Who They Were by Robert C. Shaler

Author:Robert C. Shaler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Free Press
Published: 2005-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Mecki Prinz e-mailed me on January 3, 2002, that John Butler had completed his validation work on the Big Mini. She expected we would have everything we needed to use the Big Mini in-house by the end of January. Now I would find out whether my strategy to resurrect degraded World Trade Center samples would work. I firmly believed this would be how we would identify many of the missing.

By January 2002 the OCME staff was meeting with family members and family group representatives weekly. In addition to Chuck Hirsch and others of us at the OCME, individual family members who needed specific information, representatives of family groups, such as Give Your Voice—the family group started by the Cartier family that at one point represented more than seven hundred families—and members of the FDNY typically attended. Other government officials were usually not present, although the genesis of these meetings was at Mayor Giuliani’s office, where multiple agencies—OEM, the New York City Police Department, and the FDNY—were represented. The meetings at the OCME began after one of our first meetings in the mayor’s office. During the meeting, I sat beside a young woman whose husband had been a firefighter. She was confused about the DNA testing and how it was being used to identify her husband. She accepted my offer to show her my laboratory and explain the process. Unfortunately, we never identified her husband.

At the January 6 family meeting, Karen Dooling announced twenty new identifications.

The Give Your Voice Web site had spelled out a number of recurring issues that continued to gall families. Mostly, these involved statements published by the media that skirted the truth and were peripheral to the DNA effort. The families were demanding information. From the mayor, they wanted World Trade Center site tours and early notification of work stoppage—the idea was that the mayor would inform them before alerting the press. Paramount in their minds was the recurring theme of how the civilian remains were treated versus those of members of the service. At issue was the question of whether an American flag was provided to all victims at the time of recovery. Press coverage showed members of the service remains covered with an American flag. The civilians wanted their loved ones treated similarly. Other questions involved the reporting of how many remains were being recovered. This was a problem because of the semantics. Reports of bodies being recovered led the public to believe the remains were intact when, mostly, they were badly fragmented.

There were also continuing questions concerning the memorial at the World Trade Center site, a raging debate that continued even as new designs for the World Trade Center site were being unveiled.

The DNA questions were directed toward me. Thankfully, the Cartiers gave us a copy of the list before they published it on their Web site. They kindly did not want me ambushed by reporters. If I had lost a loved one on September 11 and didn’t understand the science, I would have had the same questions.

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