What you should know
Just a few days before the 22nd anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, New York City announced that it had identified two new victims from this moment in the country’s history. The announcement was made on Friday by Mayor Eric Adams and the city’s medical examiner, dr. Jason Graham, who said a man and a woman were identified, whose names are being withheld at the request of their families, and who are the 1,648th and 1,649th people identified by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) through advanced testing of DNA from remains recovered from the attack that claimed the lives of 2,753 people. The two new identifications used all the current capabilities of the city’s DNA laboratory operated by OCME to generate results after more than two decades of negative testing attempts.
NEW YORK — Just days before the 22nd anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, New York City announced that it has identified two new victims from this moment in the country’s history.
The announcement was made Friday by Mayor Eric Adams and the city’s medical examiner, Dr. Jason Graham, who said a man and a woman were identified, whose names are being withheld at the request of their families, and who are the 1,648th and 1,649th people identified by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) through advanced testing of DNA from remains recovered from the attack that claimed the lives of 2,753 people.
“As we prepare to commemorate the anniversary of 9/11, our thoughts go to those we lost that terrible morning and to their families who continue to live every day with the pain of their missing loved ones,” said Mayor Adams. “We hope these new identifications can provide some comfort to the families of these victims, and the continued efforts of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner attest to the city’s unwavering commitment to reuniting all World Trade Center victims with their loved ones. “.
“More than 20 years after the disaster, these two new identifications continue to fulfill a solemn promise OCME made to return the remains of World Trade Center victims to their loved ones,” said Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Graham. “In the face of the largest and most complex forensic investigation in our country’s history, we remain undaunted in our mission to use the latest advances in science to fulfill this promise.”
The two new identifications used all the current capabilities of the city’s DNA laboratory operated by OCME to generate results after more than two decades of negative testing attempts.
The techniques include recently adopted next-generation sequencing technology, more sensitive and faster than conventional DNA techniques, which has been used by the US military to identify the remains of missing US service members.
The man’s identification was confirmed through DNA testing of remains recovered in 2001. The woman’s identification was confirmed through DNA testing of remains recovered in 2001, 2006, and 2013.
The two identifications are the first new identifications of World Trade Center victims since September 2021. Some 1,104 victims (40 percent of those who died) remain unidentified. In addition to the two new identifications this year, OCME has identified 60 human remains associated with previously identified individuals. The latest World Trade Center operating statistics are available from OCME upon request.
2023-09-08 19:22:36
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