20 potential remains found at WTC sifting site

Twenty potential human remains found during sifting of newly discovered World Trade Center debris will undergo further examination in an attempt to link them to missing victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack, officials said Wednesday.

The discoveries made Tuesday at sifting operations at the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island amount to what appear to be fragments and pieces of bone, said Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the office of the city chief medical examiner.

Anthropologists will study the fragments to assess whether they are human and then send them on for further DNA testing, said Borakove.

Since Monday, the city has been sifting through 844 cubic yards of debris recently found at the trade center site. The material has come from catch basins, hidden areas and tiny spaces between buildings.

Of the 2,752 people who died on Sept. 11 in the city, 1,629 have been identified, said Borakove.

Officials are hoping that new DNA technology developed in recent years will allow for remains found to be linked to victims. But even then there is no guarantee that many matches will be made. Since 2006, a total of 25 new victims have been linked to 1,772 potential human remains discovered in earlier debris finds, while previously identified victims have been linked to newly uncovered remains, according to city officials.

The new sifting for remains, which will continue until July, has also angered some families of the missing, particularly those who have sued the city to force it to test large mounds of trade center debris piled earlier at Fresh Kills.

"I certainly am hoping that someone will get some identification from this but I am also extremely angry, we have been asking for the city to do this for three years," said Diane Horning, of New Jersey, whose 26 year-old son Matthew died in the collapse of the north tower.

A federal judge recently dismissed the lawsuit by Horning and other families aimed at forcing the city to reclaim debris previously deposited at Fresh Kills and move it to a new site that can be declared a cemetery. An appeals court last month affirmed that ruling and Norman Seigel, the attorney for the families, said Wednesday further legal appeals were being contemplated.