The remains of two men who were captured in Iraq with a former UF student have been recovered and identified, the FBI announced Monday.
On Tuesday, a law enforcement officer told the Associated Press that the bodies of three additional hostages had been found but had not yet been identified.
Friends and family of Jonathon Cote, who attended UF for one year beginning in fall 2005, are left anxiously awaiting more information.
Cote, a UF student and member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity, worked in Iraq for a private security company before he was kidnapped in November 2006. It is believed he has been held there with five other hostages ever since.
Matt Sloan, president of Sig Ep, said he spoke with Cote's father and learned that it has been difficult to get the three bodies out of Iraq to identify them because there has been so much fighting in the region where they were found.
While Cote's father, Francis Cote, could not be reached after the latest news was released, he said early Tuesday that the discovery of two of his son's colleagues was disheartening.
"It's not a good thing," Francis Cote said. Recently U.S. authorities in Baghdad received the severed fingers of five of the hostages, which was perceived by family and friends as a positive sign he was still alive.
He said he will be updating the Web site he created for his son, www.freecote.com, by the hour.
