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10-23-2006 08:50 AM |
Workers find human remains on New York 9-11 site
Workers find human remains on New York 9-11 site
Timothy Gardner / Reuters | October 21 2006
Human remains thought to be from victims of the September 11 attacks have been discovered by utility workers removing rubble from manholes where the World Trade Center once stood, a city official said on Friday.
"Human remains were recovered. We will be trying to do what we can to try to identify those remains," said Ellen Borakove, spokeswoman for New York's chief medical examiner. She said the office would run DNA tests in hopes of matching the parts with profiles gathered since the attacks.
Local media reports said a few arm and leg bones as well as identification cards had been found on Thursday, but Borakove would not confirm that.
More than five years after the attacks, 1,150 of the 2,749 victims of the New York attack have either not been identified or recovered.
Families of victims have called repeatedly for a thorough search of the grounds by independent investigators.
"We're asking for an open process, we're asking for professionals, scientific people to be allowed to come in ... if not, we will be finding remains forever. This is a disgrace," said Sally Regenhard, whose son, a firefighter, was killed responding to the September 11 attacks. His remains have not been recovered.
The remains were found near a spot where families read aloud the names of relatives killed in the attacks at commemoration ceremonies each September 11.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office did not immediately respond to phone calls asking why an independent investigation had not occurred. The mayor said in a weekly radio address the city would conduct a fresh search of manholes but that recovery efforts in an area as big as the site could not be perfect.
"Whether or not someone finds something two years from now, or during construction ... you just don't know," he said.
The manholes had been covered by a temporary road paved soon after the attacks that allowed cranes in to remove debris.
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