13 Years Later, Man Is Reunited With The Wedding Photo He Lost On 9/11

One dedicated woman has spent the last 13 years trying to track down the people in a wedding photo found in the Sept. 11, 2001 wreckage at Ground Zero.




On Friday, Elizabeth Stringer Keefe -- an assistant professor at Lesley University in Massachusetts -- finally found the owner of the photo and learned the story behind it, thanks to thousands of dedicated helpers on social media.

1. 12 Sep

   E. Stringer Keefe @ProfKeefe

   Every year on #911 I post this photo hoping 2 return 2 owner. Found at #groundzero #WTC in 2001. Pls RT pic.twitter.com/mZ9LdQqE7x

E. Stringer Keefe @ProfKeefe

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Attention wonderful world: ALL SIX PEOPLE ARE ALIVE AND WELL AND I HAVE JUST SPOKEN TO ONE OF THEM!!!!!!!!!!! #Happyending #911photo

4:51 PM - 12 Sep 2014

2,434 Retweets 3,458 favorites

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It belongs to a man named Fred Mahe (the guy standing on the far left in the photo), who had the picture from his friends' wedding hanging in his cubicle on the 77th floor of the second World Trade Center tower. Mahe saw the story on Gothamist and got in touch with Keefe via LinkedIn. He confirmed that everyone in the photo is alive today.




On Monday, Keefe and Mahe met in person for the first time and took a selfie to commemorate the occasion. After all these years, the wrinkled photograph has been returned to its rightful owner.
"The story is Elizabeth, the story is persistence and trying to help someone she didn't even know," Mahe told ABC.