Russel Rebello.: ‘body’ found

The body of the last missing victim of Italy’s 2012 cruise ship disaster was found Monday on board the wrecked Costa Concordia, which is being dismantled in Genoa, Italian media reported.

The body, found by employees of Ship Recycling — the group charged with scrapping the luxury liner — is expected to be that of missing Indian waiter Russel Rebello.

“The remains of the Indian waiter were found inside a cabin on deck eight of the ship,” La Stampa daily said on its website, citing local sources.

Rebello had been the only one of 32 victims whose body had not been found.

The remains were discovered under furniture which had been overturned when the Concordia, which struck a rock off the island of Giglio in Tuscany in a nighttime accident nearly three years ago, rolled onto its side.

The Repubblica daily said the cabin was in a part of the ship crushed against the sea-floor. Scraps of the waiter’s uniform were found intact despite being underwater for so long, it said.

The hulking vessel, about twice the size of the Titanic, sank on the night of January 13 with 4,229 people from 70 countries on board. Earlier this year it was finally removed from the island and towed to Genoa to be scrapped.

Its captain Francesco Schettino is on trial for manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the ship before all the passengers had been evacuated.