More victims' remains identified days before September 11th anniversary

The remains of two more victims of the September 11th attacks on the World Trade have been identified, New York City officials announced just days before the 22nd memorial anniversary.

The man and woman are the 1,648th and 1,649th persons to be identified through DNA analysis of remains recovered from the site of the attack. Their names are being withheld at their families’ request.

“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,” Mayor Adams said in a statement announcing the new IDs. “We hope these new identifications can bring some measure of comfort to the families of these victims.”

The two new identifications are the first since September 2021. Around 40 percent of the 2,753 people who died in the attack have yet to be identified — or 1,104 individuals.

The remains were identified by the Office of Chief Medical Examiner at the city’s DNA laboratory through various techniques including recently adopted “next-generation sequencing technology,” which officials said is more sensitive than conventional DNA techniques. According to NYTimes reporting from 2021, the medical examiner’s office has spent the last two decades testing and retesting the 22,000 body parts recovered from the rubble of the attacks.

“More than 20 years after the disaster, these two new identifications continue to fulfill a solemn pledge that OCME made to return the remains of World Trade Center victims to their loved ones,” said Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Jason Graham. “Faced with the largest and most complex forensic investigation in the history of our country, we stand undaunted in our mission to use the latest advances in science to serve this promise.”

The man’s identity was confirmed through DNA testing of remains recovered in 2001. The woman’s identity was confirmed through DNA testing of remains recovered in 2001, 2006 and 2013. The OCME was also able to match 60 human remains to previously identified individuals.