Searchers recover 12th body in wreck

Associated Press

GIGLIO, Italy

Divers plumbing the capsized Costa Concordia’s murky depths pulled out the body of a woman in a life vest Saturday, while scuba-diving police swam through the captain’s cabin to retrieve a safe and documents belonging to the man who abandoned the cruise liner after it was gashed by a rocky reef on the Tuscan coast.

Hoping for a miracle — or at least for the recovery of bodies from the ship that has become an underwater tomb — relatives of some of the 20 missing appealed to survivors of the Jan. 13 shipwreck to offer details that could help divers reach loved ones while it is still possible to search the luxury liner. The clock is ticking because the craft is perched precariously on a rocky ledge of seabed near Giglio island.

Early today, instruments monitoring any movement of the Concordia indicated that vessel had shifted slightly, so search efforts were suspended for the night, Italian state radio reported.

The death toll rose to at least 12 Saturday after a water-logged body was extracted from a passageway near a gathering point for evacuation by lifeboats in the rear of the vessel, Coast Guard Cmdr. Filippo Marini said. It was not immediately clear if the woman was a passenger or crew member.

Relatives of a female Peruvian bartender and of an Indian crewman, along with two children of an elderly couple from Minnesota who are among the missing, boarded a boat Saturday to view the wrecked Concordia, said a maritime official, Fabrizio Palombo.

Meanwhile, police divers, carrying out orders from prosecutors investigating Capt.Francesco Schettino for suspected manslaughter and abandoning the ship, located and removed his safe and two suitcases, state TV and the Italian news agency ANSA reported.