A resurfaced video documents the harrowing morning of September 11, 2001, as a mother and her two daughters searched Manhattan for their husband and father, who was working in the World Trade Center. The clip, shared by ABC News’ John Quinones, shows Brenda Schonhaut and her daughters, Jane and Remy, scouring the streets for Steve Schonhaut, who ran a delicatessen inside one of the towers.
"I'm scared that my dad - we might not find him," the youngest daughter, Jane, told the reporter at the time. "I know – I feel like he's alive – I just wanna find him."
Brenda Schonhaut can be seen in the footage crying into a pay phone near the World Trade Center, expressing her fear. "A lot of people I know are dying," she told the reporter.
The family had spoken with Steve Schonhaut on the phone shortly after the first plane struck the North Tower. "My daughters and I are going to walk toward the towers – as far as we can go. We have to find him," Brenda stated.
After hours of searching, police stopped the family blocks from their home, urging them to move back from the area. When Remy asked about the location of evacuees, an officer responded that survivors were "all over" and that he had "no idea, honey – just keep moving."
The journalist then intervened, explaining the family's search for Steve. The officer, whose own wife was in the building, chillingly replied, "I understand. My wife was in the building and I still haven't heard from my wife."
The scene around them was one of chaos, with sirens and people covered in ash fleeing the disaster.
After continuing their search for another two hours, the family arrived at Chelsea Piers, a site where some of the injured had been taken. While Brenda scanned a bulletin board of wounded individuals, her other daughter, Remy, suddenly screamed, "Dad!"
Steve Schonhaut was found nearby, carrying the family's dog and cat. He had gone home to rescue their pets. The reunion saw the daughters embrace their father, with Jane telling him through tears, "I was crying the whole way. I saw [the building] coming down."
Their story was one of the few hopeful outcomes from the day's attacks. Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four planes, crashing two into the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon, and the fourth into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The attacks resulted in the deaths of 2,977 people.