Many 9/11 families still don't have their relatives' remains

Charles G. Wolf’s wife Katherine went to work on the 97th floor of 1 World Trade Center on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, and she never returned. Wolf knew that it was highly improbable that his wife’s remains would surface from the smoldering wreckage at ground zero: “I knew her body had been vaporized and immolated,” he explained. But he still held onto a faint glimmer that, through the recovery effort and extensive DNA testing, maybe her engagement ring would come back to him. But as time passes, even that prospect has faded.

“I’m not even hoping, because it’s 16 years on,” Wolf, 63, said last week, as the anniversary of his wife’s death approached. ” I’m not tying myself down emotionally hoping and waiting.”