Just days before the 20th anniversary of the attacks, New York officials announced on Tuesday that the remains of two more victims of 9/11 have been identified. The office said that these new identifications 20 years after the tragedy were being made possible by advances in DNA science.
The office of the city’s chief medical examiner said it had formally identified the 1,646th and 1,647th victim of the al-Qaeda attacks on New York’s Twin Towers which killed 2,753 people. These are the first identifications of victims from the collapse of the World Trade Center since October 2019.
The chief medical examiner Barbara Sampson said in a statement that twenty years ago, they made a promise to the families of World Trade Center victims to do whatever it takes for as long as it takes to identify their loved ones, and with these two new identifications, they continue to fulfill that sacred obligation.
She further said that no matter how much time passes since September 11, 2001, they will never forget, and we pledge to use all the tools at our disposal to make sure all those who were lost can be reunited with their families.
The 1,646th victim was identified as Dorothy Morgan, of Hempstead, Long Island. Her identity was confirmed through DNA testing of remains recovered in 2001, the examiner’s office said.
The other identification was a man whose name is being withheld at the request of his family. His identification was confirmed through DNA testing of remains recovered in 2001, 2002, and 2006, the statement added.
Its laboratory uses advanced testing to match DNA fragments from victims with samples provided by relatives.
The medical examiner’s office said its recent adoption of next-generation DNA sequencing technology meant further identifications were likely and around 1,106 victims, or 40 percent of those who died, remain unidentified.
