Identifying the victims of September 11
The quest to identify those who were killed in the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center was a massive undertaking. Robert Shaler, then director of forensic biology at the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, faced the challenge of his career in the wake of the tragedy—and yet, initially, he says, he "naively" underestimated the magnitude of the job he and his colleagues faced.
"I never stopped to consider how long the project would take, the effect it would have on my life and family and especially the emotional toll it would extract." The process took over three years, and Shaler suffered a heart attack. He retired earlier this year to direct the Forensic Science Program at Pennsylvania State University. Shaler chronicles the journey—as well as the science that made it possible—in Who They Were: Inside the World Trade Center DNA Story: The Unprecedented Effort to Identify the Missing.
So was this undertaking as overwhelming as it sounds?
This was something of great historical importance to the United States—you can well imagine with 2,700 people dead. We had, simply, huge numbers of samples [some 20,000] that had to be analyzed. There were people who had died together. So just collecting one sample wasn't enough. We had to sample the tissues around the bone, and the bone itself, to obtain multiple samples.
What don't people understand—or, perhaps, what is most difficult to explain—about using DNA to make identifications?
The DNA has to be good enough quality, and just because it's there, doesn't mean it's good quality. The DNA in the bodies was in pretty bad shape. These bones were exposed to extreme temperatures. The buildings burned for three months. Thousands [of human remains] would come out, and they were pure white. They were in essence ash. Some were just bone dust, and there are remains that we'll never identify.
I understand there was criticism from overseas about how you went about your job?
We were criticized overseas for being too rigorous. But a 99.9 percent match is better than a 99 percent match. If we'd chosen [to be content] with a 99 percent match, that means with 1 person out of 100, there would be a mistake.
What was the most difficult part of your job?
Usually, forensic scientists don't deal with families. With the World Trade Center, it was different. Beginning in December [2001], we began meeting with families on a regular basis. They wanted to see the DNA profiles, know how we made the identifications, see pictures of the remains. They were always kind of hard to show—some were grotesque. In April and May of 2002, we were making a lot of IDs every month—75 or 100 a month—but it was clear to me that some time in the future those identifications would dwindle. When this began in 2002, we began talking about it with families. We explained that they had to be prepared for this.
How did the families react to that news?
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