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Coroner to release Flight 93 crash site
Saturday, July 30, 2005
By Wade Malcolm, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The emotions surrounding 9/11 for Carole O'Hare always will be too complex to articulate. And so she had mixed feelings after reading a news item on
the Internet yesterday morning.
In the simplest of terms, it said that Somerset County Coroner Wallace Miller was going to release custody of the crash site where her mother, Hilda
Marcin, of Budd Lake, N.J., and 39 other passengers on United Flight 93 died on Sept. 11, 2001.
On a deeper level, it signaled two things for O'Hare.
The process of grieving for her mother had taken a step forward.
But the coroner, as an integral part of life for O'Hare and other relatives of 9/11 victims, was taking a step back.
As of Sunday, Miller will no longer shepherd the plot of land where the Boeing 757 crashed as passengers fought with terrorists for control of the
hijacked aircraft. The 70-acre expanse will be returned to the six original land owners and eventually purchased by the National Park Service.
"It's almost sad to think he won't be looking out for the families of Flight 93, watching over the site," O'Hare said. "He became an extended
family member. But as the coroner, it's his job to turn it back over."
During the last four years, Miller became something of a celebrity in Somerset County. He's been contacted by news media around the world. It has
"probably brought more attention to a coroner's office than any case I can remember," he said.
More importantly, he worked countless hours, scouring the crash site for victims' remains to give some sliver of closure to family members. But with
each search, fewer remains turned up, and those that did had deteriorated to the point where they were no longer useful for identification
purposes.
Miller canvassed the area one last time on Wednesday with state police cadets. The area surrounding the site will eventually become a 2,200-acre
national park. The final design for a memorial will be announced in September, while the crash site itself will be considered hallowed ground,
accessible only to family members.
And Miller will go on with life as a coroner and funeral home director in a rural county of 80,000.
"I've met some wonderful people because of it, and I've learned a lot, but I would give anything for it to have never happened," he said. "But it
did happen, and it fell on me. I tried to do the best I could."
First published on July 30, 2005 at 12:00 am
Wade Malcolm can be reached at
[email protected] or 412-263-1652.
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