9/11 victim identified for first time using genetic genealogy
Source: Officials, cited in a broadcast report
Officials in New York City have identified a victim of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center using forensic investigative genetic genealogy, marking the first time the technique has produced an identification in the quarter-century-long effort, according to ABC News and an announcement from the city.
ABC News reported that the city's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and the NYPD Detective Bureau identified the victim using genetic genealogy, which combines DNA testing with family tree research, and that the family of the newly identified victim, an adult female, declined to publicly come forward. The Brooklyn Eagle reported that Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner announced the breakthrough on Monday.
"It's a breakthrough," Dr. Jason Graham, New York City's chief medical examiner, told ABC News, adding that his office had "applied new methods to the World Trade Center identification efforts" and secured a new identification for the first time in 25 years.
There is some variation across outlets on the count. ABC News reported the woman is the 1,654th victim to be formally identified, and Newsweek reported that Julie Bolcer, deputy commissioner of public affairs and communications for the city's Office of Chief Medical Examiner, said in an emailed statement that the identification represents the 1,654th World Trade Center victim identified. Several ABC-owned station websites, including ABC7 New York, described her instead as the 1,651st World Trade Center victim. BreakFirst has not independently reconciled the two figures.
According to the announcement posted by the New York City Mayor's Office, the adult woman, whose name is being withheld at the request of her family, is the first 9/11 victim identified using the technique and the 1,654th victim identified overall through the ongoing analysis of remains recovered from the attacks, which killed 2,753 people in New York City. Mamdani said in the release that as the city approaches the 25th anniversary, it remains "committed to the families who have spent 25 years waiting for answers," and called the identification an example of what is possible when cutting-edge technology is paired with commitment to the dead.
The Brooklyn Eagle described the method in more detail, reporting that forensic investigative genetic genealogy pairs specialized DNA technologies with genealogical investigative techniques to produce identification leads, which the Medical Examiner's Office then confirms through DNA or other forensic methodologies, and that the identification resulted from a new collaboration combining the medical examiner's forensic capabilities with the NYPD's genealogical expertise.
The approach is not new to law enforcement generally. ABC News noted that forensic investigative genetic genealogy has helped police solve long-term unidentified cold cases, and that the medical examiner's office and police department have more recently applied it to World Trade Center victim identification efforts. "We already can see that it's promising," Dr. Jennifer Odien, a forensic anthropologist in the New York medical examiner's office, told ABC News, adding, per the network, that not every case can go through genetic genealogy but that the office is focusing on DNA profiles that are not matching its reference samples.
The scale of the remaining work is substantial. amNewYork reported that approximately 2,753 people were killed when two hijacked airliners were crashed into the Twin Towers, and that 40% of the victims — 1,099 in all — remain unidentified. The outlet also reported that the remains found at Ground Zero are housed in a repository the medical examiner maintains at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in Lower Manhattan, and that DNA testing over two and a half decades has led the office to identify 1,654 victims.
NPR reported last year on the persistent technical obstacles, noting that although improved technology can now pull DNA from badly damaged samples, staff have still been unable to extract genetic information from some highly degraded remains even after years of testing. NPR also reported that even when remains yield a DNA result, that result must still be linked to an existing profile in the medical examiner's database.
As for what comes next, Odien told ABC News there are 47 profiles that may be ripe for identification using genetic genealogy. The city's release added that the office continues to link remains to previously identified victims so they can be returned to their families, with recent links confirmed for three individuals using the new technique, renewed family outreach for DNA reference samples and ongoing retesting; it was the first new identification since August 2025. ABC7 New York quoted Graham as saying the World Trade Center attack "was the largest mass murder in the history of the United States" and represents the most complex forensic identification effort in the country's history.