A neurologist and his physician assistant wife who were married in May are among the 113 people missing in the Surfside condo collapse in South Florida, where rescue workers are sifting through the rubble.
Dr. Ruslan Manashirov, 36, and Nicole Doran-Manashirov, 43, exchanged vows just eight weeks before the partial collapse of the 13-story oceanfront Champlain Towers, where they lived.
As of Tuesday, 32 people were confirmed dead.
Rescue crews are expected to recover and identify more bodies in the days and weeks ahead after a controlled demolition late Sunday of the remaining nearby tower allowed access to the collapsed condo.
Manashirov, who was given the nickname 'Baby Baku' by his wife after his native city in Azerbaijan, works at ClareMedica in South Miami.
Dr. Ruslan Manashirov and Nicole Doran-Manashirov exchanged vows just eight weeks before the partial collapse of the 13-story oceanfront Champlain Towers in Surfside, Florida, where they live. They have been missing since the collapse on June 24
Ruslan, a neurologist, and his wife, Nicole, a nurse, were married on May 2 in Fort Lauderdale
Manashirov, who was given the nickname 'Baby Baku' by his wife after his native city in Azerbaijan, works at ClareMedica in South Miami. Nicole is originally from the Pittsburgh area
Doran-Manashirov, who is originally from the Pittsburgh area, worked as a nurse.
They were transplants to Florida, where they met, fell in love and got married in early May in Fort Lauderdale in a sunny outdoor ceremony.
They moved into a seventh-floor unit, Apt. 703, in the Champlain South Towers, enthralled with the beachside view.
Ruslan didn't show up to work on June 25, hours after the condo collapse. No one has been able to reach him since then, according to WPLG-TV.
'They were so happy,' Valery Manashirova, brother of Dr. Ruslan Manashirov, told WABC-TV in New York.
'It was a beautiful wedding and they were just starting their lives.'
Friends and family launched a GoFundMe page to help the couple rebuild their lives if they are found alive. As of Tuesday, the page has raised more than $25,300
Loved ones are anxiously awaiting news about the couple.
The couple had to postpone their wedding date three times due to the coronavirus pandemic, which also affected their work as medical professionals.
Ruslan Manashirov is a neurologist and family doctor at ClareMedica of South Miami while Doran-Manashirov, who previously lived in South Park, Pennsylvania, is a physician assistant in the emergency department at Aventura Hospital in Aventura, a city near Surfside.
'She worked indescribable hours during the pandemic,' a family friend, Wendy Kays, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
'She never backed out on her duties.'
Ruslan Manashirov grew up in Brooklyn, New York, to an Azerbaijani-Jewish family originally from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku, according to Chabad.org, the Judaism site of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.
He 'just enveloped you with his personality,' Susan DeRisi, a friend of the couple, told the Post-Gazette.
'He came into the group and it was like he belonged.'
On the website Zocdoc, which rates doctors, customers gave Manashirov positive reviews.
'Dr. Manashirov was very friendly and open and made me feel at ease right away,' wrote one reviewer.
'I truly felt like I could share any concern big or small.
'I just went for my annual checkup but he asked questions and was very attentive to everything I spoke about.'
Another client described him as 'amazing, very professional and communicative.'
Valery Manashirova recalled that when he woke up Thursday, his father called him over to the television, which was showing news of the collapse.
'It just felt like a bad dream,' he said.
Rescue crews are expected to recover and identify more bodies in the days and weeks ahead after a controlled demolition late Sunday of the remaining nearby tower allowed access to the collapsed condo
Friends and family launched a GoFundMe page to help the couple rebuild their lives if they are found alive.
'Or, if our beloved Ruslan & Nicole tragically do not return to us, we hope that this page will help their families cope with the expenses of this horrific event,' the creators of the crowdfunding campaign wrote.
'Any amount helps.'
As of Tuesday, the page has raised more than $25,300.
The Miami-Dade Police Department confirmed on Monday that the remains of 68-year-old Tzvi Ainsworth and his wife, Ingrid Ainsworth, 66, had been recovered.
The couple, who moved to Miami from Melbourne, Australia, had an apartment on the 11th floor of the condo building in Surfside that collapsed on June 24.
The grim announcement comes just a day after authorities identified the remains of 58-year-old David Epstein.
Epstein’s remains were identified just days after rescue workers discovered the body of his wife, Bonnie, 56.
Rescuers on Monday resumed the search for victims of the collapsed condo building through fresh rubble after crews set off a string of explosives that brought down the last of the structure and allowed search efforts to resume.
Tzvi and Ingrd 'Itty' Ainsworth were celebrating the birth of two new grandchildren.
Their son in South Africa recently had a baby and their son in Florida had a baby just days ago, their niece Chana Harrel told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Tzvi (pictured far left) and Ingrid (pictured far right) Ainsworth, from Melbourne, lived in an apartment on the 11th floor of the building. Their remains were identified on Monday
The Miami-Dade Police Department confirmed on Sunday that it has identified the remains of 58-year-old David Epstein, one of at least 32 people who died in the Surfside condo collapse. Epstein’s remains were identified just days after rescue workers discovered the body of his wife, Bonnie, 56
Workers demolished what remained of the Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside on Sunday evening in a bid to open up further areas for rescue
Rescue crews work at the site of the collapsed Champlain Towers South condo building after the remaining structure was demolished Sunday
The couple, who were in their 60s, lived in Australia for nearly two decades before returning to South Florida to be near their children.
The couple had seven children and many live in South Florida, including their daughter just blocks away, she said.
'Every person she encountered, ever in her life, became her friend. Everyone was treated as equals,' Chana Wasserman wrote in a Mother’s Day blog post to her mother Itty last year.
