Three more victims of 9/11 identified, almost 24 years later
Ryan Fitzgerald, of Floral Park, New York, and Barbara Keating, of Palm Springs, California, were named Thursday. A third victim was also identified but their name is being kept private at the request of their family, according to NYC Mayor Eric Adams and Dr Jason Graham, the city's chief medical examiner.
Keating, 72, was on board one of the passenger jets that was flown into the World Trade Center. Fitzgerald, 26, was a trader working for a firm based in the World Trade Center, NPR reports.
Identification was made possible thanks to advancements in DNA analysis and the help of the victims' families, Graham said at a press briefing.
'Nearly 25 years after the disaster at the World Trade Center, our commitment to identify the missing and return them to their loved ones stands as strong as ever,' Graham said.
Keating's remains were recovered in 2001, and Fitzgerald's were found in 2002, according to the officials. The three newly identified victims represent the 1,651st, 1,652nd, and 1,653rd victims of the attacks to be identified.
While the victims' remains have only now been identified, their loved ones knew that they died during the 2001 terrorist attacks. As such, Keating and Fitzgerald's name are already included on the 9/11 Memorial in New York City.
Barbara Keating's son, Paul, described the work that the city as "stunning."
"They're doing this for us. They're doing it like they're possessed," he told NPR.
He said that the pain of losing a loved one in the 9/11 attacks has been a constant in his and his family's lives for more than two decades.
"Not a day went by for years that [9/11] wasn't part of our lives, we had no choice," he said. "It affected everybody in our family. My two sons were truly affected. They were almost seven and four. They wake up one day and grandmom is dead and bad guys killed her. There's no way my mom would have wanted that for them."
According to the medical examiner, there are approximately 1,100 victims of 9/11 whose remains are still unidentified.
"Each new identification testifies to the promise of science and sustained outreach to families despite the passage of time. We continue this work as our way of honoring the lost," Graham said.
The September 11 terrorist attacks killed 2,977 people. Some 2,753 of those deaths occurred in New York City. Another 184 people were killed when American Airlines Flight 88 crashed into the Pentagon, and 44 lives were lost after the passengers of United Airlines Flight 93 fought their hijackers and crashed the plane into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
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