As the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approaches, New York City has formally identified another victim using genetic genealogy, marking the 1,654th formal identification of a victim from the terror attacks.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and the NYPD announced the identification this week. The process combines DNA testing with family research, the NYPD said. The adult woman has not been named.
DNA breakthrough and future prospects
NYPD Detective Gregory Paduano told ABC News: "The technology really wasn't there 25 years ago. There's a lot of good future with genealogy."
Dr Jennifer Odien, a forensic anthropologist, added: "Not every case is going to be able to go through genetic genealogy, but we do have DNA profiles that are not matching to our reference samples, so that's the group right now that we're focusing on and that hopefully is going to yield more positive results."
Dr Odien said 47 DNA profiles could be identified using the new technology, but many victims of the attacks might never be officially identified.
Previous identifications and challenges
Last year, the remains of three more victims of the 9/11 terror attack were identified. Thanks to a DNA testing breakthrough, Ryan Fitzgerald, Barbara Keating, and a third woman whose family asked to remain anonymous were identified.
The attack on the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001, saw two planes deliberately crash into the Twin Towers, killing more than 2,700 people. Nearly 22,000 pieces of human remains, some as small as shards of bone the size of a fingernail, were recovered from the Ground Zero debris, NPR reported.
Having also suffered damage from fire, bacteria, pollution and other forms of degradation, DNA technology of the time was not able to uncover genetic profiles.
Victims' stories
Ryan Fitzgerald, who was 26, was working as a foreign currency trader at Fiduciary Trust in the south tower on September 11, 2001. He had called his family after the first plane hit the north tower to say he was OK and leaving his office.
Barbara Keating was a 72-year-old grandmother from Palm Springs. She had worked as a public servant for 25 years and survived breast cancer twice, her obituary said. She was known for visiting Saint Theresa Catholic Church every day, and would drive there and back in her red Sebring convertible. Barbara was returning home to California after visiting family in Massachusetts.
