Nearly 25 years after the Sept. 11 attacks, authorities have identified three more World Trade Center victims through advanced DNA testing.
New York City’s chief medical examiner and Mayor Eric Adams said Thursday that Ryan Fitzgerald, Barbara Keating and a third woman whose name was withheld were confirmed as victims using genetic reference samples from relatives, according to ABC News. The new identifications bring the total number of confirmed victims to 1,653 of the 2,753 people killed at the site. (RELATED: ISIS Soldiers Storm Christian Vigil, Behead Several People)
“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,” Jason Graham, the chief medical examiner, told the outlet. “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.”
394277 14: New York City firefighters take a rest at the World Trade Center after two hijacked planes crashed into the Twin Towers September 11, 2001 in New York. (Photo by Ron Agam/Getty Images)
“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,” Adams said in a statement to ABC News.
Fitzgerald, 26, was working at Fiduciary Trust International in the south tower when the planes hit, Newsday reported. Keating, 72, was aboard one of the hijacked flights that struck the towers, according to the New York Post.