One evening at home, I received a call from a WTC family member, wondering why she couldn’t get beyond her grief. It was the birthday of the brother she had lost in the bombings. For both of us, 9/11 had become so ingrained in our collective consciousness that we couldn’t help but see continual reminders of it everywhere. It sometimes seemed impossible to have even a brief conversation without bringing up 9/11 in some way, and a thousand times a day there were references to it in every type of media. Random searches at the airports, and then on the New York subways, were taxing reminders of our shared vulnerability. The collective need to touch the touchstone, to bring up the pain on every possible occasion, and to connect it to every possible subject, was the reason that 9/11 could not fade from this woman’s consciousness. After that phone call I realized consciously, for the first time, what my subconscious had been trying to tell me for months—the same was true for me. It was unhealthy for me to remain at OCME. Like the families, I too had to get past 9/11.
I wasn’t alone. Katie Sullivan decided to leave OCME in the early summer of 2005, returning with her husband to Virginia, where they had both grown up. Katie also went back to teaching and opened an organic foods kitchen.
Amy Mundorff also left to complete her doctoral studies at the University of British Columbia on a Trudeau Scholarship. She had long felt that others in her profession looked askance at anyone who lacked a doctorate and a university affiliation, and despite her extraordinary work surveying twenty thousand pieces of human remains in the WTC effort, she knew she needed the ultimate sheepskin to prove her forensic expertise to some academics.
Bob Shaler retired from OCME to become the head of a new program at Penn State University that trains crime scene investigators, an innovative program that will likely make Penn State the center of forensic education for the northeast.
Mark Flomenbaum also left, and accepted the position of CME for the state of Massachusetts. Tom Brondolo, the deputy commissioner who had headed up our WTC computer effort, resigned from OCME and is now in private practice as a consultant.
I knew that all of these good people, too, needed to move on; the WTC identification effort had been the culmination of their best work at OCME, a pinnacle that would never again be reached. Still, I could never quite shake the sense that they and WTC had been collectively nudged out the OCME door. I, too, was feeling the nudge. By summer of 2005, of the half-dozen people who had led the WTC identification effort, only I remained. I had just turned forty, and I was whiling away my time in a job that would never command my passion.
It was at that moment that OCME’s director of information management and director of records was arrested in an astonishing embezzlement case. The alleged criminal activity had evidently begun long before 9/11, but had heated up considerably thereafter. This totally unexpected event—unexpected, at least, by me—all but sidelined OCME’s effort to develop the all-encompassing software program for the agency that I was directing.
I continued on at OCME for a few more months, but soon it was painfully obvious that I was spinning my wheels. Wasting time is something I’m not very good at. I’m a good manager, but I never liked being a bureaucrat. I needed a new direction. And so at last I decided to resign from OCME at the end of 2005, to pursue other projects, including this book.
I never held a more exciting job than medicolegal investigator. I went to work every morning with a sense of keen anticipation, looking forward to solving whatever complex challenges the world would throw at me that day. And when finally the challenge became helping the ME’s office respond to the tragedy at the WTC, the opportunity to apply my skill and experience and help people every day—to make order out of chaos—was to me, little short of perfect.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I WISH TO thank a wonderful group of current and former employees of the office of Chief Medical Examiner, City of New York, who encouraged me to write this book: Amy Mundorff, Harry Hahn, Kenny Dotson, Esther Arrington, Tammie Natali, and Jimmy Meyer, and a most special thanks to my dear friend Dr. Robert Shaler for sharing his recollections and standing with me during the rough times during and after September 11th.
Thanks to FDNY’s Chief of Dept. Sal Cassano, Chief Fire Marshal Louie Garcia, and to NYPD’s Sgt. Joe Blozis, Detectives Hal Sherman and James Nucifioro, and to Deputy Commissioner Bradford Billet of the Mayor’s Office, for helping me with fact checking and for their support.
I also would like to thank Mel Berger, literary agent at the William Morris Agency, for showing me the path, and gently pushing me along it.
I am deeply indebted to the members of my Brotherhood Synagogue family, for their love and support along the way, most especially to Dan Alder and Phil Rothman. A heartfelt thanks to Roz Weinman, former executive producer of Law & Order for opening more doors than I can count.
And lastly many thanks to Cal Morgan, Matt Harper, and the crew of the Regan imprint at HarperCollins for their splendid work, at some odd hours of the night.
SHIYA RIBOWSKY
SEARCHABLE TERMS
Accident Investigation Squad vehicular death and
actin, rigor mortis and
Advance magazine
algor mortis, postmortem changes and
American Airlines Flight 587 crash
Dominican Republic and
Family Assistance Center for
identification difficulties and
Incident Command Center for
National Transportation Safety Board and
World Trade Center and
antemortem information:
collection of
misidentification and
postmortem information, matching
anti-Semitism, World Trade Center and
Ashkenazi, community
Asimov, Isaac
Authorization to Release form, family notification and
autopsia
autopsy
cause of death and
court testimony and
of dog
family’s perspective of
gunshot wounds and
hospital deaths and
Jewish tradition and
manner of death and
medical examiner and
procedure of
reasons for
as station of World Trade Center identification effort
stories involving
Baden, Michael
Bellevue Hospital
Beth Israel Medical Center
Billet, Bradford
bin Laden, Osama
Bloomberg, Michael
Blozis, Joe
bones, DNA from
Brondolo, Tom
Brooklyn Jewish Hospital
Bush, George H. W.
cantor, Jewish synagogue and
Cantor Fitzgerald:
Cantor Relief and
Howard Lutnick and
World Trade Center and
Cartier, James
Cartier, John
Cartier, Michael
cause of death
autopsy and
death certificate and
hospital deaths and
Center of Disease Control (CDC)
Christie, Agatha
Clarke, Arthur C.
