Twa Families To Get Last Link To Victims: Their Belongings

------------------------------------------------------------------ THE THINGS THEY CARRIED. Some elicit fond memories, some are badly mangled. But the personal effects of those who died aboard TWA Flight 800 are no longer pertinent to the investigation and are available for survivors to claim. ------------------------------------------------------------------

WASHINGTON - For weeks, the families of passengers on TWA's Flight 800 have been waiting to claim the battered suitcases, precious photo albums, beloved dolls and well-worn wallets that are their last tangible links to lost loved ones.

Now, the items can be returned home.

The FBI said last week that these personal effects were no longer needed to determine what blew the 747 out of the sky on July 17. And the families are being asked, by letter, what they want done with the items stored in a Long Island hangar.

Not surprisingly, they have mixed feelings about it.

"It saddens me," said Carol Ziemkiewicz of Rutherford, N.J., whose 24-year-old daughter, Jill, a flight attendant, was killed. "I don't look forward to it. I know these are things I should have, but I know it's not going to be easy. And for that reason, I haven't been pestering the FBI about it."

Instead of thinking about the luggage filled with her daughter's best camera and new clothes bought for the trip to Paris, Ziemkiewicz is focusing on a garden being planned at Rutgers University in her daughter's memory.

"The day her bags have to be picked up, I think it will increase my pain and hurt and memories," she said, her voice quavering.

No `evidentiary value'

Even though forensic testing of the items is finished, investigators still don't know what caused the Paris-bound plane to explode in a fireball over the Atlantic Ocean, killing all aboard. Investigators know the center fuel tank exploded but don't know whether it was caused by a bomb, a missile or a mechanical malfunction.

That uncertainty is part of the reason for the delay before the FBI concluded the possessions "are not of evidentiary value" and can be returned.

"These families are looking for anything to cling to, something that will represent their loved ones for all the years to come," said Danny Greathouse, a disaster-management consultant who retired last year as chief of the FBI's disaster squad.

"There is story after story behind each item, such as, `This is the overcoat I gave him for our 20th anniversary.' "

Families have options

The job of returning the items belongs to Kenyon International Emergency Management, a Houston-based firm hired by TWA that specializes in handling personal effects in disasters around the world.

The FBI has linked many items to individuals. Relatives were asked to describe in detail what the passenger was wearing, and investigators typically review any photographs or videos taken of the person before the fateful trip.

Last week, letters went to each family asking what they wanted done with the personal items.

"It is their call about what happens," said Ken Tipton, Kenyon vice president. "In some instances, it is a process they are struggling with, and it will take them some time."

The families have several options. They could say they do not want the possessions. They could wait until the salvage operation is completed. Or they could ask for the items immediately.

If they want them right away, the families can take the things "as is" or they can ask for them to be cleaned. In the case of money found in wallets or purses, the families can take it "as is" or ask for an exchange of new cash. They also can ask for jewelry to be refurbished.

Belongings sometimes mangled

Conditions of the items in such disasters range from unscratched to unrecognizable. Greathouse remembers a bent nickel recovered from a plane crash. It is not unusual, he said, to see brooches ripped in half.

"Some items will bear scars that will connect the horrible finality of this type of death," he said. "Obviously, they won't send things really torn badly, but a cigarette lighter could be bent or twisted or have the top ripped off. You will get some surprisingly badly mangled jewelry and wedding and engagement rings."

Dan Cohen of Cape May, N.J., said it was nearly five months before the belongings of his 20-year-old daughter, Theodora, were returned after the Dec. 21, 1988, crash of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

Still, the process was so difficult, Cohen said, that "even after we got the stuff, it stayed in boxes for a couple of years."

"You just can't prepare yourself for it," he said. "The worst part about it, and this is what people will discover, is you think you've got things under control and then something will come around the corner and then, bingo, it all comes back to you."