# Human Remains Found at Ground Zero **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 22, 2006, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-remains-found-at-ground-zero/377487 "2006-10-22T22:38:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-remains-found-at-ground-zero/377487/1 "2006-10-22T22:38:20Z")
[It looks like there could be a number of places where they could still turn up.](http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/22/national/main2113163.shtml) > [@](#): > > Workers found yet more human remains at the World Trade Center site Saturday during a renewed search for 9/11 victims. > > The City began a new search after a Con Edison crew, earlier this week, made the surprise discovery of body parts while excavating a manhole near the southern edge of Ground Zero. The human remains found on Saturday were located in manholes along a service road on the West Side of the World Trade Center side. Maybe this will help some folks find closure. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2006, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-remains-found-at-ground-zero/377487/2 "2006-10-23T00:07:24Z")
I hope some prove identifiable for those who are looking for closure, but somehow, I doubt it. > [@](#): > > The work earlier this week on the service road is part of more extensive construction of a 1,776-foot skyscraper, transit hub and memorial on the 16-acre site. The active search for the dead ended at the site in 2002 after a massive cleanup of 1.5 million tons of debris. > > About 20,000 pieces of human remains were found, but the DNA in thousands of those pieces was too damaged by heat, humidity and time to yield matches in the many tests forensic scientists have tried over the years. The poor relatives and friends. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2006, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-remains-found-at-ground-zero/377487/3 "2006-10-23T00:33:24Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2006, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-remains-found-at-ground-zero/377487/4 "2006-10-23T00:40:42Z")
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 --?” ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2006, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-remains-found-at-ground-zero/377487/5 "2006-10-23T10:25:10Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2006, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-remains-found-at-ground-zero/377487/6 "2006-10-23T11:44:23Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2006, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-remains-found-at-ground-zero/377487/7 "2006-10-23T13:34:56Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2006, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-remains-found-at-ground-zero/377487/8 "2006-10-23T18:03:41Z")
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… Cartooniverse