The family, which doesn't know when or where recovery workers found Shenae's body, hasn't made funeral plans yet, Robert Green said.

CNN: 'I knew it was over with'

But it was different when Thomas' sister told her about Shenae's death.

CNN: 'I knew it was over with'

The yards-high heap of timber doesn't look like it's been searched, and Green fears that Shenae's little body is somewhere in that pile.

CNN: 'My momma's body is on the roof'

Shenae loved Dora the Explorer, chicken nuggets and singing Ring Around the Rosy with her sisters, Thomas said, and she still sees her apple-cheeked face.

CNN: 'I knew it was over with'

The family, including Shenae's sisters -- Sheniya, 4, and Shemiya, 2, -- eventually wound up in the Louisiana Superdome, where one of Thomas' sisters found them.

CNN: 'I knew it was over with'

The child's paternal grandfather, Robert Green, had been on a quest to find the bodies of Shenae and his mother, Joyce Green, who also died that night.

CNN: 'I knew it was over with'

The tax accountant hoped that providing authorities with a precise location would hasten the recovery of Joyce Hilda Green's remains and that of his toddling granddaughter, Shenae, 3.

CNN: 'My momma's body is on the roof'

She fell into the flood during the dark morning hours that Shenae died, but she managed to hold onto a floating truck until her grandfather could reach her.

CNN: 'I knew it was over with'

As the two dragged their partially-paralyzed 73-year-old mother, three granddaughters and a mentally delayed 51-year-old cousin from housetop to housetop, Shenae fell into the flood and never resurfaced.

CNN: 'I knew it was over with'

But the identification of Shenae has given them hope that maybe morgue workers will locate Joyce Green's remains too, and maybe the family could bury the baby with her great-grandmother.

CNN: 'I knew it was over with'

Yet like hundreds of families who might never know what became of their relatives who died during the storm and its aftermath, he and the rest of the Green family are waiting for the day they will be able to bury Joyce and Shenae.

CNN: 'My momma's body is on the roof'