2 More People Killed in the 9/11 World Trade Center Attack Identified Days Ahead of 20th Anniversary
Personnel from New York City's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) on Tuesday identified at least two more people that were killed in the World Trade Center 9/11 attack, ahead Saturday, the 20th anniversary of the tragic incident.
Officials confirmed that the identification of the two individuals were the first new identifications of victims in the 9/11 attack since October 2019.
"20 years ago, we made a promise to the families of World Trade Center victims to do whatever it takes for as long as it takes to identify their loved ones," New York's Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Barbara Sampson said. Sampson added that they will use all the tools at their disposal to identify the victims, despite how much time pass since the 2001 terror attack.
9/11 World Trade Center Attack: 2 More Victims Identified
One of the victims that were identified was named Dorothy Morgan from Hempstead, New York. Meanwhile, the other victim's name was withheld at the request of the family. Both victims were marked as 1,646th and 1,647th victims of the 9/11 attack respectively.
The two deaths were confirmed from DNA analyses of remains recovered from the site, USA Today reported. Officials pointed out Morgan's remains were recovered in 2001. While the remains of the other victim were recovered in 2001, 2002, and 2006.
According to reports, Morgan worked for an insurance company on the 94th floor of World Trade Center's North Tower. The said structure was known to be the first building that was hit during the attack. Meanwhile, details about the other victim were not furthered by the officials.
The said technology that was used in identifying the latest victims was reported to be the same technology used by the U.S. Military to identify the remains of missing American service members.
"We continue to push the science out of necessity to make more identifications," World Trade Center Identification Team Manager, Mark Desire said.
OCME furthered that their adoption of the "next-generation sequencing technology" pledges to result in more new identified victims.
World Trade Center 9/11 Attack Anniversary: 40% of Victims Still Unidentified
As the 20th anniversary of the World Trade Center 9/11 attack will take place on Saturday, not all confirmed victims killed in the incident were identified by the authorities.
It can be recalled that the incident killed at least 2,977 people in total, including those who died in the commercial plane that crashed in Pentagon, and those who were killed in the United Airlines Flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania.
To date, OCME noted that 40 percent or 1,106 victims of the attack remain unidentified.
Despite hoping that the advances in DNA extraction and sequencing will result in more identifications, Desire said that some of the remains may never be identified.
Desire underscored that they cannot generate DNA profiles from some of the individuals they recovered, pointing out that not all samples have intact DNA that is used in identifying the victims.
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Written By: Joshua Summers
WATCH: 2 More Victims of 9/11 World Trade Center Attacks Identified - From Eyewitness News ABC7NY