Content area
Full Text
Karl Lindemath of Manhattan got a call on the cellphone Thursday; it lasted only five seconds, but he'll remember it for lifetime.
There was the voice of Leonard Castrianno, 25, a Cantor Fitzgerald employee who worked on the 105th floor of One World Trade Center. He has been missing since Tuesday morning.
"He said I don't know how close they are," recounted Lindemath, 25, Castrianno's friend. "That's all you heard and then it cut out."
Since then friends have frantically been calling Castrianno's cellphone and getting his voice mail. They've also called the phone company to have the call traced, but with no luck.
"It's like how everything has been because we don't know anything," said Matt Walton, another New York friend whose phone was called, presumably by Castrianno, on Thursday as well. "There are too many unknowns. It's frustrating."
Lindemath and Walton were among those who spent another day on a roller coaster ride of small hopes, dashed expectations, dead-end leads, and no word on their friends, family, and loved ones.
They showed up with hundreds of others Thursday to file a missing- persons report at the bereavement center set up by the city at the 69th Regiment Armory between 25th and 26th streets. They stood quietly in a line that covered a block up Lexington Avenue and across 26th Street.
By 5:30 p.m., 930 people had registered, filling out a form with identifying details such as birthmarks and hair color.
"People are devastated," said Jack Herrmann, mental health coordinator for the American Red Cross, who was helping out at the center. "They're grasping for any information. This is one of the most difficult times emotionally for them. It leaves them with a lot of questions. We're trying to provide them with as much information as possible."
In some ways, it was the day the grief over the World Trade Center attack began to take a human face in dozens of family snapshots, digital photographs, and color Xeroxes.
Outside the armory, family members came on a hot, late summer day to spread the word about their missing loved ones, and share their tales with others.
It was sad business with occasional relief. At one point, former President Bill Clinton and his daughter, Chelsea,...