DNA tests have identified remains as one of the final two missing victims of last year's deadly shipwreck of the Costa Concordia off an Italian island, the ANSA news agency reported Thursday.
The remains of Maria Grazia Trecarichi were found by scuba divers inside the cruise liner on October 8, three weeks after the 300-metre, 114,000-ton cruise liner was righted from the partly capsized state that it had lain in for 20 months.
It was moved as part of expensive and risky salvage operations.
Trecarichi had booked a holiday on the Costa Concordia to celebrate her 50th birthday along with her friend Luisa Antonia Virzi, who also died, and her teenage daughter Stefania and her boyfriend, who both survived.
Husband Elio Vincenzi says her funeral will likely be held at the end of next week in Trecarichi's hometown of Leonforte, Sicily, lamenting the fact that he learned about the DNA results from the media rather than from authorities.
"They assured me I would be the first to know if that body was my wife's, but that is not the way it went," he said.
The Costa Concordia crashed against a reef and ran aground on the night of January 13, 2012, after its captain steered it close to the island of Giglio. Thirty-two of the 4,229 people on board died.
Indian waiter Russel Rebello is the only victim whose remains have not yet been found.
On Wednesday, Italian authorities said the search on board the Concordia might resume once it is taken to port for dismantling, which should happen next year.
