Resurfaced footage from September 11, 2001 shows two young girls searching the streets of Manhattan for their father, who was working inside the World Trade Center when the towers were attacked. The clip, shared by ABC News correspondent John Quinones, captures the family's desperate hours-long search and their eventual reunion.
The girls, Jane and Remy, and their mother Brenda Schonhaut spent the morning looking for Steve Schonhaut, who ran a delicatessen inside one of the towers. "I'm scared that my dad - we might not find him," Jane, the youngest daughter, told the reporter. "I know - I feel like he's alive - I just wanna find him."
The family walked for blocks and spent hours searching for Steve.
Quinones spotted Brenda, Jane and Remy crying into a pay phone around a mile from the World Trade Center on the morning of the attacks, according to the outlet. "Have you heard from him? Any idea where he might be?" Brenda was heard yelling into the phone.
"I was scared that my dad was still in there," Jane said to Quinones, her voice breaking. "I want my dad. I want my animals." Brenda turned to the camera and told the reporter: "A lot of people I know are dying."
Walking toward the towers
The family recalled speaking to Steve on the phone just after the first explosion. Minutes before 9am, American Airlines Flight 11 had crashed into the North Tower.
Jane walked hand-in-hand with her mother as their search continued, with Quinones now following alongside them. "My daughters and I are going to walk toward the towers - as far as we can go. We have to find him," Brenda told the reporter.
Stopped by police
After a couple of hours, the family were stopped by police just blocks from their home. "Until we know that it's safe, we're asking everyone to move back," the officer told Remy, as smoke billowed behind them.
"The people that were evacuated from the World Trade Center, where would they be right now?" Remy asked.
The officer explained that survivors and evacuees were, "unfortunately," scattered "all over." "I have no idea, honey - just keep moving," he said, according to Quinones. "You cannot go beyond this point."
Quinones stepped in to explain that the girls were searching for their father, who had been inside the building. "I understand. My wife was in the building and I still haven't heard from my wife," the officer responded.
Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four passenger planes on September 11, 2001 and crashed two of them into the World Trade Center, leaving at least 2,977 people dead.
Around the family was a scene of chaos, with wailing sirens and masses of people, many bloodied and covered in ash, running from the disaster, the outlet reported.
A desperate final search
Brenda tried calling one of Steve's other restaurants to see if he had turned up there. He hadn't.
The family continued their search for another two hours, making a final stop at Chelsea Piers, where a small group of those injured had been taken.
A third hijacked plane was flown into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Passengers and crew on a fourth plane fought back against the hijackers, who crashed the aircraft into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Finding Steve
At Chelsea Piers, Brenda scanned a bulletin board listing the wounded but found no sign of her husband, and made another phone call trying to reach him.
As she stood on the phone, a cry from Remy stopped her in her tracks. "Dad!" the young girl screamed. Steve was standing just feet away, holding a dog under one arm and a cat in the other. He had gone home to rescue the family's pets, the outlet reported.
Remy was seen crying in the footage with her arms wrapped around her father, while Jane sobbed beside them before she too went in for a hug. "I was crying the whole way. I saw [the building] coming down," Jane said through tears to her father.
Their story was one of the few happy endings that emerged from that day, after al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked the four planes. The attacks killed 2,977 people.
