On the morning of September 11, 2001, Brooklyn firefighter Gary Box was on his way to the World Trade Center when his fire truck became stuck in traffic inside the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel.
He and his fellow firefighters got out and headed toward the towers on foot.
Gary never came home. He was one of 12 men from his Brooklyn firehouse who died that day, and his body was never recovered.
For years, his family had no idea what his final hours looked like. Then a photograph taken by a stranger changed that.
A Brooklyn Firefighter on His Way to the Towers
Gary R. Box was born on May 12, 1964, and had been working as a firefighter in Brooklyn for roughly five years when the attacks happened, according to CNN.
He served with Squad 1 in Park Slope, Brooklyn, a unit that lost 12 members in the collapse of the World Trade Center towers.
On September 11, Gary's company set out for Lower Manhattan through the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. Traffic in the tunnel had jammed, and the bigger trucks could not get through.
So the firefighters walked.
Gary did not speak to his father that day. Because his remains were never found, the circumstances of his death remained a mystery to his family.
A Stranger Stuck in the Same Tunnel
Erik Troelsen, a Danish businessman, was in the tunnel that morning on his way to a meeting.
He had entered before the first plane hit and did not know what was happening until the radio reported the news. He later described a woman in the car ahead getting out of her vehicle in tears.
Then the fire trucks started racing through. A disabled car jammed the lanes, and the larger trucks got stuck.
"Some of the bigger trucks got stuck, so the guys started walking briskly past us," Troelsen told CNN. "Gary Box was one of the guys."
Troelsen took photos as the firefighters passed the stalled cars. One frame showed a firefighter in full gear striding through the tunnel ahead of his stranded truck.
He did not know the man's name. Not yet.
A Sister's Visit Started the Search
For eight years, the Box family had nothing from September 11 that showed Gary.
That changed in 2009, when Gary's sister, Christine, visited the Tribute Center near the World Trade Center site. She mentioned her brother, and an employee showed her a photo captioned with Gary's name.
It was not Gary. The photo showed Brian Bilcher, another member of Gary's squad who also died that day.
But the mix-up planted an idea. If a photo could be mislabeled with Gary's name, maybe a real one existed somewhere.
Gary's father, Judson Box, began scouring the online photo archives of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, including a website that let members of the public upload their own images from that day.
The Photo Was Found the Next Morning
One night, Judson searched for more than five hours before giving up and going to bed.
The next morning, his wife, Helen, showed him a photo online. It showed a firefighter running through the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel toward the towers, past cars stuck in traffic.
This time, it was Gary.
Erik Troelsen had uploaded the image to the memorial's archive only days earlier, according to a New York Times account from January 2010.
"I was out of out control, emotionally," Judson told CNN. "Thanking God, being so happy that I had something to see."
Newsday reported that it was the only known image of Gary on the day he died.
Father and Photographer Finally Met
Judson wanted to find the man who had taken the picture. He contacted the museum, which eventually passed along Troelsen's email address.
In September 2010, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum arranged a surprise meeting between the two men at its annual fundraiser in Manhattan.
Judson had originally declined the invitation to speak, because he is uncomfortable with public speaking. He changed his mind after seeing a fire truck with the same squad number as his son's unit at an intersection in Florida.
He told Newsday he did not believe in coincidences.
The two men shared an emotional moment on stage, then spoke at length afterward.
"I think I said about 300 times thank you and God bless you, that's all I could say," Judson said. He added that he told Troelsen he loved him, something he said he did not tell anybody.
What the Photo Gave the Family
The photograph did not answer every question. The family still does not know exactly how or where Gary died.
But it gave them something they had not had for nearly a decade: a glimpse of their son doing his job, moving toward danger while everyone else sat still.
Judson said he hoped other families could find what his family had found.
"I wish everybody could get what I got," he said.
A Stranger's Camera and a Father's Search
Erik Troelsen took a photo because he happened to be stuck in a tunnel. Judson Box found it because he refused to stop looking.
Between them, a father got to see his son one more time.
Gary Box walked toward the towers when his truck could not. Nine years later, a photo from a stranger brought him home to his family in the only way still possible.
This article reflects reporting published between 2010 and 2019. Gary Box's age on September 11, 2001, is listed as 37 by the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation and the 9/11 Memorial & Museum; some news reports gave his age as 35. Images in this article are AI-generated editorial illustrations, not photographs of the people or events described.
Sources: CNN — Nine years after 9/11, a photo provides some peace; Truth or Fiction — The Story of Gary Box on 9/11 (with Newsday excerpts); History News Network — NYT, January 2010; National Fallen Firefighters Foundation — Gary R. Box; 9/11 Memorial & Museum collection — Gary Box memorial cap.