Emily Eisenman kept calling her boyfriend’s cell phone. It rang and rang.
“He was supposed to send me a picture of his boarding pass when he got there, but he never did,” she said.
She lives in Athens, Georgia. He is from Belgium. Both 21, they fell in love last year in the U.S. while he was visiting. They were so excited to see one another this week, the way that young couples are when every joy seems possible.
“I’m just holding onto that hope that God has his plan in store and that I know that Bart’s soul is safe for eternity. That’s what I’m looking to … I’m hoping that he’s OK,” she said.
He is among the missing in the wake of Brussels terror attack that hit the airport and metro station Tuesday morning. ISIS said it was behind the carnage.
At least 31 people were killed and 270 wounded, authorities say. The victims span 40 nationalities.
Their stories are emerging as loved ones struggle to know more.
Deceased
Adelma Marina Tapia Ruiz had lived in Belgium for six years. Originally from Peru, the 36-year-old, her husband and twin 3-year-old daughters waited to board a flight to New York for an Easter holiday family reunion, according to Peruvian media and CNN en Espanol.
The daughters and husband left the boarding area for a moment. And in that moment a bomb exploded.
Her family survived. One of the girls had an injured arm but is doing better, their uncle Fernando Tapia told Peruvian media.
Ruiz and her husband met on a bus during a tourist trip in Puno, Peru, her brother Rudy Tapia said. They moved to Belgium. She studied to be a chef and dreamed of opening a restaurant that served Peruvian food, Tapia said.
Leopold Hecht, a Belgian law student, died in the attack, his school, Universite Saint-Louis Bruxelles, said in a statement.
Olivier Delespesse was killed in the metro explosion, according to his employer, La Federation Wallonie-Bruxelles, a government ministry serving Francophone Brussels and Wallonia.
“I wanted to pay tribute to him and to his family and to all the other victims,” said colleague Olivier Dradin in a Facebook tribute.
Others posted drawings of a cartoon man, weeping, a broken red heart on the ground. A friend wrote, “Courage to his family, his friends, his colleagues.”
“May his soul rest in peace,” another posted.
Missing
Bart Migom was on his way to Athens, Georgia.
His girlfriend, Eisenman, checked to make sure that his train arrived at the airport at 7:30 a.m. It had.
His flight was scheduled to depart at 10:30 a.m.
“But I don’t think he ever made it,” she said. “I have not heard from him and neither has his family, who I’ve been in contact with all day. They have been to hospitals and everywhere they can think of but have not heard from Bart. This is not like him. He is a good communicator.”
The couple met last year on a health and fitness retreat in the United States. He and her brother are friends. They started dating on October 29. She remembers the exact date.
He is studying marketing at Howest University in Bruges, Belgium, Emily said, and was living with his mother, two brothers and sister. They haven’t heard from him.
He had booked his flight to visit her in the States.
“I’ve never been to Belgium…” she said.
Stephanie and Justin Shults, a couple from Tennessee who have lived in Belgium since 2014, were dropping off Stephanie’s mother, Carolyn Moore, at the airport. Moore, who was just about to walk through security, was knocked over by an explosion and is having trouble hearing in one ear.
As of Tuesday night, their families had not heard from the couple and were still awaiting news. Moore is still in Brussels and has been in touch with family in the United States.
Justin Shults’ brother, Levi Sutton of Kentucky, said he woke up on the day of the attacks to texts from his mother. She was asking him to call her.
“It’s the longest day of my life. It’s just frustrating not knowing. Not knowing is maddening,” Sutton said Tuesday.
Stephanie and Justin were both working in Brussels, and are expected to move back to the United States in 2017.
On Wednesday, there was hope that the couple had been found, but Sutton posted a tweet saying the family had been misinformed.
Sabrina Esmael Fazal
Jonathan Selemani, 25, has been scouring the city’s hospitals looking for his partner and mother of their 1-year-old child.
Fazal, 24, is missing. She took the metro to her university in the city.
“I saw her in the morning, before she went to school, before she was leaving for class,” said Selemani. “Then when I learned the news I immediately started looking for her. I haven’t found her.”
“I don’t know how I’m going to explain it to my son.”
Sascha and Alexander Pinczowski
The siblings who have spent much of their time in New York are missing, according to the father of Alexander’s fiancee.
Jim Cain, a former U.S. ambassador to Denmark, told CNN that the Pinczowskis were in the Delta ticket line at the airport to board a flight to JFK. Alexander Pinczowski was talking to his mother on the phone when the line dropped. The families haven’t heard anything since.
Cain said some U.S. Embassy sources told him there are patients in hospitals that officials haven’t discovered their names.
“Apparently they’re having a tough time for matching up people with identities,” he said.
Marymount Manhattan College issued a statement, saying, “Our hearts go out to Sascha and Alexander’s family and friends during this difficult time, and we fervently hope for the siblings’ safe return home.”
Shai Tertner, founder of Shiraz Events in New York, which formerly employed Alexander Pinczowski and where Sascha was an intern in August, said his family was sad to hear his ex-employee and his sister were missing after the blasts.
“Sascha is a bright, hardworking young woman, with a great career ahead of her and we all hope Sascha and her brother are found alive and well, and send all the love and support to their family and the other families that were affected by this terrible attack,” the statement said.
Both siblings live in the Netherlands, Cain said, adding that he was on his way to Belgium to support the family.