As the country approaches 25 years since the September 11 attacks, forensic investigators in New York have reached a new milestone in their long effort to give names back to the dead. For the first time, the city's medical examiner's office and the NYPD have identified a victim of the World Trade Center attack using genetic genealogy, a technique that had never before been applied to the case. Officials described it as a breakthrough that offers families of the victims fresh hope.
The attack on the World Trade Center remains the largest mass murder in the history of the United States, and the medical examiner's office has continued its mission of identifying the nearly 3,000 people killed. Its laboratories are still working to link tiny fragments of remains to the victims, a painstaking process that has stretched across nearly a quarter of a century without ever formally coming to an end.
What sets this identification apart is the method behind it. Genetic genealogy is the combination of DNA testing and family records, made powerful by the millions of samples now held in commercial databases built from direct to consumer test kits. By comparing genetic material recovered from the site against those vast family trees, investigators were able to narrow down and confirm an identity in a way that simply was not possible in the years immediately after the attacks.
The medical examiner's office said the newly identified victim is an adult woman whose family declined to come forward, keeping her name private. Officials framed the identification as part of a solemn pledge made years ago to identify as many of the victims as possible, and said being able to provide answers to relatives who lost someone as a homicide victim on 9/11, even now, is deeply meaningful.
Investigators believe the technique has much more to offer. The office said there are 47 profiles of 9/11 victims that are considered good candidates for genetic genealogy, describing them as people who could be brought home to their families soon. It is a capability, officials noted, that they could not have imagined 25 years ago, when the technology simply was not there, and one that keeps growing as the databases expand.
Forensic genealogist Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick, who founded Identifinders International, said that for years there had been a reluctance among agencies to rely on databases made up of voluntarily donated DNA samples from consumer test kits. That hesitation, she said, now appears to be fading, with officials growing more comfortable turning to the approach. In her view, this was the best possible application for the technology, and its time had come.
The work is far from over, and it comes with its own complexities. Nearly 1,100 people, close to 40 percent of those lost that day, still have no identified remains, and the office says it will keep working at least for the sake of its own records. Some families who never saw a loved one again have asked not to be told, having come to terms with their loss, while others, including the nieces, nephews, grandchildren and future descendants of the victims, very much want to know what the medical examiner eventually finds.