SARA KUGLER
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) _ As many as half of the nearly 20,000 pieces of human remains recovered in the World Trade Center ruins have not yielded DNA and are being preserved for future testing, according to the city medical examiner.
Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner, would not elaborate on why some tissue has not yielded DNA, which scientists can use to link remains to people killed in the Sept. 11 attack.
Borakove said advances in technology might allow for successful testing in the future.
DNA expert Victor Weedn, the founder of the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory in Rockville, Md., said many of the body parts may never yield usable DNA. The DNA could have been damaged, he said, by decomposition enzymes, bacteria or the extreme heat of the fires in the trade center.
Weedn said remains that have a better chance in the future are those that initially did not yield DNA because a substance _ such as dust from concrete _ inhibited the process.
``If we have DNA that's degraded down into very small fragments, there is not going to be a future remedy for that,'' Weedn said. ``But certain problems may be undone, and therefore, what can't be typed today could in the future be typed.''
Of the 2,823 people lost at the trade center Sept. 11, city officials say 1,109 have been identified _ about 350 through DNA alone, Borakove said.
Remains that arrive from the trade center have been shipped to labs for processing if technicians determine that a DNA extraction can be made. DNA fingerprints are then sent back to New York for comparison with DNA submitted by victims' families.
The remains that don't produce enough DNA _ or any at all _ are being dried for preservation, Borakove said.
Victims' remains are being kept in 18 refrigerated trailers inside a tent at a lot in Manhattan, bordered by overgrown weeds on one side and the FDR Drive on the other. Families have dubbed it ``Memorial Park,'' and have placed photographs, mementos, newspaper clippings, candles and flowers along the north side.
