Retired NYPD Sergeant Launches FROM LANDFILL TO HALLOWED GROUND

September 11, 2001 will be a day we never forget. For first responders like Sergeant Frank Marra, the days, weeks, and months that followed would become an experience they can never leave behind.

Now retired, the author of From Landfill to Hallowed Ground: The Largest Crime Scene in America (Brown Books Publishing Group) spent many months at the Staten Island Landfill following the attacks on 9/11. There, he spent hours sifting through debris, ash, and remains to find 54,000 personal objects and 1,200 identities of those who perished.

"As time passed we realized how many people's ashes and DNA still remain at the Landfill. It was clear this became a holy ground, a place of rest for many who would never be recovered, a cemetery without tombstones," Marra said.

Marra and his co-author Maria Bellia Abbate know this story is forever etched into history and know the impact these events will have on generations to come.

"September 11, 2001 has the same level of importance in American history as the two world wars, the Vietnam War, and the only other major attack on US soil: Pearl Harbor. So many lives were taken, so many lives were changed, and it was the whole country that was affected," explain the authors.

On this Fourth of July, they dedicate the book to the 9/11 first responders and provide readers with a behind-the-scenes look at an unlikely resting place for the lives lost that historic day.

"We want readers to see that time in history from another perspective, to understand how a landfill, a garbage dump, was transformed into a crime scene, and eventually became hallowed ground taking its rightful place in American history," explains Marra.

For more information and to purchase From Landfill to Hallowed Ground, please visit http://www.fromlandfilltohallowedground.com.

For media inquiries, contact Gavin Rhoades at 972-248-9500; gavin.rhoades(at)brownbooks(dot)com.

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