NEW YORK — Twenty-one years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the families who lost loved ones at the World Trade Center and are still seeking to hold them one last time.
For these families, who have yet to receive any remains of their loved ones, the closest they can get is a special section of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum located at what was once the foundation of the north tower of the World Trade Center.
While the museum's repository serves as a somber memorial ground for those families that have no physical proof that their loved ones perished on 9/11, the forensic team at OCME has been testing samples of those remains to try to make positive identifications in their own lab in Manhattan. As of Sept. 1, 1,647, roughly 60%, of the total number of victims, have been identified, according to OCME. The last two recent identifications were made last year. There are 1,106 victims who remain unidentified.
Desire said the heat, fire, jet fuel, water, sunlight, mold and bacteria present following the attacks has left many of the remains extremely fragile for analysis so his team has had to grind up tiny pieces of bone to extract DNA.One of the struggles that Desire said his team has had to face is communicating with the families who are waiting for confirmations that remains have matched a loved one."It's been 21 years.
"You see the interpreter's face, because she realizes in that moment what she's, what's happening," he told"Start Here.""There was just this visceral release of energy from the mother and father. I think it was like a shockwave that went through us all. I'll never forget it. And in the end, we were all like crying and hugging and they were hugging us. And that's a moment I'll never forget in my life.
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