INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Justin And Stephanie Shults, American Couple Who Went Missing After Brussels Bombing, Confirmed Dead

By Pam Wright
Published on: 00:05 PST, Mar 27, 2016

Justin and Stephanie Shults, the American couple who went missing after the Brussels airport bombing, have been confirmed dead, according to Justin’s family.

With one last wave goodbye to Stephanie’s mother as she was getting ready to leave the departure area for a flight back to the United States on Tuesday, the blast rocked the airport and the couple was lost.

According to the Huffington Post, Levi Sutton, the brother of Justin, confirmed that the couple had been killed on Saturday.

“We found out today that cowards took my brother’s life. The world lost two amazing people today.”

Justin, 30, and Stephanie, 29, were accountants who moved to the Belgian capital in 2014. Justin, originally from Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and Stephanie, from Lexington, Kentucky, were both accountants.

Justin and Stephanie Shults were living in Brussels and were dropping her mom off at the airport when the attack on March 22, 2016, happened.

Sutton said Saturday that Justin was “smart and kind and generous” and worked hard to achieve his dreams.

“He traveled the world leaving each destination better than when he arrived. Knowing that I’ll never be able to see him again hurts, but it’s worse that my future children will never get to know their uncle Justin as he would’ve been a tremendous role model.”

According to USA Today, Justin worked for Clarcor, a filtration company. The company released a statement on its website that he would be remembered as an “intelligent, kind and loyal friend and employee.” Stephanie’s employer, Mars, Inc., expressed their condolences Saturday.

“We are mourning the loss of our colleague and friend. Our hearts and thoughts are with their families, and with all those who are suffering during this terrible time.”

Justin and Stephanie graduated from Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management, which also expressed its grief and sent wishes to the family.

Vanderbilt Chancellor Nicholas S. Zep said the Justin and Stephanie “represented the very best of Vanderbilt and Owen,” in a statement.

“This bright young couple chose, in the spirit of discovery, to become global citizens in order to grow, to learn and to broaden their perspective.”

Their family grief is all the more difficult because the family received a false ray of hope when they received word from officials that Justin and Stephanie had been located. That information from a state department official turned out to be false.

The mixup could not be explained where the confusion arose.

Stephanie’s mom, Carolyn Moore, was preparing to leave for home after visiting her daughter and son-in-law in the Belgium capital when the suitcase bombs detonated. She was uninjured.

Twenty-eight people were killed and more than 270 were injured in the bombings at the airport and a metro station, a spokesperson for the Belgian prosecutor’s office clarified Saturday. Three attackers also died in the blasts.

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, the state of Kentucky, Stephanie’s home state, has been following the news closely and Gov. Matt Bevin tweeted that he is “heartbroken by the news.”

Lexington Mayor Jim Gray also tweeted that he was “devastated” by the news.

Also among the dead are a pair of siblings who lived in New York, Dutch nationals Sascha and Alexander Pinczowski. Of the 28 killed, 11 victims were foreign citizens from eight different countries, prosecutor’s office spokesperson Ine van Wymersch said on Saturday.

[Photo by Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP Images Pool]

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