‘Amazing feat': Three 9/11 victims finally identified 24 years later

News.com.au

11 hours ago

The remains of three more 9/11 victims have been identified – as one family praised the city for 'working their ass off' 24 years after the horrific terrorist attacks.
Floral Park resident Ryan Fitzgerald and Palm Springs, California grandmother Barbara Keating were positively ID'd – as well as an adult woman whose family did not want her name released publicly, officials announced on Thursday.
The Office of Chief Medical Examiner used advanced DNA testing and family outreach to ID the remains — the 1,651st, 1,652nd and 1,653rd victims officially identified since the attacks.
Fitzgerald, 26, was working as a foreign currency trader at Fiduciary Trust International in the south tower when a hijacked plane crashed into it while Keating, a 72-year-old grandmother, was on American Airlines Flight 11 that left Boston shortly before it spiralled into the north tower.
Keating's son Paul Keating, 61, commended the staff at the medical examiner's office for 'still working their ass off' all these years later, saying 'they won't rest for us.'
'And I don't know how to react to that. It's just an amazing feat, gesture – it's more than that because they've been doing it as their life for 24 years,' Paul Keating, 61, told The Post.
'We're talking about moving six blocks of Manhattan to Staten Island and going through it milligram by milligram for 24 years,' he added in reference to the wreckage moved to Fresh Kills in the aftermath. 'I mean, isn't that amazing to you. No one's ever done something like that for me, my family ever and I couldn't thank them enough.'
Paul Keating said city officials were in touch with he and his four siblings soon after the unthinkable day changed New York and the nation. The beloved matriarch was among 2,753 people killed in lower Manhattan.
First authorities found a 'tiny piece' of her ATM card in checked-in luggage about 20 years ago, then found part of her hairbrush that was ultimately matched to her a few years ago after two of children submitted DNA, he said.
He said the medical examiner's office reached out again about positively matching the remains three months ago before receiving confirmation around a month ago.
Barbara Keating had spent the summer months on Cape Cod before returning home to California, and always took a cross-country flight the second Tuesday of each September, her son said.
She led a chapter of Big Brothers, Big Sisters, and was also the director of an agency in Massachusetts that helped the mentally disabled. In retirement, she worked for her local Catholic Church in Palm Springs.
'She was an awesome grandmother,' he recalled. 'All the kids adored her.'
Fitzgerald, a loving son and brother to two sisters, called family after the first plane hit the north tower to tell them he was OK and about to leave his office, according to a NewsDay report.
The oldest of three children, he had just moved into Manhattan and spent the summer at a bachelor party in Las Vegas, buying new clothes at Banana Republic and gifts for his girlfriend and enjoying the familiar restaurants downtown, his mother told the New York Times in November 2001.
'It made me feel good that he enjoyed the summer because it was the last summer of his life,' mother Diane Parks said at the time.
Fitzgerald's identity was confirmed through remains recovered in 2002 while Keating's ID and the third undisclosed victim were linked to remains found in 2011, the medical examiner's office said.
'The pain of losing a loved one in the September 11th terror attacks echoes across the decades, but with these three new identifications, we take a step forward in comforting the family members still aching from that day,' Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement.
'As a former law enforcement officer who served our city on 9/11, I understand deeply the feeling of loss so many families have experienced. We hope the families receiving answers from the Office of Chief Medical Examiner can take solace in the city's tireless dedication to this mission.'
Big Apple officials said about 1,100 victims, which amounts to 40 per cent of those who perished in the sickening attack, have yet to be officially identified.
Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Jason Graham vowed to continue to work on identifying 9/11 victims.
'Each new identification testifies to the promise of science and sustained outreach to families despite the passage of time,' he said in a statement. 'We continue this work as our way of honouring the lost.'