Lucas Trejo’s wife and two children were found deceased after a 74-hour search following the Venezuela earthquakes, ending days of desperate hope.
Saturday night brought the kind of finality no athlete ever wants to face: Lucas Trejo’s 74-hour search for his missing family in Venezuela ended in tragedy.
The Argentine soccer player. 38. had been holding out for good news for his wife and two children after they went missing in the aftermath of Wednesday’s rare double-earthquake in Venezuela. His family was discovered dead on Saturday night. after a search that had stretched into its third day. according to Edson Tortolero. a friend of the family and fellow soccer player.
Maritimo de la Guaira, Trejo’s Venezuelan club, confirmed the loss in a short statement. The club said it “deeply mourns the loss suffered by Lucas Trejo’s family,” asking for “respect for his relatives and teammates,” and adding that “After a 74-hour search, they were found deceased.”
Tortolero also posted to social media at 7:47pm on Saturday. telling people in Venezuela and Argentina that the bodies of Lucas Trejo’s family members had been found lifeless. He thanked everyone for their support and urged “the most sincere respect for his family at this time. ” before writing: “WE PRAY FOR ETERNAL LIFE FOR THEM.”.
Trejo himself had not commented publicly. Hours earlier, he shared a family picture of him with his wife and children on his own social media account.
The search had intensified as the wider disaster worsened. Reports in Argentina said Trejo’s father and brother had flown to Venezuela to help try to locate his missing family. Rescue efforts to find survivors from Wednesday’s devastating rare 7.2 and 7.5 double-earthquake have been intensifying, with nearly 70,000 people reported missing.
The earthquake toll has continued to climb. As of early Saturday evening, the death toll was reported at 1,430.
In a separate account from Venezuela earlier on Saturday. Gorkys Hernandez. a Venezuelan former Major League Baseball player. said his wife Deisy died in the earthquake. Hernandez wrote that Deisy was at a luxury hotel with family members of other players on his La Guaira Delfines baseball team when the earthquakes struck. In a post that included personal words for his wife. Hernandez praised her as “Queen of my life” and asked God to guide him “to keep going and lift up our family.”.
For Trejo, the hope that had kept the days moving has now ended. A club confirmed what everyone feared. And after 74 hours of searching, the final update came at night—one that left a footballer with the hardest task of all: mourning in public after everything went missing in silence.
Lucas Trejo Maritimo de la Guaira Venezuela earthquakes 74-hour search Argentine soccer player Edson Tortolero Deisy Hernandez Gorkys Hernandez