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DECATUR, Ill. (WCIA) — The police department in Decatur reported that in 2024, teenagers vandalized the city’s September 11th Memorial, making off with an artifact originally recovered from ground zero. This piece had remained missing until recently.
In November, the artifact resurfaced, revealed by the receding water levels of Lake Decatur.
“It’s a crushed file cabinet that was melted onto an I-beam during the 9/11 tragedy,” explained Clay Gerhard, who serves as the executive director of the Decatur Park District. “I suspected it might have ended up in the lake; the challenge was pinpointing its exact location.”
This mystery was solved when John Daum, a resident of Decatur, stumbled upon the artifact during one of his regular walks along the lakeshore.