It looks like there could be a number of places where they could still turn up.
Maybe this will help some folks find closure.
I hope some prove identifiable for those who are looking for closure, but somehow, I doubt it.
The poor relatives and friends. 
Yes but,
Say you were already given a ‘bag of parts’ and you buried it, as your husband/father/son.
Would you want another part? Would you want to dig up the box and throw another bone in there?
I wouldn’t.
Some people would, Zebra. Depends on their background, culture … I agree with you that I for one would not.
I suppose declaring the whole area a burial site can’t really be done, but with construction and reconstruction going on, let alone utility maintenance, it looks like this will be happening again and again for some time to come.
With folk wondering, “Was that a part of --?”
The whole damn city’s a burial site. You can’t dig anywhere without finding some ancient cemetery (Washington Square and Bryant Park were potter’s fields for decades). If we’re not allowed to build over “sacred remains,” we’ll have to plow the whole town under and declare it Manhattan Graveyard.
You’re describing the state of things in any city with a couple of hundred years plus in terms of history, Eve. Like I said – declaring any sector a burial site can’t really be done. Things do move on.
I can not really understand this sort of thing. The US military goes to huge expense to recover little bits of bone from Korea or Vietnam. Why the heck? What meaningful body part (whatever that means) COULD survive forty years in a jungle? Why bother?
At some point, five years or forty, these things cease to be ‘Daddy’ and becomes some sort of archeological remnant. Does it really help the family five years after 9-11 or forty years after Vietnam?
Just because science can identify these remain does not mean it ought to.
Not to be contrary, but we all know perfectly well why. Because many, many religions and cultures rely upon internment as a part of dealing with the death of a loved one.
If that were not the case, then the families and friends of victims honestly would not care what was done with the bodily remains recovered then ( and now ).
It’s a psychology debate, and we’re not in G.D. 
Do I feel linked to the body of my dead Dad? Well, Mom has him in a bag in a cardboard box in the closet. Before she sprinkles him into the Atlantic, I told her I wanted a few teaspoons of the ashes.
Might want to put him into some art I’ll make down the road. Dunno. Everyone on the planet relates to the corporeal part of a loved one in different ways. It seems to me to be an impossible call. We can spend a billion dollars exploring deep space and the origins of the cosmos ( which I personally feel is incredibly important and well worth it ) but we can’t spend money to bring home little bits of what is left of soldiers?
As I said, rough call any way you see it. Eve has IMHO rather elegantly articulated this. This is an awful and recent death site and the survivors are alive and vigilant. Wait 200 years. It will become another layer in the many layers of death and re-building that IS New York City. Or Rome. Or London. Or Beijing. Or any other old city…
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