What Becomes of the Hijackers’ Remains?
January 9, 2009 at 9:22 am Tina Hay 1 comment
This week’s issue of Newsweek contains a fascinating story called “Remains of the Day,” about what can or should be done with the remains of the 19 hijackers who died, along with their victims, on Sept. 11, 2001. At the center of the story is Penn State grad Robert Shaler ’66g, ’68g, who at the time of the terrorist attacks worked in the New York City medical examiner’s office and who oversaw the DNA analysis of victims’ remains in the years that followed. (We ran a profile of Shaler and his post-9/11 efforts in our Sept-Oct 2004 issue.)
The families of the 9/11 victims, understandably, did not want their loved ones’ remains mingled in any way with the remains of the attackers, but, the Newsweek article points out, “The blunt reality is that no matter how fastidious their efforts, the scientists will never fully sort the victims from the hijackers. The fragments are too small, too ruined and too scattered for bodies to be restored in their entirety.”
Robert Shaler (photo courtesy of Penn State)
In addition to reading the online version of the Newsweek story, you might want to check out the associated photo album, which includes a photo of Shaler, as well as a photo of Somerset County coroner Wallace Miller—who, as a side note, was a high school classmate of mine. I always knew him as Wally Miller, and it was odd to see him in the national spotlight in the days and weeks after Sept. 11.
In 2005, Shaler retired from the New York City medical examiner’s office and joined the Penn State faculty, to set up an undergraduate program in forensic science. More recently he’s also been involved with the TV series Crime Scene University, which is filmed largely at Penn State.
Tina Hay, editor
Entry filed under: Eberly College of Science, Famous Penn Staters, Penn State in the news, University Park campus. Tags: forensic science, New York medical examiner, Newsweek, Robert Shaler, Sept. 11, Somerset County, Wallace Miller.
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