Brussels attacks: Missing US couple Justin and Stephanie Shults found, family says
An American couple missing for more than 24 hours after deadly blasts rocked Brussels has been found, a family member tweeted Wednesday.
The U.S. State Department said Justin and Stephanie Shults were located following Tuesday's terror attacks, but "we do not know the severity of their injuries or what hospital they're at," according to Justin Shults' brother, Levi Sutton.
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Sutton said the State Department spoke with Stephanie Shults' mother, who had been visiting the couple in Belgium and was at the airport to fly home to the United States when two suitcase bombs detonated. At least 31 people were killed at the Brussels airport and a second attack site at a subway station.
The State Department did not immediately confirm Sutton's tweet.
Previously, he told NBC News that Stephanie Shults' mother, Carolyn Moore, was OK, but that "no one has been able to contact Justin or Stephanie." He said that the State Department told him Tuesday afternoon that the pair were not on any casualty list and both their phones were going straight to voicemail.
Justin, 30, is originally from Gatlinburg, Tennessee, while 29-year-old Stephanie is from Lexington, Kentucky, but moved to the Belgian capital in 2014, Sutton said.
Both work as accountants — Stephanie for the global food giant Mars, and Justin for Clarcor, a Franklin, Tennessee-based firm that makes filtration systems and packaging products.
The couple had parked their car and waved goodbye to Moore, who was heading toward security when the blast happened, according to Moore's sister, Betty Newsom.
"She doesn't know ... if Justin and Stephanie watched her as she headed towards security or if they turned to leave the terminal. She doesn't know," Newsom told NBC affiliate WLEX. "We don't know for sure if [they] had been able to get out of the airport or if they were still in the airport."
She said the U.S. Embassy in Brussels had been in contact with them, and Stephanie's employer, Mars, was also involved in the search.
"All they can really do is go from hospital to hospital looking at the list of people that have been identified as injured," Newsom said at the time, adding that the mother was "of course very frightened and very worried about her daughter."
State Department Spokeswoman Pooja Jhunjhunwala earlier called the situation "fluid."
"We are working with local authorities to locate and assist any U.S. citizens affected by the attacks," she said in an email.
Another set of Americans, New York brother and sister Sascha and Alexander Pinczowski, may also be missing, according to the New York Daily News.
The siblings had gone to the Brussels airport early Tuesday and were on the phone with a relative when the bombs exploded, the paper reported. Then the line went dead. NBC News has not been able to confirm that they are unaccounted for.
At least eight Americans were believed injured in the attacks, including three Mormon missionaries, a U.S. service member and four of his family members.
The suspected suicide bombers were named early Wednesday as Khalid El Bakraoui, 27, and his 30-year-old sibling, Ibrahim.
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