Hilda Noriega, Mother of Florida Police Chief, Identified as Latest Surfside Building Collapse Victim

One of the latest victims of the Champlain Towers South collapse is Hilda Noriega, the mother of Carlos Noriega, who serves as the chief of the North Bay Village Police Department.

The death toll from the 12-story condominium building collapse continues to rise, and search-and-rescue teams are still looking for more than a hundred people in the rubble. A team was able to locate Hilda Noriega's body in the collapse and make a positive identification, notifying the family on Tuesday evening.

"The family would like to thank all the hundreds of first responders, who bravely and selflessly risked their lives to locate his mother and the other innocent victims found to date," the Noriega family said in a statement posted on Twitter.

Calling her the "heart and soul" and the "matriarch" of their family, the Noreigas added that they will embrace the "unconditional love" Hilda was known for to help them get through the "horrific and painful loss."

The Surfside, Florida, condominium building collapsed in the early morning hours of June 24, calling into question the whereabouts of more than 200 people. As of Tuesday, 125 people have been accounted for and 149 remain missing, according to Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava. Twelve people had been confirmed dead.

The collapse attracted international attention with the Israeli National Rescue Unit arriving on the scene to help with search-and-rescue operations. Colonel Golan Vach, who commands the unit, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that he still had "hope" they will find someone.

On Tuesday, they found new spaces in the rubble to search and he said he'll continue to have "solid hope" until they hit the one-week mark, at which point, there are "minor" chances of finding people. The building collapsed early Thursday morning.

"Nobody is giving up hope here. Nobody is stopping," Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said at a Tuesday news conference.

While the collapse of the building shocked people across the country and around the world, there were red flags about its structural integrity. An engineer's report from 2018 highlighted concerning cracks in balconies, the parking garage, and failed waterproofing that was causing "major structural damage" to concrete slabs.

"Failure to replace the waterproofing in the near future will cause the extent of the concrete deterioration to expand exponentially," Frank Morabito, the president of Morabito Consultants, wrote in an assessment.

An April letter from condominium association president Jean Wodnicki warned residents that some of the damage had gotten "much worse" and that visible cracking indicated the rebar holding the building together was "deteriorating beneath the surface." The letter was sent as an explanation of a $15 million bill to repair the building, which was planned to fall on condo owners' shoulders beginning in July.

Owners have filed three lawsuits against the condo association in the wake of the collapse, accusing it of failing to uphold its duty to maintain the building.

Updated 9:46 AM ET, with additional information.