Martin Langesfeld, whose sister and brother-in-law were among the 98 victims who died when Champlain Towers South collapsed overnight in 2021, questioned why it took five years to reach inconclusive answers and asked where the $40 million spent on investigations went. Last month, just days before the five-year remembrance, the National Institute of Standards and Technology released its findings pointing to failed connectors between garage columns and the pool deck, causing cracks to grow and loads to shift to columns that were not strong enough.
The federal report said the problems started three weeks before the collapse, with investigators tracing issues back decades to deviations from the building's original designs. Langesfeld said the pool collapse and parking garage issues were already known years ago and dismissed the findings as not new information.
Allyn Kilsheimer, the engineer hired by the city of Surfside to independently investigate the collapse, said he agreed with the government's overall assessment and knew the concept of where it started a year and a half ago. However, Kilsheimer questioned the pre-collapse timeline that suggested the collapse began three weeks before the disaster, saying he does not know how anybody could determine that something started three weeks before unless referring to cracks reported months before.
Kilsheimer never finished his independent investigation after city commissioners terminated his contract because he could not get the federal government to grant him access to certain evidence. No criminal charges have been filed over the collapse. A spokesperson with the State Attorney's Office in Miami stated in an email that any criminal violations would have to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.