Police Ponder How To Return Personal Items Found In WTC Debris, Some WTC DNA Samples Incomplete

Old news, but may come in handy for refuting conspiracy theory that ONLY Atta's id was found.

Credit cards and identification cards found in the tons of debris removed from the site of the World Trade Center attacks sit in colored bins in a trailer at the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island,on Jan. 14, 2002, in New York. Detectives are working to sort through the personal belongings recovered from the debris in the hopes of returning the items to families. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

(New York-AP) — Amid the concrete and steel scooped from the World Trade Center ruins are links to the victims and survivors _ bracelets and lockets, watches and wallets, key rings and cell phones.

Police are now beginning the monumental task of returning thousands of personal items to grieving families, and to the fortunate people who escaped.

"If we can somehow help to alleviate someone's pain and give them back a fond memory, we'd love to," said Deputy Inspector Jack Trabitz, commanding officer of the Property Clerk Division.

For four months, the department has been storing and cataloging the ash-covered belongings. It recently began returning items that clearly show a name, such as drivers licenses, credit cards, datebooks and jewelry with a traceable inscription.

But Trabitz said the department is still trying to determine the proper method to return other, less identifiable items.

Victims groups say one scenario under consideration is a book, similar to a catalog, that shows photographs of found items. Another possibility is a showroom where families can look through bins of personal effects.

"We're going to explore everything, whether it's show viewing, whether it's anything. Those decisions haven't been made yet," Trabitz said.

Mary Ellen Salamone, whose husband, John Salamone, worked for the bond firm Cantor Fitzgerald, said she favors the catalog process because it seems more organized and less likely to lead to errors and confusion.

Salamone hopes her husband's 18-inch gold chain and crucifix will be found. She gave it to him 12 years ago, before they married, and he never took it off.

"For some of us, this is all we have left," said Salamone, whose husband's body has not been found. "My husband has an empty grave right now, and he might forever. To get part of his chain back would mean everything to me."

Officers in the Property Clerk Division will eventually compare items to the descriptions that families wrote on missing persons reports. Personal items with engravings and other identifying markings are most likely to be traced that way, Trabitz said.

Trabitz's division _ which usually keeps track of seized narcotics, stolen property, murder weapons and other evidence _ recently began sending letters to families whose identifiable property had been found. They've sent about 500 letters; about 100 families have claimed property.

Personal effects make their way to police in several ways. Some items are discovered by FBI agents sorting through debris at the Staten Island landfill. There, they are sorted into piles _ identification cards, credit cards, drivers licenses and other documents. Shoes, books, wallets, pieces of jewelry and clothing are cataloged and shelved.

Detective Ed Galanek, who has worked at the landfill, said the heaps of personal belongings are constant reminders of all the lives lost.

"You don't dwell on the fact that someone's lost, because you couldn't do this every day, and look at this," Galanek said.

Eventually, the articles at the landfill will be taken to the basement of police headquarters, where they'll be added to items found by officers at ground zero. Those belongings are placed in clear plastic envelopes, and given a six-digit voucher number.

Among them is a gray Motorola cellular phone with a cracked face, found on Sept. 25. Next to it is a barely recognizable camera, covered in ashy dust, found on Oct. 18.

Belongings found with remains are sent to the medical examiner, where they often are used to help identify the victim. Once the victim is matched and the family is notified, the items are returned.

Some property found at the site or the landfill belongs to people who survived the terrorist attack, and who may have left items behind, such as a wallet or handbag.

They are happy to have their property returned, Trabitz said, but their reactions cannot compare to those of people whose relatives died. "That property has even more spectacular and special meaning," he said, "because it's a link to the past."

NEW YORK (AP) -- Medical examiners don't have enough DNA from toothbrushes, hairbrushes and other items submitted by victims' families to identify remains of some people killed in the attack on the World Trade Center, officials said Monday.

Of the 2,876 people reported missing at the trade center, the remains of only 685 have been identified, according to the latest city figures available as of Thursday.

Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the agency, said she did not know how many files were incomplete.

Families still waiting to learn if remains of their relatives have been located can check a new Web site or telephone hot line to see if they need to provide additional samples, the city medical examiner's office said.

The site -- www.nyc.gov/dna -- also has a list of the missing which had not previously been released. Borakove said the medical examiner's office posted it as part of its takeover of the DNA collection, which had been maintained by the police department.

Terry Strada, 39, said her heart sank when she called the hot line and was told the razor she submitted after the Sept. 11 attack did not hold enough of her husband's DNA.

``For four and a half months, I thought what I gave had been processed. I thought up until this point that my husband wasn't identified because they hadn't found him,'' said Strada, whose husband, Thomas, 41, worked for the bond firm Cantor Fitzgerald. ``The truth is, he could be found and hasn't been identified because they don't have the right sample.''

Have seen boxes of rings, watches, cash, jewelry of all kinds......it's just so sad. Another sad memory of the murdered.

Have seen boxes of rings, watches, cash, jewelry of all kinds......it's just so sad. Another sad memory of the murdered.

I can only imagine slightly how sad and haunting that must be.

On a less personal loss........The head of Cantor Fitzgerald had the largest private collection of Rodin sculpture. Most of it lost but for a few pieces of the sculptures which have been returned and are again in the Cantor Fitzgerald offices.

Like when the SwissAir plane went down with priceless artwork from the Metropolitan Museum......parts of our historic treasure is lost too.

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