On the 22nd anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, two more victims have been identified through advanced DNA analysis. The identities of the man and woman have been withheld at the request of their families, marking the first identification since September 2021, with the last one being made in 2019. According to the New York City’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, 1,649 victims have been identified out of the 2,753 who lost their lives, with 1,104 victims still remaining unidentified.
CBS News reported that the remains of two people who died in the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center have been identified, the latest positive identification in the decades-long effort to return victims to their families. Authorities confirmed the identification of the remains of a man and woman days ahead of the 22nd anniversary of the hijacked-plane attack that killed nearly 3,000 people in Lower Manhattan. New York City’s medical examiner has now been able to link remains to 1,649 World Trade Center victims, a painstaking process that relies on leading-edge DNA sequencing techniques to test body fragments recovered in the rubble.
CNN reported that the two new victims identified were the 1,648th and 1,649th victims identified by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. The two were identified through advanced DNA testing of their remains. The man was identified through DNA testing of remains recovered in 2001 and the woman through DNA testing of remains recovered in 2001, 2006, and 2013.
Despite advancements in sequencing technology, the effort to identify the remains of 9/11 victims has slowed in recent years. The two positive identifications are the first since September 2021, officials said. Before that, the last identification was made in 2019. The exact number is unknown, but firefighter union leaders say 341 FDNY members have died of illnesses related to 9/11.
On Monday, an annual ceremony to remember those who died on September 11, 2001, was held in lower Manhattan. Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement, “As we prepare to mark the anniversary of September 11, our thoughts turn to those we lost on that terrible morning and their families who continue to live every day with the pain of missing loved ones. We hope these new identifications can bring some measure of comfort to the families of these victims.” Sources: CBS News and CNN.
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