Families Recall Night of Surfside Tragedy Killed 98 and Call Investigation into What Happened ‘Nothing but an Insult’ (Exclusive)

"That land is tainted forever," says Martin Langesfeld, who lost his sister and brother-in-law in the June 2021 disaster

NEED TO KNOW

• Five years after the partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Fla., on June 24, 2021, many of the victims’ loved ones continue to grieve
• Investigators shared on June 22 that the destruction began three weeks before the tragedy
• “This investigation was nothing but an insult to the families,” Martin Langesfeld tells PEOPLE

The partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South, a 12-story condo in Surfside, Fla., happened early on June 24, 2021, and killed 98 people. But now, five years later, the trauma largely endures for many of the victims' families.

“Life has not been the same without my grandmother,” says Michael Noriega after the death of his 92-year-old grandma, Hilda. “She was the matriarch of our family. And family gatherings, holidays — those times have not been the same whatsoever."

It was around 1:30 a.m. when Noriega, 41, recalls getting a phone call from his mom, who told him she got a call from Hilda's neighbor who lived in part of the building that didn't collapse.

“She was frantic: ‘Something happened to your grandmother's building and something about an explosion,' ” he remembers her saying. “ ‘We need to head over there right now.' ”

Noriega tells PEOPLE he then called the local police department and asked if it was necessary for him and his family to head to the scene, which was located just a few miles north of Miami Beach.

“They said, ‘Yeah, it's pretty urgent,' ” he says. “And I remember that that struck the fear of God in me.” 

When he finally saw the damaged side of the building, Noriega says he fell to his “knees in awe because the first thing that I saw was my grandmother's balcony, and I just was trying to comprehend what in the world just happened.” 

His grandmother — who lived in the building for over 20 years — was nowhere to be found, but he tried to remain hopeful she could have survived. 

“I knew that if she was somehow in [a] pocket of rubble that she could have survived it, even though it was so unlikely,” he says. “I do believe in God. I do believe in miracles.”

Tragically, Hilda became the oldest victim killed after she was the 12th person found in the collapse site on the sixth day.

Noriega, who previously wrote about losing his beloved grandmother and navigating grief, tells PEOPLE that the 92-year-old was “just pure love."

“Had my grandmother sold her condo, and God forbid had it been another family that had gone down and the collapse instead of her, she's the type of person that would've easily traded places so that she would be that person to go down with the building,” he believes. “There's no doubt in my mind.”

Martin Langesfeld and his dad Pablo were also affected by the tragedy. They continue to advocate for his sister, Nicky, 26, and her husband, Lewis Sadovnic, 28, and the other 96 victims and their families. 

Nicky and Lewis met in college at the University of Florida and got engaged right in front of the building on Christmas Eve in 2020. Martin, a 28-year-old commercial real estate broker, says that they were never able to have an actual wedding, and instead got married at a courthouse. 

“The unit was owned by Lewis' grandfather and he let them stay there as a wedding gift until they were able to save up and purchase their dream home together,” Martin says.

Martin says that his sister was “full of life” and lit up every room she walked into. Lewis was an attorney, fulfilling a childhood dream.

“Nicky was not only my daughter, she was my friend. She brought light, love and joy into us and many people,” Pablo, a 60-year-old business broker, says. “And it's very hard for me, for my family, Martin, my wife. And there's no day that goes by that we don't feel her absence. I've never stopped fighting for her."

Martin says it's very hard to look back now in the five years since the fatal incident. 

“Now I'm older than what she was when she was taken,” he says. "It's weird to put into words what that feels like.”

On Monday, June 22, the National Construction Safety Team of the National Institute of Standards and Technology announced that the collapse of the building — which was constructed in 1981 and later fully demolished — began three weeks before the disaster “when two connections between garage columns and the pool deck failed.” 

“These initial column failures caused cracks to grow and loads to redistribute in the pool deck over the next three weeks,” the agency continued, “resulting in the transfer of their loads to adjacent slab-column connections that were not strong enough to support them.”

The families of victims and survivors reached a nearly $1 billion settlement just before the first anniversary of the collapse.

Martin, who has spoken hundreds of times at different events and public hearings related to the incident with his dad, and testified in Tallahassee to push for answers, says the finding was "extremely disappointing.”

“It took them five years and around $40M to come to the conclusion that the building was not up to code and corrosion had an effect on the collapse,” Martin tells PEOPLE. “This investigation was nothing but an insult to the families. We knew this. Now those who allowed the building to be developed not up to code and those who approved the inspections must be held accountable criminally for the death of the 98.”

In a statement shared with PEOPLE, Surfside Mayor Shlomo Danzinger says the town has been following NIST's investigation since it began, and is "grateful that this important work has now reached this significant milestone."

Danzinger said the recent technical findings "confirm what many suspected, that the collapse was the result of structural deficiencies present from the time of construction, compounded by deviations from design drawings and long-term degradation over the building's lifetime.”

“While these conclusions are deeply sobering, they are an important step toward the accountability and understanding that the families and survivors of Champlain Towers South have deserved from the very beginning,” he adds.

The mayor said he hopes the findings "bring some measure of closure to the families and loved ones of the 98 souls we lost."

“Their patience, their advocacy, and their unwavering commitment to the truth throughout this process has been nothing short of remarkable," he says. "It is our sincere hope that the lessons learned here will help protect lives and prevent this kind of tragedy from ever happening again.”

Meanwhile, Damac Properties, the company redeveloping the land to build an “ultra-luxury boutique oceanfront condominium" called The Delmore, had yet to sell a single unit as of April.

“People don't forget,” Martin says. “You can't simply expect that because a new building goes up, people will forget what happened there. That land is tainted forever.”

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PEOPLE has reached out to NIST and Damac Properties for comment.

Martin says that the site went up for sale before his sister and brother-in-law were even discovered, and says the entire case was handled in a “horrendous” manner.  

Martin says he and his family were hoping for a miracle, and were in court “begging them to not put this land up for sale, and whatever may happen to allow it to be a memorial to respect what occurred that night."

The permanent memorial, across the street from the land, has not begun construction, according to The Miami Herald.

The 28-year-old says that "nothing other than a memorial should be discussed."

At the same time, Noriega says that the land “had to be sold” so victims who lost their homes could move forward with their lives.

“I think a memorial being there would be a great thing, but unfortunately with the land being sold, it's private property at this point,” he says.

Noriega says he and his family found belongings of victims, from articles of clothing and bills on Collins Avenue, in the aftermath of the collapse. His father managed to find an envelope with hand-drawn butterflies on it and Hilda's name. The card itself had butterflies, too.  

"Butterflies signify a rebirth,” he says. “Like metamorphosis. And we looked at it as a sign of exactly that.”

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