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Brother Of Missing Brussels Resident Looks For Hope

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There are still many missing after the attacks Tuesday at Brussels Airport and Maelbeek subway station, leaving families struggling for signs of hope.

Among the Americans missing are Tennessee-native Justin Shults and his wife, Stephanie, of Kentucky. They are believed to have been dropping off Stephanie's mother at the airport when the explosions occurred.

Levi Sutton, the brother of Justin Shults, tells Here & Now's Robin Young Justin and Stephanie moved to Brussels in 2014, and were never concerned about terrorist activity in Europe.

"They were really living the dream," Sutton said.

Interview Highlights: Levi Sutton

On how he found out about his brother

“Yesterday I woke up at around 8 a.m., with multiple texts and missed calls from my mother so I knew something was wrong. I called her right away and she informed me of what was going on and everything since then has just seemed like time is just running at half speed, you know, it’s just the longest day of my life.”

What have you and your family done to try and make contact with them?

“For the past 30 hours, my mom has been tracking down every phone number she can find with the Red Cross, with the embassy, hospitals, anything and everything just to try and get some information. She did receive a call yesterday around 4 p.m. central time letting her know that at that time, Justin and Stephanie were not on any casualty lists. That obviously gave us a lot of hope, but since then we haven’t had any kind of updates but you know that hasn’t really stopped her from trying to do everything we can.”

On suddenly being impacted by terrorism

“My brother and I grew up in Gatlinburg, Tennessee which I think has a total of maybe 1,300 or 1,400 residents, and like you said, you hear and see these kinds of things on the news all the time but you never imagine that it would ever effect you personally like this, it’s very hard. Not knowing is definitely the worst part of all of this.”

Guest

  • Levi Sutton, brother of Justin Shults, who, with his wife Stephanie, went missing after the attacks in Brussels. He tweets @PopcornSutton__.

This segment aired on March 23, 2016.

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