Remains of final Costa Concordia victim found

The remains of Indian waiter Russel Rebello were discovered in a passenger cabin by workers tasked with dismantling the ship in Genoa, Italian police commander Capt. Massimo Pittaluga said on Monday.

Rebello worked on the luxury vessel, and was the only victim still not accounted for until recently after the accident almost three years ago.

In a Facebook post, Rebello's brother Kevin Rebello confirmed the discovery of the remains and thanked "all those who prayed and believed that one day he would be found."

"The body of my younger brother…has finally been found inside a cabin on deck 8 of the Concordia wreck, which kept it for more than 1,025 days," he wrote.

He said a DNA test would be carried out on the body before his brother could be repatriated to India and laid to rest "with honor."

Keven Rebello said he was informed of the discovery by Italy's civil protection agency and by Costa Crociere, an Italian subsidiary of the US-based Carnival Group which owned the Concordia.

Cabin crushed

The Repubblica daily newspaper said the cabin was in a part of the ship that had been crushed against the sea-floor when the Costa Concordia hit rocks and capsized near the Italian island of Giglio on January 13, 2012.

There were 4,229 passengers on board. Thirty-two people died in the disaster, and one diver was killed while working on salvaging the vessel in 2014.

The ship's captain Francesco Schettino is currently on trial, facing charges of manslaughter, causing the shipwreck and abandoning the liner before all passengers had been evacuated.

The 300-meter vessel was towed in July from Giglio to a port in the northwestern Italian city of Genoa, where it is being broken up and scrapped.

nm/ipj (Reuters, AFP, AP, dpa)