New York successfully identifies new 9/11 victim thanks to 'breakthrough' DNA technology
Almost 25 years after the 9/11 attacks, New York is still working to identify some all the people who died in the attacks on the World Trade Center.
Now, advances in modern technology have helped investigators make a new identification.
A total of 2,753 people were killed at the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in New York continues to use advances in DNA technology in an effort to give families answers.
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And for the first time, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and the NYPD Detective Bureau have used genetic genealogy to identify a victim of the 9/11 attacks.
The technique combines DNA analysis with family-tree research to help establish a person's identity.
The newly identified victim was an adult woman. Her family has asked for her name not to be made public.
She is the latest person to have been formally identified by the medical examiner's office since the attacks, according to ABC7.
Dr. Jason Graham, the city’s chief medical examiner, told the outlet: “It's a breakthrough. I'm delighted to be able to say that we've now applied new methods to the World Trade Center identification efforts, and we have a new identification for the first time in 25 years using new methods, forensic investigative genetic genealogy."
The technology to identify a victim did not exist 25 years ago.
"The World Trade Center was the largest mass murder in the history of the United States, and it represents also the most complex forensic identification effort in our history," Graham explained. “And being able to apply new innovations to that identification work is a remarkable way that we can keep our commitment to the families."
The latest identification accounts for a small proportion of the nearly 1,100 victims of the World Trade Center attacks whose remains have yet to be identified – about 40% of the total number killed.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has pledged to continue the search for answers for the families of those who remain unidentified.
Back in August 2025, three more victims of the 9/11 attacks had been identified. The three identifications included Ryan Fitzgerald, 26, and Barbara Keating, 72, as well as an adult woman whose name was withheld at the request of her family. The identifications were made through DNA analysis of remains recovered from the World Trade Center site.
According to an online obituary, Fitzgerald, who was 26 at the time of his death, had just begun working in the foreign currency exchange desk at Fiduciary Trust and he had just started living on his own in Manhattan.
Keating was a 72-year-old grandmother and was on American Airlines Flight 11 which struck the North Tower.
“The pain of losing a loved one in the September 11th terror attacks echoes across the decades, but with these three new identifications, we take a step forward in comforting the family members still aching from that day,” said then-New York Mayor Eric Adams in a statement.
“Nearly 25 years after the disaster at the World Trade Center, our commitment to identify the missing and return them to their loved ones stands as strong as ever,” said Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Jason Graham at the time.
“Each new identification testifies to the promise of science and sustained outreach to families despite the passage of time. We continue this work as our way of honoring the lost.”
Greg Harris