NEW YORK (AP) — The stays of two individuals who died within the 9/11 assault on the World Commerce Heart have been recognized, the newest constructive identification within the decadeslong effort to return victims to their households.
Authorities confirmed the identification of the stays of a person and girl days forward of the twenty second anniversary of the hijacked-plane assault that killed almost 3,000 individuals in Decrease Manhattan. Their names had been withheld by metropolis officers on the request of their households.
New York Metropolis’s health worker has now been capable of hyperlink stays to 1,649 World Commerce Heart victims, a painstaking course of that depends on modern DNA sequencing methods to check physique fragments recovered within the rubble.
Developments within the sequencing expertise, together with elevated take a look at sensitivity and quicker turnaround instances, have allowed officers to establish stays that had examined unfavorable for identifiable DNA for many years, officers stated.
Related efforts are utilized by the U.S. army to establish lacking service members and are at present underway to take a look at physique fragments from greater than 100 individuals killed throughout the wildfires in Maui final month.
Regardless of forensic developments, the trouble to establish the stays of 9/11 victims has slowed in recent times. The 2 constructive identifications are the primary since September 2021, officers stated. Earlier than that, the final identification was made in 2019.
Greater than 1,000 human stays from the Sept. 11, 2001, assaults have but to be recognized. They’re at present being saved on the Nationwide September 11 Memorial & Museum on the World Commerce Heart web site.
Dr. Jason Graham, the town’s chief health worker, stated officers had been dedicated to fulfilling their “solemn pledge” to return the stays of the entire assault’s victims.
“Confronted with the most important and most advanced forensic investigation within the historical past of our nation, we stand undaunted in our mission to make use of the newest advances in science to serve this promise,” Graham stated.
