New York City identified a September 11 victim for the first time using forensic investigative genetic genealogy, giving the family of a newly identified adult female a long-delayed answer. The case is the 1,654th formal identification from the World Trade Center effort.
Dr. Jason Graham called the identification “It's a breakthrough,” and said, “I'm 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.”
Office of the Chief Medical Examiner
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and the NYPD Detective Bureau made the identification, extending a process that has continued for 25 years after the September 11, 2001 attacks. About 40% of the nearly 1,100 World Trade Center victims remain unidentified, and the office has pledged to never stop trying to identify them.
Dr. Graham said the World Trade Center was the largest mass murder in the history of the United States and the most complex forensic identification effort in United States history. Genetic genealogy combines DNA testing with family tree research, allowing investigators to compare DNA profiles that do not match existing reference samples with possible relatives.
NYPD Detective Bureau
NYPD Det. Gregory Paduano said, “The technology really wasn’t there,” and added, “There's a lot of good future with genealogy.” Dr. Jennifer Odien said, “We already can see that it's promising,” and explained, “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.”
That leaves 47 profiles that may be ripe for identification through the new method. The family of the newly identified victim declined to publicly come forward, and the next identifications will depend on whether other unmatched DNA profiles can be linked to reference samples in the same way.
