Relative speaks out after federal investigators release report on deadly 2021 condo collapse in Surfside 

As the five year anniversary of the deadly 2021 collapse of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside approaches, a relative of one of the victims seeks to know who should be held accountable.

Martin Langesfeld, the sister of one of the victims, shared his story after his sister Nikki and husband Louis Sidovnick were killed in the collapse.

“A regular happy couple that had just gotten married a few months prior and they were ready to start their lives,” he said. “They had plans for a family that they will never see. And they had a future together. They moved into what they called their dream home, their dream apartment to start their life and exactly that is what took their life from them.”

On Wednesday, people will gather at “98 Points of Light Way” to honor the 98 victims who perished in the collapse.

Deven Gonzalez survived the collapse after falling out of apartment 904.

However, her father, Edgar Gonzalez, did not.

“The family we once had was ripped away, and though I survived, I lost so much,” Deven said at the 2025 remembrance ceremony.

Now, families, friends, supporters and local officials are planning two events for Wednesday.

On Monday, two days before the anniversary, a report was released by the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s National Construction Safety Team, which concluded that the collapse began weeks earlier.

“We have concluded that the failure most likely began in early June, about three weeks before the collapse, when two connections between garage columns and the pool deck slab failed,” co-lead investigator Judith Mitrani-Reiser said.

The safety team found that a combination of design and construction issues, as well as environmental factors, led to the collapse.

“We found no evidence of any specific initiating event. The final factor that brought the critically low margins of safety to the point of failure was most likely long term degradation from corrosion,” said Glenn Bell, a co-lead investigator.

However, Langsfeld takes issue with the report’s release.

“Took them five years, nearly $40 million dollars for this federal investigation to be completed, and it came back with nothing new,” he said. “The community will never forget what happened behind me.”

Langsfeld also said that if corrosion was a major factor, there are countless properties across the Atlantic coastline that could also be at risk.

“If that’s the case, that’s the word they’re using, then every single building along the coastline are in imminent danger,” he said.

While the specific details may be clarified, Langsfield wants to know who can be held responsible.

“There’s no criminal investigation open, and what this report does is that it shows that there is faulty construction, and permits were approved not up to code. Who approved these permits? Who let the recertifications go by?” he said.

There are two memorial services happening on Wednesday. A torch lighting ceremony at Veterans Park at 1:15 a.m., which is the time when the collapse occurred, and a remembrance ceremony at 10 a.m. on the site on 88th and Collins Avenue.