On September 11, 2001, Gary Box, a 35-year-old firefighter stationed in Brooklyn, vanished without leaving any trace.
In 2009, eight years after the tragedy, Gary's sister, Christine, was at the Tribute Center when an employee asked if she was looking for someone. Upon hearing Gary's name, the employee showed her a photo in the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, wrongly labeled with Gary's name.
The photo, however, was of Brian Bilcher, another firefighter from Gary's team who lost his life.
Spurred by this incident, Gary's father became resolute in his quest to find a photograph of his own son.
He sifted through the National 9/11 Museum's photo collections and delved into the memorial's website, which invited people to post their own photos from 9/11. After a lengthy search of five hours one night, he retired, overwhelmed by physical and emotional exhaustion.
The next morning, his wife, Helen, called him into the living room while they had breakfast. She showed him a photograph of a firefighter navigating through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel toward the Towers, dodging immobilized cars.
This time, unmistakably, it depicted Gary.
