9/11 Victim Identified Using First-of-Its-Kind Genetic Genealogy Technique
核心洞察
New York City identified a World Trade Center victim using forensic investigative genetic genealogy, the first time the method has been applied to the 9/11 identification effort.
The victim, an adult woman whose family declined to come forward, is the 1,654th to be formally identified nearly 25 years after the attacks.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and NYPD Detective Bureau are reviewing 47 DNA profiles that may be suitable for genetic genealogy identification.
Twenty-five years after the September 11, 2001 attacks, New York City has identified a World Trade Center victim using forensic investigative genetic genealogy for the first time, marking a significant advancement in the city's ongoing effort to formally identify all of the nearly 3,000 people killed at the World Trade Center.
The identification was made by the city's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and the NYPD Detective Bureau. The newly identified victim was an adult female whose family declined to publicly come forward. She is the 1,654th victim to be formally identified.
"It's a breakthrough," Dr. Jason Graham (搜索), New York City's chief medical examiner, told ABC News. "I'm delighted to be able to say that we've now applied new methods to the World Trade Center identification efforts, and we have a new identification for the first time in 25 years using new methods, forensic investigative genetic genealogy."
A New Method for Decades-Old Evidence
Genetic genealogy combines DNA testing with family tree research to connect unidentified remains with potential relatives. The approach has previously helped law enforcement resolve long-term unidentified cold cases, but its application to the World Trade Center victim identification effort represents a first.
Such a breakthrough was unimaginable 25 years ago because the methodology did not exist at the time of the attacks.
"The technology really wasn't there," said NYPD Det. Gregory Paduano (搜索). "There's a lot of good future with genealogy."
47 DNA Profiles Under Review
The medical examiner's office and the police department are now examining whether genetic genealogy can help identify additional victims. Dr. Jennifer Odien (搜索), a forensic anthropologist in the New York medical examiner's office, indicated that early results suggest the approach could yield further identifications.
"We already can see that it's promising," said Dr. Odien. "Not every case is going to be able to go through genetic genealogy, but we do have DNA profiles that are not matching to our reference samples, so that's the group right now that we're focusing on and that hopefully is going to yield more positive results."
Odien told ABC News that 47 profiles may be ripe for identification using genetic genealogy.
A Continuing Commitment
Those 47 profiles represent a small fraction of the nearly 1,100 World Trade Center victims — about 40% of the total — who remain unidentified a quarter-century after the attacks. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has made a solemn pledge to never stop trying.
"The World Trade Center was the largest mass murder in the history of the United States, and it represents also the most complex forensic identification effort in our history," Graham said. "And being able to apply new innovations to that identification work is a remarkable way that we can keep our commitment to the families."