Possible 9/11 remains found in landfill

NEW YORK, April 8 (UPI) -- Searchers said they found five objects Thursday deemed possible remains of Sept. 11, 2001, World Trade Center attack victims in a former New York landfill.

The find follows the unearthing Wednesday of 20 other objects that could be human remains in what was once the Fresh Kills landfill on New York's Staten Island.

Forensic anthropologists will determine if DNA tests on the potential remains, found in debris excavated around Ground Zero, are warranted, officials said.

Officials hope to turn up traces of some of the 797 of the 2,752 victims of the terrorist attacks whose remains never were found.

"We are not going to walk away from our obligation to do anything that is reasonable and practical and affordable to recover and identify any remains that might be there," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday as the $1.4 million excavation project began.

Workers are sifting through 844 cubic yards of dirt and debris excavated from the area around the World Trade Center site since 2007.

A previous sifting effort, which ended in 2007, sorted through more than 15,000 cubic yards of debris and turned up 1,772 objects deemed potential human remains.

"It's great that they will sift through it, but it should have been done nine years ago when the process started and it will just tear up families members again," Dennis McKeon, executive director of Where To Turn, which provides crisis relief services for tragedy victims, told the Staten Island Advance.

The current operation is expected to be completed by the end of June.