Overview
- City officials announced on Monday, August 24, 2026, that the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and the NYPD used forensic investigative genetic genealogy to identify an adult woman whose family asked that her name not be released, marking the first FIGG-based identification in the city’s 9/11 effort.
- The office and police said roughly 47 DNA profiles from World Trade Center remains are now candidates for FIGG review even as about 1,100 victims — roughly 40% of those who died at the towers — remain unidentified.
- Forensic investigative genetic genealogy works by matching an unknown DNA profile to public ancestry databases to build family trees and generate leads that are then confirmed with conventional DNA testing and other forensic checks.
- Officials and forensic experts warned that extreme heat and force at the towers’ collapse destroyed usable DNA in many fragments, creating a hard limit on how many additional identifications FIGG or any method can achieve.
- The OCME and the NYPD’s Investigative Genetic Genealogy Squad said they will continue combining FIGG with traditional DNA retesting and family outreach to pursue more matches and return remains to families when possible.