Missing Bodies
More Than 1000 Bodies Are Unaccounted for
The number of people believed to have been killed in the World Trade Center attack hovers around 2,780, three years after the attack. 1 2 No trace has been identified for about half the victims, despite the use of advanced DNA techniques to identify individuals. Six weeks after the attack only 425 people had been identified. 3 A year after the attack, only half of the victims had been identified. 19,906 remains were recovered from Ground Zero, 4,735 of which were identified. Up to 200 remains were linked to a single person. 4 Of the 1,401 people identified, 673 of the IDs were based on DNA alone. Only 293 intact bodies were found. Only twelve could be identified by sight. 5
New York City Medical Examiner Charles Hirsch had the difficult job of informing the friends and families of the victims that the remains of their loved ones might never be identified. The forensic investigation ended in early 2005, when the medical examiner's office stated it had exhaused efforts to identify the missing. The victim identification statistics reported in a February 23, 2005 AP article, listed in the following table, remained about the same as those reported in articles published a year after the attack. 6
| nearly | 2,800 | victims |
|---|---|---|
| fewer than | 300 | whole bodies found |
| fewer than | 1,600 | victims identified |
| over | 1,100 | victims remain unidentified |
| over | 800 | victims identified by DNA alone |
| nearly | 20,000 | pieces of bodies found |
| over | 6,000 | pieces small enough to fit in test-tubes |
| over | 200 | pieces matched to single person |
| nearly | 10,000 | unidentified pieces frozen for future analysis |
The aircraft impacts and fires in all probability would not have destroyed a single body beyond positive identification. Nor have building collapses ever been known to destroy human remains beyond recognition. However, the buildings were destroyed in a manner that converted most of their non-metallic contents to homogeneous dust, including the bodies. This destruction of the bodies assured that no exact determination could ever be made regarding who was piloting the jets at impact, and the condition of the people on board.
This is one of many examples in which evidence which could either confirm or refute the official story was destroyed. For example, a finding that the people onboard Flights 11 and 175 had been killed by some means before reaching the Towers would undermine the official story of multiple hijackings. The effective cremation of the bodies eliminated most of the evidence that would support such a finding.
Human Remains Discovered Since 2006
About a year after the official program to identify victims had ended, more human remains turned up on top of the Deutsche Bank Building, which stands about 400 feet to the south of the location of the former South Tower. 7 According to the Associated Press, more than 300 human bone fragments were recovered from the roof of the 43-story skyscraper as workers removed toxic debris in preparation for a floor-by-floor take-down of the building. Most of the fragments were less then 1/16th inch in length and were found in gravel raked to the sides of the roof of the building. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation purchased the building and is planning to begin its deconstruction in June, after removal of toxic waste -- including asbestos, lead, and other materials deposited on it by the destruction of the Twin Towers. 8
Some victims' family members, indignant that the human remains in the Deutsche Bank remained undiscovered for so long, said that the planed deconstruction should be postponed until the building is thoroughly searched for other remains. According to the New York Daily News, as of the second week of April, 2006, 1,151 of the 2,749 people killed in the attack have not been identified, and the medical examiner holds more than 9,000 unidentified human remains. 9
In October, 2006, more human remains were discovered in two manholes by Con Edison workers. 10 11 In April, 2008, the remains for four more victims were idetified using remains recovered from a road, paved to clean up Ground Zero, whose excavation for human remains started after the manhole discoveries. 12
In June of 2010, 72 human remains were announced found, following a 2 month-long sifting of 800 cubic yards of debris from Ground Zero and underneath adjacent roads. Some of the remains were found when new debris was uncovered during construction work at the WTC site. Although a CBSNEWS article stated that "some have been matched to previously unidentified Sept. 11 victims," it did not provide further details. 13
References
2. World Trade Center death toll drops by two, cnn.com, 11/2/02 [cached]
3. First victims identified by DNA testing, Guardian, 10/25/01 [cached]
4. 1000 9/11 victims 'never identified', news.com.au, [cached]
5. Memories of 9/11, 9/11/03 [cached]
6. Forensics at New York's Ground Zero Ends, AP, 2/23/05 [cached]
7. More human remains found on roof next to World Trade Center site, USA Today, 4/6/06 [cached]
8. More 9/11 bone fragments found, USAToday.com, 4/13/06 [cached]
9. 400 bits of bone on bldg. roof, NYDailyNews.com, 4/14/06 [cached]
10. Relatives Of 9/11 Victims Speak Out Against City's Recovery Efforts, NY1 News, 10/20/06 [cached]
11. Officials warned 9/11 search too rushed, Chron.com, 10/23/06 [cached]
12. Remains of More 9/11 Victims Identified, AP, 4/8/08 [cached]
13. Latest NYC 9/11 Search Finds 72 Human Remains, CBSNews.com, 6/23/2010 [cached]
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