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While investigators try to piece together the Brussels attack, many questions about the terrorists involved and missing victims still remain unanswered. VPC
In this closeup from an image provided by the Belgian Federal Police in Brussels, a suspect in the March 22, 2016 bombing is shown on surveillance video at Brussels airport shortly before two deadly bombs went off. Police believe the suspect fled.(Photo: Belgian Federal Police via AP)
Two days after the deadly terrorist attacks in Brussels, investigators are still grappling with key aspects of the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>bombings,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>including exactly<span style="color: Red;">*</span>how many terrorists<span style="color: Red;">*</span>were involved, how many are still at large and the identity of the victims and the missing.
Also unclear is exactly how many people were killed in the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>attacks by<span style="color: Red;">*</span>four or possibly five terrorists. Media reports indicate at least 31 people, and perhaps as many as 34, were killed, and as many as 300 people injured.
An urgent question<span style="color: Red;">*</span>for investigators is<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the identity of a man wearing a hat and light-colored clothing who is seen on surveillance video<span style="color: Red;">*</span>inside the Brussels Airport on the morning of the attack walking with<span style="color: Red;">*</span>two of the terrorists who died in the operation, Ibrahim El Bakraoui and bombmaker Najim Laachraoui.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>The man is shown pushing a cart carrying luggage that contains<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>35-pound bomb<span style="color: Red;">*</span>that did not detonate. He fled the scene before the attacks occurred.
Brussels airport workers and their relatives pay tribute to the victims of Brussels terrorist attacks at a makeshift memorial near the airport in Zaventem on March 23, 2016.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Philippe Huguen, AFP/Getty Images)
There also may be a second terrorist on the run.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>French newspaper Le Monde and the Belgian public broadcaster RTBF reported that a man carrying a large bag was seen on CCTV at the Maelbeek metro station with<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Khalid El Bakraoui, identified by police as the suicide bomber<span style="color: Red;">*</span>on a subway car.
Media reports say police have put together a composite drawing of the man, who is depicted as having<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a long, thin<span style="color: Red;">*</span>face and thick eyebrows.
Meanwhile, family and friends of people missing since the attacks are frantically searching for information. The search is complicated by the fact that 61 people from among hundreds of injured remain in intensive care.
Fabienne Vansteenkiste, 51, a baggage handler at the Brussels airport, went missing after the terrorist attack on March 22, 2016. Friends posted her photo on a Brussels Missing website seeking information.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Brussels-Missing.com/Trello.com)
A<span style="color: Red;">*</span>website — called simply "Brussels Missing"<span style="color: Red;">*</span>—<span style="color: Red;">*</span>has become<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a clearinghouse for people looking for missing friends and relatives. It contains pleas for information and heartbreaking photos of people from their Facebook pages<span style="color: Red;">*</span>or vacation trips. It is<span style="color: Red;">*</span>broken down into four categories: Missing, Safe, Injured and Deceased.
One message, written in three languages,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>says simply:<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"My friend has no news of her mother, Fabienne Vansteenkiste. She was in the airport at the time of the attacks. If you have any information, please contact Thomas S... Thank you."
According to local media reports, Vansteenkiste, 51, had just finished her shift as a baggage handler when the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>bombs exploded at<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the airport.
One of her friends, Ikke<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Egeltje, expressed anger some media have reported<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Vansteenkiste's death without official confirmation.
"We are very angry with these newspapers and media which confirm things so that we ourselves have not had information for two days," Egeltje writes on the website. "Not only for us, but for all the families that remain without news and who learn these speculations ... To protect us, we don't read the media for the moment."
In Tennessee, relatives of Justin and Stephanie Shults<span style="color: Red;">*</span>are equally upset over the lack of information and have<span style="color: Red;">*</span>enlisted the help of Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn.
The pair<span style="color: Red;">*</span>dropped Stephanie's mother, Carolyn Moore, off at the airport in Brussels and were watching her walk through security when the bombs went off, Stephanie's cousin<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Larry Newsom, told the Associated Press on Wednesday.
At one point, a man described as a relative posted<span style="color: Red;">*</span>on Twitter that<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the State Department had<span style="color: Red;">*</span>informed family that the couple had been located. But he later posted that the information was not correct.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>“I shouldn’t be sending this tweet," he<span style="color: Red;">*</span>wrote. "I am disgusted that the information given to us wasn’t 100% correct.”
Justin Shults worked in Brussels for a Tennessee-based manufacturing company, according to his LinkedIn profile, and Stephanie Shults worked for Mars in Brussels, the company said on its Facebook page. They both graduated in 2009 from Vanderbilt University, The<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Tennessean reports.
“At this time, neither Belgium nor U.S. officials have confirmed that Justin and Stephanie Shults have been located. We are thankful for the outpouring of love and support we have received at this difficult time and ask for prayers for Justin and Stephanie,” the families said in a statement issued by Corker.
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