LOS ANGELES (AP) – The bodies of Kobe Bryant and three other people killed when a helicopter smashed into a foggy Los Angeles-hillside have been identified, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said Tuesday.
Fingerprints were used to confirm the identity of Bryant, 41, along with John Altobelli, 56; Sarah Chester, 45, and the pilot, 50-year-old Ara Zobayan, the Medical Examiner-Coroner reported.
While the department had not yet formally identified five other victims, relatives and acquaintances have identified them as Bryant’s 13-year-old daughter, Gianna; Sarah Chester’s 13-year-old daughter Payton; Altobelli’s wife, Keri, and daughter, Alyssa; and Christina Mauser, a girls’ basketball coach at a Southern California elementary school.
The last of the bodies and the wreckage were recovered from the Calabasas hillside on Tuesday, authorities said.
Determining what caused the crash will take months, federal investigators said at an afternoon news conference.