Two 9/11 victims identified more than two decades after World Trade Center attacks

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Justin Smith
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Two victims who perished in the World Trade Center have been identified more than two decades after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, New York City’s chief medical examiner said Friday.

The names of the victims, a man and a woman, are being withheld at the request of their families, officials said. They are the 1,648th and 1,649th victims whose remains have been identified since 2001.

The remains of 1,104 victims, or 40% of those who died in the attacks, still have not been found nearly 22 years after al-Qaida terrorists hijacked commercial airlines and crashed them into the Twin Towers in lower Manhattan.

The towers were destroyed in the attacks, leaving more than 2,700 people dead.

Dr. Jason Graham, New York City’s chief medical examiner, described the painstaking effort to identify the victims’ remains as “the largest and most complex forensic investigation” in U.S. history.

Investigators have spent decades using DNA testing to identify tens of thousands of remains recovered from the Ground Zero disaster site. More than 30% of the remains recovered are still unidentified, according to the medical examiner’s office.

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Graham said in a statement Friday that the medical examiner’s office has made a “solemn pledge” to return the remains of those who perished to their loved ones.

The identification of the man was confirmed through DNA testing of remains recovered in 2001. The woman’s identity was confirmed through DNA testing on remains found in 2001, 2006, and 2013.

The announcement of two victims being identified comes just three days before the anniversary. The woman and man are the first two new identities since September 2021. The passengers of a hijacked fourth airliner headed for the nation’s capitol fought over control of the aircraft. United Airlines Flight 93, which was headed to the nation’s capital, crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania killing all forty people aboard. After the attacks, America went to war with Afghanistan where Osama Bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaida was being protected by the Taliban. Bush’s administration invaded Iraq in order to remove Saddam Hussein who was not involved with the attacks. More than 6,700 U.S. soldiers died in these wars.

Bin Ladin was killed by U.S. Forces during a raid on Pakistan in 2011. Bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces during a raid in Pakistan in 2011.