Everything we know about the three 9/11 victims who have been identified 24 years later
On 11th September 2001, the United States endured its 'largest mass murder in US history'.
That fateful day saw four commercial planes carrying passengers get hijacked by 19 members of al-Qaeda and, under terrorist control, two of those jets crashed into the two World Trade Centre Twin Tower buildings in lower Manhattan.
Within the hour, the devastating attack saw both the North and South Towers collapse to the ground as a result of the damage sustained from the impacts, as well as the resulting fires.
A third jet crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, whilst the fourth crashed into an empty Pennsylvania field while attempting to make it to the White House in Washington, D.C. with the passengers on the plane fighting back against the terrorists who had hijacked the plane. Sadly, nobody survived.
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The 9/11 attacks claimed the lives of around 3,000 people in total but, out of that colossal figure, only 1,653 of these individuals have since been positively identified by responding authorities, including the three announced just a few weeks back, according to Indy100.
Now, last month (7 August), the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) announced that, due to DNA analysis, they could release the full names, ages, and origins of three new victims.
The first of the three victims to have been positively identified was 26-year-old Ryan Fitzgerald - a New York local from Floral Park.
According to OMCE, he'd purchased his own property in Manhattan weeks prior to the 9/11 attacks, having landed a job as a foreign currency trader at Fiduciary Trust Company International.
Tragically, he'd been inside the South Tower the day of the attack, having called his family member in the minutes earlier, letting them know that the North Tower had been struck, but that he was safe and preparing to leave the building.
Fitzgerald's sisters described him in an interview with the New York Post as a 'larger than life' figure who inspired one of them to become an FDNY firefighter.
"He was one of the very few who always told me … you’ll be able to do it and you can do it," Elizabeth Parks, a Queens firefighter since 2016, shared.
Speaking of the identification, his other sister, Carolina Parks, added: "For my parents finding anything was, in a way, bringing him home or like bringing him back with the family and where he belongs."
The second of the newly-released victims is 72-year-old Barbara Keating of Palm Springs, California.
Having previously run a church, the cancer survivor had been travelling from Logan International Airport in Boston to New York City, having enjoyed a summer vacation in Massachusetts.
Tragically, the American Airlines flight she'd boarded subsequently hit the North Tower.
In a new interview with CNN, Keating’s youngest son, Paul, said that even without a definitive identification of his mother’s remains, there were discoveries that gave him a sense of closure.
He explained that several years after the attack, investigators found an ATM card that belonged to his mother.
Then, about three years ago, the OCME reached out to the family again and asked them to submit DNA to test against a hairbrush they thought might be Keating’s. It was a positive match.
"That’s when it really hit home: These people have been doing this for that long, at that level of effort," Paul recalled, adding that the recent identification of his mother’s actual remains has brought things 'somewhat full circle'.
He added: "It does actually bring it to conclusion. I hope the same for the families that haven’t heard so far."
A third victim - an adult woman - was also positively identified, yet her name has been withheld as per the wishes of her family.
How were the victims identified?
In the decades since the attack, over 20,000 bone fragments have been analysed by scientists and compared to the DNA of the remaining families who've long missed them.
In Fitzgerald's case, his remains were sadly recovered from the wreck the following year, as per News 12. For Keating, as we say, a hairbrush was used to identify her as a victim of the heartbreaking attack.
The third, unnamed woman's identification is the result of 'ongoing outreach to families for DNA reference samples'.
Dr Jason Graham, New York City's chief medical examiner, previously told the press: "This is the most complex forensic DNA identification effort in history, and it stems from the largest mass murder in US history."
He continued on the mission as a whole: "Nearly 25 years after the disaster at the World Trade Centre, our commitment to identify the missing and return them to their loved ones stands as strong as ever.
"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 honouring the lost."
Rhiannon Ingle