent her a video recording from inside the hotel on the morning of the disaster to confirm that he had arrived safely. That video message later proved crucial for search crews attempting to pinpoint his location within the ruined structure.
Following the formal identification of Giraldo's remains, Patiño published a photograph on social media showing him alongside her and their shared son. She wrote that he would remain forever and ever in her heart, adding that he was the greatest love she had ever known.
Pereira, the capital city of Colombia's Risaralda department, sits in the Andean region of western Colombia. The country experiences frequent seismic activity because of its location along the Pacific Ring of Fire, where major tectonic plates meet.
Widespread impact and ongoing rescues
The magnitude 7.4 earthquake had its epicenter in the municipality of San José del Palmar. Although centered in that specific municipality, the strong tremors were felt across nine departments and in all regional capital cities, prompting mass evacuations as buildings shook.
Search and rescue operations are continuing in the affected regions, with specialized emergency workers from neighboring Venezuela joining the effort. Cross-border assistance is routinely deployed in South America when major natural disasters cause large-scale structural collapses.
One rescuer noted that search teams maintain hope of finding further survivors under the debris, pointing out that people have previously been rescued alive as long as ten days after a major earthquake.
The tragic discovery in Pereira comes after earlier reports that an American beauty queen and her boyfriend also lost their lives in a destructive earthquake in Venezuela. Search crews in that disaster recovered the young couple's remains from the rubble of a collapsed residential complex.
