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9/11 victim identified almost 18 years after World Trade Center attack

Posted at 1:25 PM, Jun 11, 2019
and last updated 2019-06-11 13:25:26-04

NEW YORK CITY – It’s been almost 18 years since 9/11, but more than 1,100 victims — or 40 percent — have yet to be identified.

On Monday, the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner announced a victim has been identified through DNA testing – a man whose remains were not recovered until 2013, 12 years after the attack felled the Twin Towers.

The identity of the newly identified victim will not be made public, the OCME said.

The medical examiner continues to work to identify additional victims.  The man was the 1,643rd person identified of the 2,753 people who were reported missing.

This latest news represents the first new identification of a trade center victim since July 2018, when a 26-year-old securities analyst was identified.

Innovations in DNA testing have been giving new hope to relatives of 9/11 victims.

“We have gone back to the same bone sample numerous times and in the last 11 times we may get no DNA profile,” OCME Chief of Laboratories Tim Kupferschmid told WPIX in an interview last year. “But on that 12th time with that new technology applied, we may get a DNA profile.”