Sept. 11 remains from WTC found by workers

[SlowwHand]

05:40 PM CDT on Thursday, October 19, 2006

Associated Press


NEW YORK - Human remains from the World Trade Center site have been found by utility workers more than a mile away from ground zero, a city official said Thursday.

Consolidated Edison workers found remains at the downtown Manhattan site, took them to a natural gas vehicle fueling station more than a mile to the north and then called the medical examiner's office to have them identified, office spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said.

"The remains came from down there," Borakove said, referring to the trade center site. "How they got to 29th Street and 11th Avenue, I don't know."

She said she didn't know when the remains were found. It was unclear what condition the remains were in or how complete they were.

The area was roped off Thursday, and investigators were sifting through dirt under a white tarp.

Five years after 2,749 people died in the Sept. 11 World Trade Center attacks, families of about 1,150 victims still do not know whether their loved ones' remains were recovered.

During the excavation of the 110-story twin towers, which began the evening of the attacks and lasted for nine months, about 20,000 pieces of human remains were found. The DNA in thousands of those pieces, many small enough to slip into a test tube, was too damaged by heat, humidity and time to yield matches in the many tests forensic scientists have tried over the years.

[DRoseDARs]

Ugh.

[Asher]

Was at ground zero today...

[SlowwHand]

Anger over human bones found at World Trade Center site

10:09 AM CDT on Friday, October 20, 2006

Associated Press


NEW YORK - The discovery of human bones in a damaged manhole at the World Trade Center site has outraged victims' families, who say the city hasn't done enough to ensure the remains of those killed in the 2001 terrorist attack are located and treated with respect.

Some relatives called for a new, systematic search by outside experts, such as the military command that identifies missing soldiers' remains.

"We can no longer rely on accidental discoveries," the group WTC Families for Proper Burial said in a statement Thursday. "This must be a deliberate search. May this awful news be the catalyst needed to go back and do the job well."

The remains, some as big as arm or leg bones, were found Thursday by a Port Authority contractor working with a Consolidated Edison crew excavating a manhole, said Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the trade center site.

The crew had already hauled excavated materials to a work center, and more remains were later found there, said Con Ed spokesman Mike Clendenin.

The area where the remains were found is near the spot where a podium is erected each Sept. 11 for families to read the names of their loved ones. It was roped off after the discover, and investigators began sifting through the dirt under a white tarp.

Police said there was no evidence of wrongdoing but the investigation was continuing.

WTC Families for Proper Burial said it would hold a news conference Friday "to express our outrage at the continued cavalier attitude toward the retrieval of human remains."

Five years after 2,749 people died in the World Trade Center attack, families of about 1,150 victims still have not received word that their loved ones' remains were found amid the rubble.

The remains of Charles Wolf's wife, Katherine, 40, were never recovered. He said his wife, an employee of insurer Marsh & McLennan, was on the 97th floor of the north tower when the building collapsed.

"I am totally shocked that this was found in the pit," said Wolf, 52, who was notified of the discovery by television stations.

"The fact that they were found in ground zero says there was some major, major shortfall in the recovery effort," Wolf said. "Where else are we going to find them next?"

Wolf called for a "qualified independent party" to get involved, such as investigators with the military's Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, which identifies the remains of U.S. soldiers once listed as missing in action.

The excavation of the 110-story twin towers began the evening of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and lasted for nine months. About 20,000 pieces of human remains were found. The DNA in thousands of those pieces, many small enough to slip into a test tube, was too damaged by heat, humidity and time to yield matches in the many tests forensic scientists have tried over the years.

The city told victims' families last year that it was putting the project on hold, possibly for years, until new DNA technology is developed, because every known process had been tried.

Last month, Medical Examiner Charles Hirsch said advances had been made by Bode Technology Group, the Virginia company contracted to work on recovered Sept. 11 bone fragments, and that "new identifications will be forthcoming."

Besides the new remains found by the utility workers, the lab recently received hundreds of bone fragments discovered on the roof of a nearby building. The building was condemned after the attacks and was about to be torn down when workers found the bone pieces.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Wait a sec, they want to rip up all of Manhatten or something to find these bones? They were found like a mile away... not like they knew they were there and did nothing about it!

[Cort Haus]

the group WTC Families for Proper Burial

[SlowwHand]

I don't think they're suggesting tearing up all of Manhattan; and I don't see the reason for the rolling of they eyes. Half of the families have had no closure.

[Cort Haus]

Pardon me for being a cold-hearted materialist, but some of these extremist advocacy groups are tiresome. How can you have a proper burial when you are blasted across Manhattan?

Some things aren't possible in catastrophes, and 'closure' for some of these poor people is one of them.

[Addled Platypus]

Originally posted by Cort Haus
Pardon me for being a cold-hearted materialist, but some of these extremist advocacy groups are tiresome. How can you have a proper burial when you are blasted across Manhattan?

Some things aren't possible in catastrophes, and 'closure' for some of these poor people is one of them.

agreed

[thesilentone]

Agreed too. A sense of perspective would be nice.

And the remains weren't discovered a mile away, they were taken there it seems.

[Spec]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
I don't think they're suggesting tearing up all of Manhattan; and I don't see the reason for the rolling of they eyes.

I understand very well the rolling eyes...Get on with your life is what it is...

Half of the families have had no closure.

Come on....they died in the god damn WTC when it crumbled and everybody knows why...Who the hell cares where the hand or other limbs are...they died and they know why and how, that's it.

Same thing as in a plane crash...you almost never find remains, but since its a plane crash, no problem, you have closure....

Wrong place at the wrong time, there's your closure.

Spec.

[Darius871]

A mile away? Clearly proof that the WTC had pre-planted explosives - no measly fire could propel human remains that far!

Unbelievable!

[GePap]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Wait a sec, they want to rip up all of Manhatten or something to find these bones? They were found like a mile away... not like they knew they were there and did nothing about it!

A "mile away"? The article says the remains were found in the site, which is a pretty large site.

[Imran Siddiqui]

The article says:

Human remains from the World Trade Center site have been found by utility workers more than a mile away from ground zero

I didn't know they moved them there... though that sounds shady they'd move it a mile before calling anyone.

[GePap]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
The article says:

Human remains from the World Trade Center site have been found by utility workers more than a mile away from ground zero

I didn't know they moved them there... though that sounds shady they'd move it a mile before calling anyone.

"Have" means in the past. BY human remains they can mean anything. Finding a tooth a mile away would constitute human remains. I am sure small remains were able to get around.