UPDATE (4:35 p.m.) - The Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office says it has now been able to positively identify 23 of the 33 recovered victims of the Conception boat fire.
The identities of nine of those victims were released Friday morning.
The additional victims have since been identified as:
- Kendra Chan, 26, Oxnard
- Angela Rose Quitasol, 28, Stockton
- Evan Michel Quitasol, 37, Stockton
- Nicole Storm Quitasol, 31, Imperial Beach
- Michael Quitasol, 62, Stockton
- Carol Diana Adamic, 60, Santa Cruz
- Andrew Fritz, 40, Sacramento
- Charles McIlvain, 44, Santa Monica
- Steven Salika, 55, Santa Cruz
- Tia Salika-Adamic, 17, Santa Cruz
- Neal Gustav Baltz, 42, Phoenix, Arizona
- Patricia Ann Beitzinger, 48, Chandler, Arizona
- Vaidehi Campbell, 41, Felton
The name of one additional victim has not yet been released because the family has not been notified, according to sheriff's officials.
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(10:25 a.m.) - Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown says the coroner's office has positively identified the remains of 18 of the victims of the Conception boat fire.
Thirty-four people were killed when the boat caught fire and sank off the coast of Santa Cruz Island early Monday morning. The bodies of all but one of the victims have been recovered.
Sheriff Brown says authorities are now focused on finding the final victim and recovering evidence for the investigation.
Brown says because of the fire's intensity, the coroner's office has been using DNA analysis to identify the victims.
Of the 18 who have been identified so far, 9 have had next of kin notifications:
- Raymond Scott Chan, 59, Los Altos
- Justin Dignam, 58, Anaheim
- Daniel Garcia, 46, Berkeley
- Marybeth Guiney, 51, Santa Monica
- Yulia Krashennaya, 40, Berkeley
- Allie Kurtz, 26, Santa Barbara
- Caroline McLaughlin, 35, Oakland
- Ted Strom, 62, Germantown, Tennessee
- Wei Tan, 26, Goleta
Brown says traditional autopsies will not be performed, as the pathologist is convinced that the victims died of smoke inhalation.
The community is invited to participate in a public vigil for the victims at Chase Palm Park in Santa Barbara at 6:30 p.m. on Friday.
