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Elizabeth Stringer Keefe Uses Social Media To Return 9/11 Wedding Photo To Owner After 13 Years

Woman's Quest To Find Owner Of 9/11 Photo Has Picture Perfect Ending
Twitter/E Stringer Keefe

A woman's 13-year journey to find the owner of a wedding photo, discovered on Ground Zero shortly after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, had a picture-perfect ending after Internet users made the photo go viral.

Massachusetts-based university professor Elizabeth Stringer Keefe had been trying to return the photo to its owner ever since she received it from a friend. Each year, around the anniversary of the attacks, she posted it on social media, hoping one day the owner would find it, according to Boston Magazine.

After many failed attempts, the photo went viral this year with over 74,000 retweets on Twitter and more than 1,000 comments on its Reddit thread.

Keefe's efforts were finally noticed by Fred Mahe, who is standing at the far left of the photo.

Mahe was understandably very excited to be reunited with the photo he once kept on his desk in the World Trade Centre. Thankfully, he wasn't at work when the attacks began, he told the magazine.

The happy ending got even sweeter once the two spoke and Keefe realized no one in the photo had been hurt during the tragedy.

Mahe, who now lives in Colorado with his wife, told Boston Magazine he is inspired by Keefe's persistence, saying she reminds him of Sept. 12, 2001 — when he saw "the best of humanity" during relief efforts.

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