Crews find construction worker's body following partial building collapse

CINCINNATI (WKRC) - After roughly 31 hours since a partial building collapse downtown Monday, firefighters located the body of the missing worker inside the Fourth Street structure.

Four other workers were taken to the hospital Monday, treated and released.

Late Tuesday Turner Construction confirmed the death of the worker with the following statement:

"It is with great sadness that we confirm that an employee of Gateway Concrete Forming died at the Fourth and Race construction site following the collapse of a section of temporary concrete form work. This is an extremely sorrowful time and our thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends and co-workers at this difficult time.

We want to thank the region’s first responders, emergency service workers and the American Red Cross volunteers for their tireless and selfless efforts through this entire ordeal.

We are encouraging workers to utilize the grief counseling services that are available to them in the difficult days and weeks ahead."

Cincinnati City Manager Patrick Duhaney informed members of council about the discovery Tuesday night with a statement that read in part:

"...The heart of the City of Cincinnati goes out to the family and friends of the deceased. This is a truly a sad day for our City. I cannot imagine the grief this family must be going through at this time.

With that said, I would like to thank the first responders from Cincinnati and around the region as well as the various agencies that have worked around the clock on this situation. This is not the outcome we were hoping for but we are appreciative of all their tireless hard work the last two days.

This has been a sad and difficult week for our city. Together, we will mourn and then we will come together to get through this rough time.

I want to assure you that the City will provide necessary support to the agencies involved to get to the bottom of what happened."

The man's body is now at the Hamilton County Coroner's Office waiting for an autopsy.

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