'The guy at the laundromat, the guy working at the fruit market ... '
Ingrid struggled with chronic pain issues, but didn't let that darken her mood.
She tried to focus on the positive, a sunny day, a long car ride that would seem tedious to many she reframed as a chance to talk and catch up, her daughter wrote.
'I know I will never be able to match my mother's pure enthusiasm for life but it's inspiring to watch,' Wasserman wrote.
Itty's mother, a Holocaust survivor living in Miami Beach, is battling cancer and doesn't know about the tragedy.
'They didn't tell her. She's not well,' Harrel. said. 'It's absolutely horrific.'
David and Bonnie Epstein are survived by their only son, Jonathan Epstein, 26, of Brooklyn, New York.
‘Heartbroken to share that both of my parents’ remains have been recovered by the rescue teams in Miami,’ Jonathan Epstein wrote on Facebook on Saturday.
‘Thank you to everyone for your kind words over this impossible week, my parents were really the best and it’s been so comforting to relive the joy of their lives through the testimony of friends and loved ones.
‘Mom and Dad - I love you both so much, and I’m so so proud to be your son.’
Richard Oller, a friend and former business partner of David Epstein, wrote a lengthy Facebook post paying tribute to the couple.
‘Two days ago I spoke with David Epstein, my friend and partner of 30 years,’ Oller wrote on June 25th - a day after the condo collapse.
‘As I talked business, David countered with how much he and his wife Bonnie loved their early retirement.
David and Bonnie Epstein retired early and moved to South Florida after a successful career in real estate investing
The couple loved water sports and were planning on building a home on a Caribbean island
According to a friend, David graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s prestigious Wharton School of Business
David and Bonnie Epstein are survived by their only son, Jonathan Epstein, 26, of Brooklyn, New York. Bonnie and Jonathan are seen above
‘Mom and Dad - I love you both so much, and I’m so so proud to be your son,’ Jonathan wrote on Saturday
‘At 57 they had both became obsessed with the water.
‘David is a passionate kite boarder. They both love jet skiing and scuba diving.’
According to Oller, Epstein graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s prestigious Wharton School of Business.
He wrote that the couple was planning to build a beachside home on a Caribbean island. ‘David loved novels, history, politics, and quantum mechanics,’ Oller wrote.
He wrote that Epstein ‘sometimes fantasizes about a second career teaching philosophy at Penn, his proclaimed true passion.’
Oller wrote that David, Bonnie, and their dog were planning to drive north from Miami to Brooklyn to spend the summer with their son, Jonathan.
‘They were anxious to head north a few weeks ago to see him, but the dog wasn’t feeling so well so they waited,’ Oller wrote.
The demolition opened up a previously unreachable area for rescuers, though the chances of finding any survivors there waned, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said on NBC's TODAY.
'We understand that families realize the fact that time has gone by, they realize that the chances are growing all dimmer,' she said.
'They are with us, they know what we've been doing every step of the way.'
Crews could be seen climbing a mound of debris at the site Monday alongside a piece of heavy equipment that was picking up rubble.
Workers immediately began clearing some of the new debris after the demolition late Sunday so rescuers could start making their way into parts of the underground garage that is of particular interest.
A Miami-Dade County Police boat patrols in front of the Champlain Towers South condo building on Friday, shortly before officials made the decision to demolish the remaining structure with explosives
Workers transport a stretcher with remains extricated from the rubble on Friday, near the Champlain Towers South condo building, where 118 people remain missing more than a week after it partially collapsed
A pile of debris is seen above on the morning after the controlled demolition in Surfside on Monday
The image above shows another vantage point of the rubble of the demolished condo tower in Surfside on Monday morning
Officials said the search effort resumed before midnight.
It had been called off Saturday to allow specialists to drill holes for explosives needed for the demolition.
'As a result of the contractor who brought it down, he did it in such a way that literally we actually were back on the original pile in less than 20 minutes,' Jadallah told family members of those missing, drawing applause in a rare upbeat moment for the twice-daily meetings.
Rescuers were hoping to get a clearer picture of voids that may exist in the rubble as they search for those believed to be trapped under the fallen wing of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside that collapsed June 24.
No one has been rescued alive since the first hours after the collapse.
During the demolition, a loud rat-at-tat of explosions echoed from the structure.
Then the building began to fall, one floor after another, cascading into an explosion of dust. Plumes billowed into the air, as crowds watched the scene from afar.
Levine Cava told the Associated Press that the demolition went 'exactly as planned' around 10:30pm on Sunday.
'It was picture perfect. Exactly what we were told would happen,' she said in an interview shortly after the demolition.
Some residents had pleaded to return to their homes one last time before the demolition to retrieve belongings left in haste, but were denied.
Others wondered about the pets left behind, even though officials said they found no signs of animals after making three final sweeps, including the use of drones to peer into the abandoned structure.
Levine Cava said teams are working to save any personal items they can.
'We have been asking them to go ahead and catalog all of their precious belongings so that as soon as they are recovered, we´ll be able to make a match.'
The decision to demolish the remnants of the building came after concerns mounted that the damaged structure was at risk of falling, endangering the crews below and preventing them from operating in some areas.
Rescue efforts at the site resumed just before midnight late on Sunday night - moments after the controlled demolition
The decision by officials to bring the rest of the building down was brought on by the approach of Tropical Storm Elsa and fears that the structure might come down in an uncontrolled fashion
Air conditioning units and other debris are seen above at the site of the controlled demolition in Surfside, Florida on Monday
So far, the remains of 24 people have been identified while at least 118 people remain missing as of early Monday morning
Parts of the remaining building shifted on Thursday, prompting a 15-hour suspension in the work.
Approaching Tropical Storm Elsa had added urgency to the demolition plans with forecasts suggesting the system could bring strong winds.
President Joe Biden
