Remains Of Unidentified Victims Of 9/11 Attacks To Be Moved To Memorial Despite Opposition
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The remains of unidentified victims of the 9/11 attacks will be moved to their final resting place in Lower Manhattan on Saturday, despite opposition from some families.
The remains will be brought to the site of the National September 11th Memorial & Museum in advance of its dedication on May 15.
For years, some 9/11 families have been fighting the city's decision to place the unidentified remains at ground zero.
Some Families Oppose Transfer Of Unidentified Remains To 9/11 Museum
Sally Regenhard, Vice Chair of 9/11 Parents and Families of Firefighters and WTC Victims, said a survey that was conducted two years ago indicated that 94 percent of the 9/11 families bitterly oppose placing remains in the basement of the museum.
"It's very inappropriate to go ahead with a plan to put thousands of human remains in the basement of the 9/11 museum without surveying the families and knowing that there is such an overwhelming opposition to putting the remains of our children and our loved ones in a museum," Regenhard told 1010 WINS. "Human remains should not be a marketing tool for a $24 admission to that museum, it is a disgrace, it's a sacrilege."
The city said the repository is in a separate area of the building that will not be accessible to the general public, WCBS 880's Paul Murnane reported.
"There's no way that people going to the museum will have any access to the human remains," Lilliam Barrios-Paoli, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services, told 1010 WINS. "It is an office of the medical examiner that will be there and in no way will it be part of any kind of an exhibit or anything like that."
Regenhard is hoping to meet with Mayor Bill de Blasio and have the transfer postponed or cancelled.
"Since the de Blasio administration was elected, we have received nothing. We have not been able to meet with one single official of the de Blasio administration," Regenhard said. "We're very, very disappointed, yet, there's still time, there's still time to postpone this transfer."
There are also concerns about the risk of flooding at the site and charges that the families were given one-week notice of the move, Murnane reported.
The museum opens to the public May 21.
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