It’s been 25 years since the Sept. 11 attacks, but the city’s Medical Examiner’s Office has not yet faltered on its mission to bring closure to the families who lost their loved ones in the terror attack.
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who → falter → attack
The painstaking process of identifying the roughly 7,000 human remains — some as small as the tip of a fingernail — that were recovered from Ground Zero today is a far cry from the constant chaos that the heroes worked through in the wake of the tragedy.
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heroes → identify → tragedy
Multiple detectives who worked at the Morgue in the days after the attacks had previously worked on hundreds of homicide cases, but said they “never saw anything like the destruction” that the terror attacks wrought.
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attacks → work → that
Once we finished working on one, another body bag was placed on the table and we went to work.
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we → finish → table
They gave us an hour for lunch and we would run down to Ground Zero looking for bodies.
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we → give → bodies
Then we ran back up and finished our shift,” recalled retired Det. Lou Savarese, who worked 12-hour shifts at the morgue for 53 consecutive days.
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who → run → days
“People say never forget.
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People → say → ?
Of course I never will, but I also say never forgive the terrorist who killed thousands of innocent people.
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who → say → people
They’re cowards.
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They → ’re → ?
Most of the bodies that we worked on were crushed under thousands of tons of concrete.
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we → work → concrete
The state of the victims ranged dramatically, with some leaving behind just a shard of bone, while others looked like they were just peacefully sleeping, Savarese said.
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Savarese → range → bone
The detectives spent the earliest days of the recovery working to identify bodies that were recognizable or were carrying some form of identification, like an ID in their wallet or the badge number of a slain first responder.
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that → spend → responder
If there was no ID, the detectives would take a DNA sample and place it in a test tube that corresponded with the body bag.
“Then we started to get bags just with body parts.
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we → be → parts
Sometimes you would get an arm, sometimes a leg or a hand.
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you → get → arm
Whatever part we got, we treated it as if it was a full body,” said retired homicide Det. Terry Murnane.
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Murnane → get → it
Every sample and classification increased the chances of bringing closure to families, who were plastering missing person fliers of their loved ones throughout the city.
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who → increase → city
“It bothered me because I knew a lot of those people would never be identified,” Murnane said of seeing the posters after witnessing the horrors inside the morgue.
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Murnane → bother → morgue
“I knew this was an important job that has to be done.
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that → know → ?
A lot of families were looking for answers.
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lot → look → answers
”
But the job brought its own trauma for the detectives, who were forced to process the bodies of the very officers they had once stood shoulder to shoulder with in the line of duty.
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they → bring → duty
Retired Port Authority Lt. John Ryan was working when the bodies of Capt. Kathy Mazza, Chief James Romito and four other heroes were pulled from the rubble of Ground Zero — they were carrying a woman in an evacuation chair when the North Tower collapsed.
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Tower → work → chair
“I knew every one of those six office officers.
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I → know → officers
That was a rough day,” said Ryan.
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Ryan → say → ?
“As we escorted them into the morgue, I thought about each of them — When they were alive and how good they were as cops and, more importantly, as great people.
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they → escort → people
But I had to get back to the site because more bodies needed to be found,” he continued, saying detectives treated every body like the victim of a homicide.
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detectives → have → homicide
“Identifying those bodies was a very important job and still is today.”
Four individuals have been identified since last year — including one not-publicly-named woman whose DNA was the first to be matched using the breakthrough technique of forensic investigative genetic genealogy.
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DNA → identify → genealogy
Some families continue to hold out hope that they will one day get that closure as the OCME promises to continue its work.
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OCME → continue → work
“Then-Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Charles S. Hirsch, he made some promises that the current office is keeping.
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office → make → that
A lot of people retired and they have brand new employees who just finished college working in there — and they’re still working,” said Charles G Wolf, who famously advocated for the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund.
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who → retire → Fund
While Wolf champions the OCME’s work, he doesn’t have faith that the remains of his wife, Katherine, will ever be identified.
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remains → champion → wife
She was on the 97th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center on the day of the attacks, and Wolf has instead found closure in knowing she likely died on impact rather than suffer as the building burned and collapsed.
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building → find → impact
Instead, he’s dedicated his life since to helping other families find that same solace through his advocacy.
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families → dedicate → advocacy
“There are two things that are most important when a person dies, whether it’s normally and peacefully or as Katherine did and everybody else did on 9/11: the money and the body,” Wolf.
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everybody → be → 9/11
Roughly 40% of those killed at the World Trade Center remain unidentified.
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% → kill → Center
Retired Brooklyn North homicide Detective Lou Savarese worked 53 consecutive 12-hour shifts at the morgue.
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Savarese → retire → morgue
"People say never forget.
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People → say → ?
Of course I never will, but I also say never forgive the terrorist who killed thousands of innocent people," said Savarese.
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Savarese → say → people
Courtesy of Lou Savarese
Firemen and rescue crews search through the debris looking for victims at Ground Zero on Friday, September 14, 2001.
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Firemen → search → Friday
Charles Wolf has spend decades advocating for the families of 9/11 victims, but doesn't believe the remains of his wife, Katherine, will ever be identified.
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remains → spend → wife
The Aporia