Clinton, William
cocaine, city’s war with
communications unit, as department at Office of Chief Medical Examiner
composite identification, of World Trade Center victims
computerized tomography (CT) scan
court testimony:
autopsy and
expert and fact witnesses in
medicolegal investigators and
voir dire
crime scene:
contamination by EMS
CSU and
integrity of
lessons from
postmortem interval and
surroundings of
Crime Scene Unit (CSU):
crime scene and
World Trade Ce
nter rescue and
Crisci, Dianne
CSI
Curitore, Tommy
Cussler, Clive
Dataease computer software:
experts, used
Tom Brondolo and
dead bodies, sounds of
death:
hospital versus scene
natural
unnatural
death certificate:
cause/manner of death on
fraud and
interagency cooperation after World Trade Center for
nonphysical remains and
Office of Chief Medical Examiner and
physical remains and
public health and
vital statistics office and
death scene(s):
Emergency Medical Services and
families at
medicolegal investigators and
postmortem interval and
suicide(s) and
unusual type(s) of:
bicycle messengers
cruise ships
electrocution
headless body
mummified skeleton
subway
sunbather
tourists
see also Ribowsky, Shiya: recollections of
Department of Health
DiMaio, Dominic
Disaster Manhattan (DM) number
Disaster Queens number and
physical remains death certificate and
tracking remains with
Disaster Mortuary Operational and Rescue Team (DMORT)
Tom Shepardson and
Disaster Queens (DQ) number, American Airlines Flight 587 crash and
DNA:
American Airlines Flight 587 and
composite identifications and
as evidence in crimes
identification and
antemortem information for
bones used for
postmortem information for
lab at Office of Chief Medical Examiner
mistakes corrected by
software
as station at World Trade Center
Dominican Republic, American Airlines Flight 587 and
Doyl, Bill
DX death certificate, judicial decree and
Eibert, Dave
Electronic Death Registration System (EDRS)
embezzlement, at Office of Chief Medical Examiner
Emergency Medical Services (EMS), crime scene contamination and
Emergency Operations Center, Pier 92 and
expert witness, court testimony and
fact witness, court testimony and
families:
American Airlines Flight 587 and
Authorization to Release form
autopsy and
death scenes and
grief and
medicolegal investigator and
Memorial Park and
separation of service members and civilians
of World Trade Center victims:
collection of information from
counseling for
Giuliani versus Bloomberg and
infighting over funds for
notification differences for
not-yet interviews and
Weiner, Heidi and
organization(s) of
meeting(s) with
speakers at
post-identification interviews and
Lutnick, Edie and
questions asked in
Family Assistance Center:
American Airlines Flight 587 crash and
fraudulent claims at
Pier 94 and
P number from
World Trade Center and
Final Exit, Derek Humphry and
fire department (FDNY)
DNA collection and
family meetings and
Ground Zero souvenirs and
London memorial service
misidentified members of
recovery efforts and
separation of victims
Flomenbaum, Mark
resignation of
training and
fouling
fraud:
death certificate and
Medicare/Medicaid and
missing persons list and
within Office of Chief Medical Examiner
World Trade Center and
Fresh Kills, Staten Island
Frum community
Fusco, Nick
Garcia, Louie
Gardner, Danielle
Geffen, Mark
Gene Codes
Giuliani, Rudolph
families and
Goyishe community
Gross, Elliot
Guadalupe, Jose, incorrectly identified body of
gunshot wounds:
autopsy and
classroom training about
mystery involving
shored exit and
Harlem, as homicide central
Harlem Hospital
Health Insurance Plan of New York (HIP)
Heinlein, Robert, Stranger in a Strange Land and
Hendrix, Leslie, Law & Order
Hirsch, Charles:
advice from
background of
as chief medical examiner and
family organizations and
identification effort and
misidentifications and
USAir Flight 405 crash and
World Trade Center attacks and
homicide(s):
advice about
autopsy required for
Harlem and
manner/cause of death and
misdemeanor
police:
checkpoints around
Crime Scene Unit and
Homicide Unit and
mind-set about
postmortem interval and
rate of
vehicular
Homicide: Life on the Street, misdemeanor homicide and
hospital deaths:
compared to scene deaths
reporting of
stories of
Hospital for Special Surgery
Humphry, Derek, Final Exit and
Hurricane Katrina, compared to World Trade Center disaster
identification(s):
composite
difficulty of
DNA used in
podiatric X-ray used in
see also World Trade Center: identification effort
identification unit, as department at Office of Chief Medical Examiner
Ielpi, Lee
Incident Command Center
American Airlines Flight 587 crash and
Dataease software and
functions of
developing missing persons list
developing special family interaction unit
gathering postmortem information
issuing nonphysical remains death certificates
processing antemortem information
Sullivan, Katie and
USAir Flight 405 crash and
independent investigation
insects, postmortem interval and
Interfaith Medical Center
Jewish Defense League
Jewish traditions, autopsy and
Jones, Adrian
Judge, Mychal
judicial decree, DX death certificate and
Kahane, Meir
Keystone Kops
Koch, Edward
Kol Nidre
Law & Order
Law Department/ Office of Corporation Counsel:
L tracking number and
nonphysical remains death certificate and
Levin, Marc
livor mortis, postmortem changes and
London memorial service, for World Trade Center victims
Dead Center Page 28