From the sixth floor of the New York Medical Examiner’s Office, Shelley Herek tested DNA associated with the city’s criminal cases to unlock the mystery hidden behind each case number.
But all that changed on Sept. 11, 2001.
Suddenly, the Bellevue, Neb., native became immersed in helping identify the remains of the more than 2,600 victims of the World Trade Center attacks – the largest crime scene in American history. Two months later, the office was swept into another disaster when American Airlines Flight 587 crashed in nearby Queens.
“The best way to think about it is with blinders on,” said Herek, now a research technologist at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. “Before that, every victim was a number, but after Sept. 11 no case was just a number.”
For Herek, the events of 2001 invoke profound sadness, as well as a deep pride in being able to help identify loved ones lost.
Herek, however, never planned for a career in forensics. As a college student exploring music and journalism, she engaged in in-depth personality and career tests, where she discovered a natural ability for science. A University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor suggested she might enjoy forensics and encouraged her to do a summer internship in Sacramento, Calif.
When she returned, she knew she wanted to pursue forensic science. In 1997, she graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a biology degree and a goal: to land an internship in forensic science. Internships were critical if you wanted to get a foot in the door, said Herek, who did a six-month internship at the Miami-Dade Police Headquarters in Miami, while waiting tables to help pay the bills.
In September 1999, she started an internship with the ME’s office in New York, before being hired in May 2000 to perform DNA extractions and testing on sexual assault kits. One year later, she was promoted to work on more involved homicides, assaults and paternity tests, but a backlog of cases kept her entrenched in evidence exam.
“It wasn’t unusual to have 50 criminal cases on my desk at one time,” she said.
On Sept. 2, 2001, she married Matthew Herek in Bellevue, Neb., but delayed a honeymoon to Ireland because of financial considerations. Instead, the newlyweds returned to New York and their Brooklyn apartment just days before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
On that clear day, Herek rose early, gathered wedding photos to show colleagues, and headed to the gym and pharmacy enroute to the ME’s lab at Bellevue Hospital, where Herek split her time. Shortly before 9 a.m., she made the 10-minute jaunt north to her work place at 30th and First Street for a meeting, unaware that the towers nearly three miles south of her had been hit, one at 8:45 a.m., the other at 9:03 a.m.
“We walked straight ahead and didn’t see the smoke,” she said. “When we got into the office the national radio had taken over the Howard Stern show and we found out the second plane had hit.”
With phone lines jammed, Herek walked back to Bellevue Hospital, a designated triage center, to inform the rest of the ME staff since they did not have a radio in the lab. She doesn’t remember seeing the smoke-filled sky, only people covered in soot walking in the opposite direction, hugging those they knew. “I don’t think anyone really realized what was going on until they got home and saw the coverage on TV,” she said.
When the south tower collapsed at 9:50 a.m., she recalls how a colleague watched the collapse and gasped, “All those people are dead.”
Thirty-nine minutes later, the north tower collapsed.
“It was just overwhelming,” Herek said, burying her face in her hands.
“There was no chance for me to reflect or react to anything, other than my natural reaction in emergencies — work at resolving the issue at hand and think about it later.”
As a result, she didn’t bat an eye when, in the weeks that followed, National Guardsmen walked down New York streets or police officers in full SWAT gear carried semi-automatic weapons. Only since leaving New York, Herek said, has she had the chance to truly reflect on what happened and grieve.
On Sept. 11, the ME’s office immediately sent staff members to lower Manhattan, now a massive crime scene. As the days passed, Herek and her colleagues rotated through morgue duty, an area of tables set up outside the ME’s office where remains were brought for identification and evidence collection.
“It was kind of surreal,” she said, as people — covered head to toe in protective gear — documented the remains.
The days are a blur, said Herek, who worked 12 to 16 hours swabbing and scraping DNA off toothbrushes, clothing, hairbrushes, razors, and dentures, provided by victim’s family members in hopes of finding their loved ones. All remains, she said, no matter how small, will be identified using DNA — a tedious task that continues, as scientists wait for technology to catch up to their needs.
DNA is extremely fragile, Herek said, and will degrade depending on temperature, environment and handling, similar to a string of pearls that breaks if mishandled. In normal cases, Herek would extract, copy and amplify DNA to isolate 15 specific genetic markers to find an individual’s unique profile. With the World Trade Center remains, only two or three of the DNA areas were left to test.
Once a DNA profile was generated, it was electronically entered into a specialized database, Herek said, and software, designed specifically for the World Trade Center attacks, determined if DNA from a sample matched DNA from personal items belonging to a victim.
The ME’s Office was still identifying Sept. 11 victims when American Airlines Flight 587 crashed in Queens on Nov. 12, 2001, killing 265 people. Unlike the lengthy World Trade Center identification process, the chief medical examiner imposed a one-month deadline to identify remains of flight victims.
Through it all, Herek remained a full-time graduate student at New York University pursuing a master’s degree in biology, which she earned in January 2003.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, the importance of family hit home for the goal-oriented Herek. “Once you’ve seen it all, you should step out quietly,” she said. “That day put things back into priority.”
So, in April 2003, she left the ME’s Office and the Hereks returned to Nebraska, where they welcomed daughter Olivia on Dec. 22, 2003.
Today, Herek is using her scientific skills in the UNMC Durham Research Center, where she does HIV research for the Center for Neurovirology and Neurodegenerative Disorders (CNND).
“Forensics gave me the ability to question and a great sense of self-fulfillment,” she said. But, “working in the research lab allows me greater freedom to explore and the opportunity to build a foundation to discovery.”