EXCLUSIVE: How 9/11 'Dust Lady' Recalled Horror in Haunting Final Interview
9/11 'Dust Lady' recalled the horror of the attacks in a haunting final interview before her death.
Sept. 9 2026, Published 6:00 a.m. ET
One of the most haunting images of 9/11 captures "Dust Lady" – Marcy Borders – stumbling down a street near the World Trade Center like a ghost, her face, hair and clothes blanketed in gray ash and pulverized concrete.
For Borders, the terror of that day – coupled with the worldwide attention generated by that photograph, taken by Stan Honda for Agence France-Presse – sent her life spiraling out of control, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
Borders Battled Addiction After 9/11
Marcy Borders said alcohol helped numb memories of being trapped in the World Trade Center.
In her final interview before her death from stomach cancer in 2015 at age 42, Borders admitted she became an alcoholic and crack cocaine addict in the years following 9/11. Her addiction became so devastating, she revealed, her children were taken away from her.
"Alcohol would make me numb," she said, "and the more I drank the more numb I became, and it helped me forget being trapped in the tower, and looking at that photograph."
But remarkably, Borders said the killing of Osama bin Laden – the man she called her "worst fear" – while she was in rehab helped her get and stay sober. She even got back her beloved children, Noelle, then 18, and Zayden, then 3.
Borders had been working at Bank of America for just one month and was running late that morning when she finally reached her desk in the doomed North Tower.
"That was when the plane hit. That's when the building started quaking and swaying. I lost all control, and I went into a frenzy," she said. "I fought my way out of that place."
Borders Recalled 'Carnage' Outside Twin Towers
Osama bin Laden's death helped Borders get sober while she was in rehab.
Borders remembered her supervisor ordering people to remain calm and to stay at their desks.
"But I was getting out of there," she recalled.
Borders was met with a scene of utter devastation when she got outside.
"It was too much for one to witness. I saw people with things sticking out of them, covered head to toe in blood. I couldn't understand it. What I saw was carnage, and I thought, 'God I'm going to die anyway.'"
Borders staggered down the street – but worse was still to come. "I heard a massive explosion, and it was like a big bomb had gone off. I had no idea the tower had fallen."
Borders Kept Haunting Reminder of 9/11
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Stan Honda photographed the ash-covered 'Dust Lady' near the World Trade Center after the 9/11 attack.
A monstrous gray-white cloud of dust and pulverized debris came roaring through the streets, swallowing Borders and coating her from head to toe.
Then, out of nowhere, a man grabbed Borders by the arm and led her to safety.
"He took me toward a building to get shelter inside. That had to be when the photograph was taken," she said.
Borders never even noticed the photographer and had no idea the haunting image existed until her mother called to say she'd seen her daughter in a photograph.
Until the day she died, Borders kept a plastic bag hidden behind a tatty sofa. Inside were the clothes she'd worn in the famous photograph – a chilling reminder of the day she barely escaped with her life.
"You can still smell the fire on them," she said. "It makes me feel sick, but I just have to keep them."
