Two more victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks have been identified ahead of the 20th anniversary as part of "the largest and most complex forensic investigation in the history of the United States." New York City's Chief Medical Examiner's Office announced Tuesday that two victims have been identified through advanced DNA testing of remains collected from the World Trade Center.
Dorothy Morgan of Hempstead, NY, is now the 1,646th victim identified, and the first since October 2019. She was an insurance broker working for Marsh & McLennan on the 94th floor of the north tower, reports the New York Times. The 1,647th victim, identified days after Morgan, is a man whose family asked that his name be withheld. His remains were uncovered in 2001, 2006, and 2008, per CBS News. Morgan's daughter had submitted a DNA sample of her mother nearly two decades ago but had no idea officials were still working to match it to some 22,000 unidentified body parts.
Yet scientists, who've been painstakingly testing and retesting remains for traces of DNA to connect them to one of 1,106 victims whose remains have not been found—about 40% of the 2,753 people who died at ground zero—view it as a "sacred obligation," chief medical examiner Dr. Barbara Sampson says in a statement ahead of a Wednesday press conference. She tells the Times that the latest DNA technology, next-generation sequencing, is "a much more sensitive technology, so we're very hopeful it will help us find more new identifications." The Times has more on what that process involves. (More 9/11 victims stories.)