For the first time since the Islamic terrorist attacks in New York City on September 11, 2001, a unique testing method has identified a victim as the nation remembers the lives lost on that day.
Authorities with the city’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and the New York City Police Department’s (NYPD) Detective Bureau identified one of the people who died at the World Trade Center through genetic genealogy, ABC News reported Sunday.
“The family of the newly identified victim, who was an adult female, declined to publicly come forward. She is the 1,654th to be formally identified,” the outlet said.
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According to a research guide on the Library of Congress website:
Genetic genealogy creates family history profiles (biological relationships between or among individuals) by using DNA test results in combination with traditional genealogical methods. By using genealogical DNA testing, genetic genealogy can determine the levels and types of biological relationships between or among individuals.
This branch of genetics became popular in recent years, as costs were drastically reduced and genealogical studies using molecular techniques became accessible to the general public. Advantages of including DNA, as opposed to traditional genealogical research alone, include the ability for researchers to extend their ancestry beyond the paperwork of recent centuries, and to construct ancient pedigrees through molecular evolutionary studies.
The city’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Jason Graham, told ABC it was a “breakthrough,” adding he was “delighted to be able to say that we’ve now applied new methods to the World Trade Center identification efforts, and we have a new identification for the first time in 25 years using new methods, forensic investigative genetic genealogy.”
The article noted the methodology did not exist when the terrorist attacks that changed countless lives occurred.
“The World Trade Center was the largest mass murder in the history of the United States, and it represents also the most complex forensic identification effort in our history. And being able to apply new innovations to that identification work is a remarkable way that we can keep our commitment to the families,” Graham added.
People all over the world experienced the tragedy in real time due to videos, photographs, and audio when the terrorists targeted innocent Americans, Breitbart News reported in 2023.
“In a meticulously planned attack, terrorists hijacked four airliners. They flew three of the planes into buildings: the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. They crashed the fourth plane in rural Pennsylvania. The attacks killed 2,976 people and injured thousands more,” according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s website (FBI).