Investigators may be facing toughest task 

09/16/01

By BETH AUERSWALD Trenton Bureau

As the nation begins the long process of recovering from Tuesday's terrorist attacks, so do the investigators and scientists charged with uncovering and identifying evidence and victims from the scenes.

Unlike a television show or movie that has the victims positively identified within an hour or two of the tragic cause of death, experts say it could take weeks or months, and perhaps as long as a year, before the file on this case can be closed.

While federal investigators will go to each scene and look to properly collect, process and identify evidence, whether it is components of an airplane or a victim, how they go about it will vary at each location, said Susan Corrado, director of the Intelligence Group, a business investigation
and intelligence firm in Far Hills, Somerset County. Corrado is a former Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and was a member of its elite Evidence Response Team that led the recovery operation of Egypt Air Flight 990, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on Oct. 31,
1999.

At the World Trade Center, where almost 5,000 people are missing, investigators will be limited by the recovery efforts, which is the first priority even if evidence is lost in the process, Corrado said on Thursday. 

In addition, they will have the problem of deciphering what was once part of the buildings or the airplanes, she said. The investigators will search first for the ''black box'' of the two airplanes and any weapons that may have been on board, Corrado said.

However, due to the conditions at the World Trade Center, where fire engulfed the buildings and melted their cores, it will be a miracle if investigators can retain any evidence from the boxes, she said.

''I don't think black boxes ever had to endure'' those conditions, she said.

High on the list of things to look for will also be clues to the hijackers - including bodies if they are in any type of condition, fingerprints and clothing - even the smallest detail that can lead the investigation team back to a vehicle, hotel room or something else connected to the assailants, she said.

Out in Pennsylvania, where a plane crashed into the countryside, there will be no recovery to take precedence and it will allow ''agents (to) go right in'' and ''do what they do best,'' said Corrado, who worked on evidence collection and preservation on the Egypt Air plane once it was brought to land and placed in a hanger.

At the Pentagon near Washington, the team will be dealing with a crime scene similar to the Pennsylvania site depending on fires, Corrado said.

No matter which site the investigative team is searching, agents will be looking over every piece of possible evidence and actually sift through the debris to find clues to the crime or the identity of victims, she said. Any
evidence found will be photographed, tagged, marked and placed in plastic to be fully examined later, she said.

Although the response team agents ''need to gather the facts as quickly as possible,'' Corrado said, it will likely take months or even a year to complete the investigation at the World Trade Center. Corrado also said
the investigators' work in Pennsylvania in about two weeks depending on the weather, but could not give a timeframe for the Pentagon.

Even the forensic photography, which was Corrado's specialty, can take days and the FBI is very sensitive to the need to go through a scene properly, especially when it is a potential crime scene and a criminal trial may ensue, she said.

''I get very frustrated with these (TV) shows,'' said Corrado, adding that taking three photographs and touching evidence without gloves is very far from reality.

However, ''the public gets that perception,'' she said.