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CNN Sunday Morning
Honoring the Fallen
Aired September 14, 2003 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: For many of those who lost loved ones in the attacks on the World Trade Center, the effort to remember them has fallen short.
CNN's Kris Osborn reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KRIS OSBORN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Shortly before 9/11, Colleen Meehan Barkow went shopping with her mother, buying things for her new house.
JOANNE MEEHAN, COLEEN BARKOW'S MOTHEFRAZIER: She was so proud of that house.
OSBORN: But the 26-year old Cantor Fitzgerald employee never made it home. Only part of her body was recovered. It's hard for the Meehans to think about where the rest of their daughter's remains may be.
J. MEEHAN: We do have remains of our daughter. We have her upper torso. There's remains of her probably at Freshkills.
OSBORN: Freshkills is a landfill where World Trade Center wreckage and human remains were collected and sifted. After nearly a year sorting through burnt, twisted debris, city officials closed the site last summer. But the Meehans and families of other missing victims believe cremated remains of their loved ones are still there. They want the city to resift the debris, so they can bury the ashes at the World Trade Center Memorial.
J. MEEHAN: They brought all the rubble from the Trade Center over to Freshkills. And they sifted it down to a quarter inch. Ash and remains, bone fragments, tissue fragments, what do you think would fall through a quarter of an inch?
THOMAS MEEHAN, COLLEEN BARKOW'S FATHEFRAZIER: We believe that a landfill or a dump is not the proper place where you buried people you call heroes.
OSBORN: About half of the 2,792 victims have been identified. The medical examiner says as many as 1,000 victims may never be identified. And the mayor says the city does not plan to resift the now buried debris.
BOB SHALER, DR., DIR. OF FORENSIC BIOLOGY NYC MED. EXAMINER'S OFFICE: Whatever tissue remains were at Freshkills is no longer there. It's gone. It's deteriorated beyond any hope of retrieving it.
There may be fragments of bone there, but I could promise you I believe that they got as much as they could humanly possibly get.
OSBORN: As much as they could get still does not feel like enough for the Meehans, who can now only gaze across the water at Freshkills from their New Jersey home.
J. MEEHAN: Losing a child in that way just rips your heart right out of your body. I just would like to see as much of her as possible return to one place, where can go and honor her loss.
OSBORN: Kris Osborn, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired September 14, 2003 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: For many of those who lost loved ones in the attacks on the World Trade Center, the effort to remember them has fallen short.
CNN's Kris Osborn reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KRIS OSBORN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Shortly before 9/11, Colleen Meehan Barkow went shopping with her mother, buying things for her new house.
JOANNE MEEHAN, COLEEN BARKOW'S MOTHEFRAZIER: She was so proud of that house.
OSBORN: But the 26-year old Cantor Fitzgerald employee never made it home. Only part of her body was recovered. It's hard for the Meehans to think about where the rest of their daughter's remains may be.
J. MEEHAN: We do have remains of our daughter. We have her upper torso. There's remains of her probably at Freshkills.
OSBORN: Freshkills is a landfill where World Trade Center wreckage and human remains were collected and sifted. After nearly a year sorting through burnt, twisted debris, city officials closed the site last summer. But the Meehans and families of other missing victims believe cremated remains of their loved ones are still there. They want the city to resift the debris, so they can bury the ashes at the World Trade Center Memorial.
J. MEEHAN: They brought all the rubble from the Trade Center over to Freshkills. And they sifted it down to a quarter inch. Ash and remains, bone fragments, tissue fragments, what do you think would fall through a quarter of an inch?
THOMAS MEEHAN, COLLEEN BARKOW'S FATHEFRAZIER: We believe that a landfill or a dump is not the proper place where you buried people you call heroes.
OSBORN: About half of the 2,792 victims have been identified. The medical examiner says as many as 1,000 victims may never be identified. And the mayor says the city does not plan to resift the now buried debris.
BOB SHALER, DR., DIR. OF FORENSIC BIOLOGY NYC MED. EXAMINER'S OFFICE: Whatever tissue remains were at Freshkills is no longer there. It's gone. It's deteriorated beyond any hope of retrieving it.
There may be fragments of bone there, but I could promise you I believe that they got as much as they could humanly possibly get.
OSBORN: As much as they could get still does not feel like enough for the Meehans, who can now only gaze across the water at Freshkills from their New Jersey home.
J. MEEHAN: Losing a child in that way just rips your heart right out of your body. I just would like to see as much of her as possible return to one place, where can go and honor her loss.
OSBORN: Kris Osborn, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
