More human remains were recovered Wednesday at the wreckage site of the Costa Concordia cruise ship that capsized off Italy's Giglio Island in 2012. The discovery comes just a week after another set of human remains was found near the ship.
The Costa Concordia capsized in January 2012 after hitting rocks in the Tyrrhenian Sea, killing 32 of the 4,200 people on board. But the bodies of two people included in the death toll were never recovered, and investigators believe some of the recently found remains may be theirs.
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Russel Rebello, 33, of India, and Maria Grazia Trecarichi, 50, of Sicily, have
both been missing since the accident, according to CNN.
"Both sets of remains have undergone DNA tests," Franco Gabrielli, the head of Italy's civil protection agency, told Italian news agency Ansa this week. "Before jumping to easy conclusions, we must wait for the results."
In an unprecedented salvage operation, the 114,000-ton Costa Concordia ship was righted last month after lying on its side for some 20 months.
Francesco Schettino, the cruise liner's captain, was charged with manslaughter, causing a maritime disaster, and abandoning ship with passengers still on board, after investigators found that the accident was caused when Schettino veered more than four miles off course to salute a former sea captain.
Schettino's defense team claims that it was a malfunction with the ship's watertight doors that caused the deaths.
The captain's trial is currently underway in Grosseto. The court expects to hear testimony from passengers, crewmembers, and islanders who reportedly saw Schettino looking for dry socks before all the passengers had been safely evacuated, according to CNN.
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