NYC to hire more forensic experts
By SARA KUGLER
Associated Press Writer
November 1, 2006
NEW YORK -- After a cache of human bones was found at the World Trade Center site last month, setting off a renewed search for lost Sept. 11 victims, the city is planning to hire several more forensic experts to help hunt for human remains, a deputy mayor said Wednesday.
The first few bones were accidentally discovered when utility workers opened a manhole along the western edge of the lower Manhattan site. Officials say it had been paved over and forgotten when a service road was built there in the midst of excavating trade center rubble years ago.
Following that finding, city officials identified about 10 more manholes and pockets under the road and ordered them to be excavated immediately and sifted for remains. Some 200 pieces of bone and other remains have been found, and workers are not quite halfway finished examining those cavities.
Thus far, the team doing that work includes the two forensic anthropologists who work for the city medical examiner, but officials say they are planning to hire as many as 10 more for the next phase of the project, which could take as long as a year.
"We will make sure we have the appropriate resources to do this job," said Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler, who is overseeing the recovery. "The mayor's orders were very clear: 'Do what needs to be done."'
Some families of those killed in the 2001 attack have pushed for the city to bring in the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, a military forensic unit that specializes in finding soldiers who went missing long ago.
A forensic dentist for JPAC helped the city in the days after Sept. 11, and several other anthropologists helped at the Pentagon, according to JPAC spokesman Troy Kitch. He said 25 forensic anthropologists are on staff at the unit's U.S. base in Hawaii.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has resisted calling JPAC this time. City officials note that the two forensic anthropologists on staff worked for that unit before joining the medical examiner's office.
Families of Sept. 11 victims planned to rally at ground zero on Thursday to call for federal intervention, a greater expansion of the remains search and a more clearly defined organization of the effort.
"Hiring extra anthropologists is a recognition that they realize the job they have to do, and it is a signal to the families that they intend to do the job," said Charles Wolf, whose wife was killed on Sept. 11. "But doing the job and doing it right are two different matters. How are you going to manage this?"
Wolf's wife is one of 1,148 victims who still have no remains identified. That number changed slightly on Wednesday, when the medical examiner said it had identified remains for three more victims of the attack. The remains were recovered long ago and were not involved in the recent discoveries.
Medical examiner's office spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said the remains belonged to Karen Martin, Douglas Stone and another man whose family asked that his name not be released. Martin, of Danvers, Mass., was a flight attendant on the plane that crashed into the north tower, and Stone, of Dover, N.H., was a passenger.
The identifications were made after the families submitted additional DNA samples to the medical examiner's lab, Borakove said. She declined to comment further on their cases.
Over the years, as the medical examiner has struggled to identify the remains of the 2,749 victims, some families have occasionally been asked to give more DNA, typically from cheek swabs, to enhance the profiles and increase their chances of getting matches.
Forensic experts say the new discoveries of remains at ground zero could lead to many more identifications because the bones are in good condition.
Officials say that the additional forensic anthropologists will be contracted temporarily, just to work on the next phase of the recovery project, which involves excavating more manholes and underground areas, tearing up parts of side streets and exploring the rooftops of selected buildings near the 16-acre site.
Officials are drawing up a schedule for that part of the job, but it is not likely to begin until the current work under the service road concludes.
The city also is looking for areas outside the trade center site where the forensic teams can sift debris.
The material from under the service road has been sifted on site, but workers expect they will need more room for the next phase of the recovery effort, such as one of the piers along the Hudson River or a swath of land in Brooklyn where the police aviation unit is based.
Associated Press writer Amy Westfeldt contributed to this report.
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