World Trade Center: Investigators use genetic genealogy to identify victim almost 25 years later
Police officers search the mangled wreckage of the World Trade Center on Sept. 17, 2001, a week after the terrorist attacks. Credit: Newsday/Ken Sawchuk
Investigators have used genetic genealogy — a breakthrough forensic technique — to identify the fragmented remains of a victim of the 9/11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center almost 25 years later, officials announced Monday.
Working in collaboration, staff of the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner and detectives with a special NYPD genealogy unit identified the remains as being that of a woman whose family did not want her full identity released. The woman, the 1,654th attacks victim identified, was not a member of law enforcement and did not live on Long Island, said a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation.
“As we approach the 25th anniversary of the horrific September 11 attacks, we honor the nearly 3,000 people whose lives were stolen that day, and we remain committed to the families who have spent 25 years waiting for answers,” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a statement announcing the new development. “The identification of this victim through forensic investigative genetic genealogy is a powerful example of what is possible when we pair cutting-edge technology with an unwavering commitment to those we lost.”
Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Jason K. Graham said his office was keeping a promise to identify and return the remains to the families of the victims of the 2001 terror attacks.
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND
- Investigators have used genetic genealogy to identify the fragmented remains of a victim of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center almost 25 years later, New York City officials said Monday.
- The remains belonged to a woman whose family did not want her full identity released. The victim did not live on Long Island and was not a member of law enforcement, a source close to the investigation told Newsday.
- A total of 2,753 people died in the terror attacks on the World Trade Center nearly 25 years ago. The woman became the 1,654th attacks victim to be identified by the medical examiner's office and the NYPD.
“This sacred commitment is propelled by our dedication to apply the most innovative scientific techniques,” Graham said in a statement.
A total of 2,753 people died in the terror attacks on the World Trade Center nearly 25 years ago. So far, using decades of advances in DNA technology and other methods, just over 60% of the victims have been identified.
The genetic genealogy methods used in the latest identification is one which has gained wider acceptance in law enforcement to identify crime victims and suspects. It relies on comparing an unknown genetic sample to DNA profiles submitted to various public ancestry databases to trace family trees. Genetic similarities allow investigators to do follow-up investigations to come up with the identity of a crime victim, as in the latest World Trade Center find.
OCME officials have turned to genetic genealogy because some of the unidentified 9/11 remains don’t have family DNA reference samples to compare them to, according to officials. Some 47 sets of fragmented remains from the World Trade Center are being considered for testing with genetic genealogy — also known as investigative genetic genealogy.
The last identifications were made in August 2025 when OCME said the remains of Ryan Fitzgerald, of Floral Park, Barbara Keating, of Palm Springs, California, and a woman whose name was kept confidential, were discovered using conventional DNA analysis.
Genetic genealogy was used to identify Gilgo Beach murder victims Valerie Mack and Sandra Costilla and is being used in an attempt to identify the remains of “Asian Doe,” a man of Chinese ancestry whose body was found along Ocean Parkway in 2011.
In recent years, forensic experts have opined that some of the remains of World Trade Center victims may never be identified because of the extreme heat and kinetic forces from the collapse of the towers that essentially destroyed any usable DNA. Some of the remains are as small as a fingernail or a piece of bone.
The NYPD has a special genealogy unit composed of detectives and trained genealogists who have been involved in identifying murder victims. They were pressed into service as part of the World Trade Center identification process.
Julie Bolcer, a spokesman for the OCME, said the medical examiner is still committed to using conventional DNA technology in the office's effort to identity some nearly 1,100 unidentified victims of the World Trade Center.
Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.
