Overview
- City officials announced Monday that the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and the NYPD used forensic investigative genetic genealogy to identify an adult woman who died at the World Trade Center, and her family asked that her name not be released.
- The new identification raises the OCME’s total to about 1,654 formally identified victims and leaves roughly 1,099 World Trade Center victims without matched remains.
- Forensic investigative genetic genealogy combines specialized DNA analysis with public genealogy databases and family-tree research and was applied by the NYPD’s Investigative Genetic Genealogy Squad working with OCME detectives and scientists.
- Investigators say 47 DNA profiles from the WTC repository are potential candidates for this genealogy approach but warn that extreme heat, crushing forces and tiny fragment sizes have destroyed usable DNA in many samples.
- Officials pledged to keep applying new methods and returning remains to families ahead of the 25th anniversary, while acknowledging that some fragments may never yield an identification.