The remains of 1,161 people who died at the World Trade Center will go unidentified, marking an end to a painful waiting period for families who had hoped for a different outcome. The medical examiner's office began making the dreaded calls three weeks ago, giving the families news that was not unexpected. "We have exhausted our options," Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner, said. "We extracted the DNA as best we could." Forensic scientists familiar with the process of DNA analysis and the families were braced for the reality that the remains of 42 percent of the 2,749 reported missing would go unidentified. The rest of the missing victims' families will be at the mercy of future technological advances. Borakove said the office has about three weeks of phone calls to make before sending out a letter to all the victims' families explaining that the office had reached the end of the line. Nonetheless, there was little to ease the pain of the families, many of whom had held out hope that new technology or testing methods might help in identifying the remains. Monica Iken, founder of September's Mission, a foundation that supports the development of a memorial park at Ground Zero, and the wife of Michael Iken, who died in the south tower, said she had resigned herself to going without her husband's remains. "I know he went to work one day and never came home. I'm at the point where I have accepted that," Iken said. "If they were to find something, I would want it. But at this point I've accepted the reality he may never be found." Recovery workers pulled 19,916 remains from Ground Zero. Borakove said 10,190 remains have been identified. The process has slowed notably over the last year. "At some point you had to reach the law of diminishing returns," said Dr. Richard Saferstein, the former chief forensic scientist of the New Jersey State Police. Saferstein said to make a DNA match, a sample has to yield readable DNA codes in anywhere from 18 to 36 human cells, which is a very small amount. "If you rub your finger on a glass slide there will be thousands of cells there," he said. "So the samples that are remaining are so small or so unreadable that they are yielding less than that number of cells." The remains have been dried and will eventually be moved to the trade center memorial, where scientists will be able to access them if DNA technology improves. The news was disheartening for many families who say they can't find closure when they don't have a body part to place in a coffin and bury in a grave. Joan Greene, 72, of Staten Island, said she knew in her heart that the chances of getting back remains of her daughter Lorraine Lee were not good, but had held out hope. "This is very hard," Greene said. "I just wish I could have something of her. It's hard to put into words but I need something to go to in the cemetery to think that part of her is there. It feels very empty." Patricia Reilly, Greene's daughter and also of Staten Island, said she was almost relieved. "I comfort myself by feeling that she was almost cremated and she's part of the air and the earth at Ground Zero. For me, getting a tiny fragment would resurface the pain. I would think, where is the rest of her?" Reilly said. "Maybe a year ago we received her pocketbook back. That was very painful. It raised all these questions: Where is she? Why did her pocketbook survive? Why didn't they find her?"