As recovery effort nears end at Surfside site, experts needed to assist in victim identification Published: Extraordinary steps now being taken to identify remains of final victims at Surfside SURFSIDE, Fla. – As of Monday, the death toll is at 97 in the Surfside Champlain Towers South collapse. And all but two of those victims have been identified. More than three weeks after the tragedy, experts say it gets more difficult to identify victims and extraordinary steps must be taken to get positive IDs. Darren Caprara, director of operations for the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner’s Office, explains in a rare interview, how the passage of time has led to a more complicated hunt for DNA.