BOSTON — Three years after the Boston Marathon Bombing, survivors are getting back the belongings they left behind or lost in the attack.
For some, the items represent closure, but or others, it's a look back at a snapshot in time they'd rather move on from.
In the aftermath and chaos of the Boston Marathon bombings, many things were left behind. Clothing was ripped off to perform medical procedures and personal items were abandoned in the scramble to safety.
Erika Brannock is a survivor, who had her left leg amputated.
Over the past three years, those items have been stored by the FBI evidence as the legal process was underway. But over the summer, the agency began returning some of those items.
What she left behind that day is tied to her story, and at first, she didn't know if she wanted to relive it.
"At first I wasn't sure if I wanted to see my clothes and when I was there I decided I do want to see them and I saw my shirt that I had on...I saw my jeans, and I saw how shredded and just torn apart they were and oddly enough my left shoe they had kept, and being now that I'm an amputee on my left side, it was very emotional seeing my shoe," said Brannock.
The possessions that Brannock picked up last month are her own personal time capsule.
"I charged my phone and still had everything on there. And I had 67 text messages and over 10 voicemails from that day," she said.
The FBI told FOX25 that victims' specialists met with the marathoners to return the pieces they could identify, after having the items cleaned.
Not everyone wants their things back, including marathon survivor and amputee Adrianne Haslet, who said seeing items left behind was heartbreaking.
"I understand this is a personal matter for each individual. Some may want to see these things back in their possession. It is understandably different for everyone," she told FOX25.
Not everything is being returned. The FBI said some items will be kept as the appeals process moves forward.
MORE MARATHON CONTENT: