Some families, officials and experts are suing the city in federal court, alleging negligence and violation of their religious rights because the sifted leftovers — more than 1 million tons — are still at the landfill.

They believe there are human remains entombed next to New York City's trash, and are asking the court to order the removal of the debris. Mayor Michael Bloomberg contends it was adequately examined and would cost too much to relocate.

"Sift it again, or if you don't want to take the trouble, just remove and bury it elsewhere," says Diane Horning, who lost her son Matthew. "We just don't want our loved ones to be among garbage."

The search for remains was concentrated at the 16-acre World Trade Center site. But debris, human remains and jet parts also rained down on the surrounding area, and some bones turned up on nearby buildings; authorities checked nearby rooftops for pieces of humanity, but some structures were damaged and could not be inspected thoroughly.

Then, in the last year, workers preparing to tear down the Deutsche Bank building found so many new bone fragments that officials sent a group of experts, including Geidel, to comb the roof, which is covered with a layer of gravel that authorities say camouflaged many of the smaller pieces.

"Now there's this faint glimmer that perhaps we might have something," says Lynn Castrianno, whose brother, Leonard, has not been found.

"It's almost as though he existed, and then he didn't — there's no real tangible proof that he was there, and that makes a difference in the grieving process ... it's like that final goodbye has never been said."

But many aren't sure that they want to reopen that wound. It seems like so long ago that they were told the DNA in many of the remains was too degraded by time, heat and humidity to yield a match. Many stopped hoping for an identification and went ahead with memorial services — burying caskets full of memorabilia instead of bodies.

The Vigiano family had to do both. Detective Joseph Vigiano was found, but his brother John, a firefighter, was not. Twice a month and on every Sept. 11, their parents visit the incomplete gravesite of their only children.

Many families without identified remains numbly came to nightmarish conclusions: Maybe he was vaporized, scattered by the wind or reduced to flecks that were accidentally carried out of the site on a truck or a worker's boot.

"You don't want to, but your mind goes there and after a while you start to wonder, was he totally incinerated? But even then there's little pieces," says Claire Dawson, who lost her brother, Maurice Kelly.

"I'm sure there's some kind of bone fragments or something, but does it matter to me anymore? I don't know — he's gone and I don't know what help bone fragments would be."