How many people could have disappeared without a trace on the day of the twin tower terror attacks?

[madmolly]

I'm doing a project and am trying to find out is it possible for many people that wanted to disappear without trace on the day of the twin tower attack?
Did any disappear? How would anyone know whether a person was caught in the attack or just disappeared for other reasons?
An example is that a man cheating on his wife or maybe a woman deep in debt uses the attack in a hope to get away from the wife and away with his mistress or away from the bank.
Does anyone know whether this happened or was attempted?

[nannybooby]

Well crime writer Peter James used this as a theme for one of his books ,so he thinks it was possible

[Ankou]

some info here might help:

http://articles.cnn.c...center-names?_s=PM:US

[madmolly]

Thnaks nanny, do you know the book title? Thank you also ankou, i suppose we'll never know the true answer though i reckon many did use this as a way to start a new life for various reasons.

[youngmafbog]

I would say may well have occured, but as for how many actualy made it work I would think very few, if any

For one you would have to be on the ball and ready for something like this or react very quickly in a very hostile and paniky environment. It would only be of any use to anyone thought to have been in the building and at a high level at that, anyone outside of the building would have been found (or the remains woudl have been) anyone in the lower parts of the building got out so the feasibility was greatly reduced for most.

[emmie]

only if you were near the entrance to the buildings, or lower floors, i can't see many doing it, if any.

[sp1814]

There's another problem with disappearing after the attack. You would not be able to use your social security card or any of your existing bank accounts, mobile phones, travel cards etc.

It's actually quite difficult going 'off the grid' without a lot of pre-planning first.

[VHG]

They have been searching for bodies (or bits of bodies / DNA) in the Twin Towers debris for the last 10 years.

In fact just a few weeks ago they found the DNA of a "new" person in the debris:

http://cityroom.blogs...the-medical-examiner/

[Philtaz]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sneha_Anne_Philip

[andy-hughes]

I did a tour of Ground Zero a few weeks ago, and the guides told us that the search for any DNA traces is ongoing and constant, and those who still don't know where their loved ones perished, may still have the news they crave to help their grief.

One of the guides was a lady whose brother was fire fighter eventually traced by DNA, and she found that he was actually in the other tower from the one they thought he died in. She found it comforting to know exactly where he was, even though, of course, there is nothing left there now.

As advised madmolly, disapearing is actually pretty difficult to achieve - except in fiction where it happens quite often, and apparfently simply.