3 Sept. 11 victims' remains are newly identified, nearly 24 years later
[August 09, 2025]
By JENNIFER PELTZ
NEW YORK (AP) — Three 9/11 victims’ remains have newly been identified,
officials said this week, as evolving DNA technology keeps making
gradual gains in the nearly quarter-century-long effort to return the
remains of the dead to their loved ones.
New York City officials announced Thursday they had identified remains
of Ryan D. Fitzgerald, a 26-year-old currency trader; Barbara A.
Keating, a 72-year-old retired nonprofit executive; and another woman
whose name authorities kept private at her family's request.
The three already were among the thousands of people long known to have
died in the al-Qaida hijacked-plane attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and long
listed among the names on the National Sept. 11 Memorial in New York
City. But these families, like many others, never previously knew of any
remains of their loved ones.
In all, nearly 3,000 people were killed when the hijackers crashed
jetliners into the trade center’s twin towers, the Pentagon and a field
in southwest Pennsylvania on 9/11. More than 2,700 of the victims
perished in the fiery collapse of the trade center's twin towers, and
about 40% of those victims haven't had any remains identified.
The new identifications were made through now-improved DNA testing of
minute remains found more than 20 years ago amid the trade center
wreckage, the city medical examiner's office said.
“Each new identification testifies to the promise of science and
sustained outreach to families despite the passage of time," chief
medical examiner Dr. Jason Graham said in a statement. “We continue this
work as our way of honoring the lost.”
Keating's son, Paul Keating, told media outlets he was amazed and
impressed by the enduring endeavor.
“It’s just an amazing feat, gesture," he told the New York Post. He said
genetic material from part of his mother’s hairbrush was matched to DNA
samples from relatives. A bit of his mother's ATM card was the only
other trace of her ever recovered from the debris, he said.
[to top of second column]
|
In this Sept. 11, 2001 file photo, United Airlines Flight 175
collides into the south tower of the World Trade Center in New York
as smoke billows from the north tower. (AP Photo/Chao Soi Cheong,
file)
Barbara Keating was a passenger on Boston-to-Los Angeles-bound
American Airlines Flight 11 when hijackers slammed it into the World
Trade Center. She was headed home to Palm Springs, California, after
spending the summer on Massachusetts' Cape Cod.
Keating had spent her career in social services, including a time as
executive director of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of South
Middlesex, near Boston. In retirement, she was involved in her Roman
Catholic church in Palm Springs.
The Associated Press sent messages Friday to her family and left
messages at possible numbers for Fitzgerald's relatives.
Fitzgerald, who lived in Manhattan, was working at a financial firm
at the trade center, studying for a master's degree in business and
talking about a long-term future with his girlfriend, according to
obituaries published at the time.
The New York medical examiner’s office has steadily added to the
roster of 9/11 victims with identified remains, most recently last
year. The agency has tested and retested tens of thousands of
fragments as techniques advanced over the years and created new
prospects for reading genetic code diminished by fire, sunlight,
bacteria and more.
“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,” New York Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, said in a
statement Thursday.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
