Families will have had to wait 20 years to really be able to grieve. A few days before the commemoration of the September 11 attacks, two more victims killed in the attacks have been officially identified.
The head of the Forensic Institute of New York, Barbara Sampson said Tuesday that her laboratory had identified the 1,646th and 1,647th people who had lost their lives in the World Trade Center. A total of 2,753 people died in Manhattan’s Twin Towers and 1,106 people have yet to be identified, or some 40%.
A promise to families
“Twenty years ago, we promised the families of World Trade Center victims that we would do whatever we could – however long it takes – to identify their loved ones. With these two new identifications, we continue to meet our imperative obligations, ”says Barbara Sampson.
The first newly identified victim was a woman, Dorothy Morgan, living on Long Island and whose remains found in 2001 were subjected to DNA testing. The second was a man whose remains were found in 2001, 2002 and 2006. His identity will be kept secret at the request of his family.
For Barbara Sampson, the process and techniques put in place over two decades to identify each victim represent “the largest and most complex forensic investigation in US history.” It was made possible in particular thanks to a new so-called new generation DNA sequencing technology ”.
The United States must commemorate the attacks on Saturday, around a Joe Biden weakened by the chaotic end of the war in Afghanistan, a conflict triggered precisely by the attacks of September 11, 2001.