No remains, closure for some WTC families

They are the staggering numbers that, almost 10 years later, remain as incomprehensible as 9/11 itself.

The families of 1,123 people who died at the World Trade Center have not received so much as a shred of DNA from their lost loved ones.

Among them is Monica Iken Murphy, who has not received the remains of her husband, Michael Iken.

Grieving "is still 'Twilight Zone' for me," said Iken Murphy, a board member of the National Sept. 11 Memorial.

The Upper East Side resident founded a group called September's Mission to make sure the "hallowed ground" she perceived as a mass grave would be turned into a memorial.

"I feel like he's there," Iken Murphy said.

The NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner continues to work on new identifications of remains, a spokeswoman said.

Those remains eventually will be moved to the memorial, a site that is not equally compelling to all families.

Edward Henry, a retired FDNY battalion chief from Bensonhurst, still chafes at the thought that WTC rubble was whisked away to the Staten Island landfill before it was sifted for remnants of the dead.

"Mistakes were made," that resulted in additional pain for grieving families, said Henry, who lost his son, FDNY Firefighter Joseph Patrick Henry. "Other people got something and you got nothing."

Some families see more significance in the landfill, where remains were discovered, and would have preferred a memorial in Staten Island, said Bill Doyle, who is still waiting for DNA of his son, Joey Doyle, a bond supervisor for Cantor Fitzgerald in the north tower, to be identified.

"I bought a burial plot for him, but there's nothing in it," said Doyle, of Lady Lake, Fla.

Not having physical evidence makes it easier for some to prolong their denial of death, observed Doyle, who heads the Coalition of 9/11 Families.

"They refuse to believe it," said Doyle. "They're still hopeful he'll be found - or that she just wandered off."