The remains of three more victims of the 9/11 terror attack have been identified nearly 25 years later.
Thanks to a DNA testing breakthrough, the remains of Ryan Fitzgerald, Barbara Keating, and a third woman whose family asked to remain anonymous, have been identified.
The attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 saw two planes deliberately crash into the Twin Towers, killing more than 2,700 people.
These latest victims are the 1,651st, 1,652nd and 1,653rd to be identified, after testing remains recovered in 2001 and 2002.
New York City mayor Eric Adams shared the news alongside the city’s chief medical examiner, Jason Graham, who said the new identifications were thanks to continued advanced DNA testing.
The remains were able to be identified after family outreach provided DNA reference samples to compare with the genetic profiles of the previously unidentified remains.
The city medical examiner has been continually working to identify as many victims of the attack as possible, using new techniques including next generation sequencing.
Nearly 22,000 pieces of human remains, some as small as shards of bone the size of a fingernail, were recovered from the ground zero debris, NPR reports.
Having also suffered damage from fire, bacteria, pollution and other forms of degradation, DNA technology of the time was not able to uncover genetic profiles.
Mr Graham said: ‘Nearly 25 years after the disaster at the World Trade Center our commitment to identify the missing and return them to their families strands 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.’
One of the newly-identified victims, 26-year-old Ryan Fitzgerald, was working as a foreign currency trader at Fiduciary Trust in the south tower on September 11, 2001.
He had called his family after the first plane hit the north tower to say he was OK and leaving his office.
Ryan grew up in Richmond Hill, Queens, and played basketball at Holy Cross High School.
He was living in Manhattan when he died.
Barbara Keating, another of the recently identified victims, was a 72-year-old grandmother from Palm Springs.
Barbara had worked as a public servant for 25 years and survived breast cancer twice, her obituary said.
She was known for visiting Saint Theresa Catholic Church every day, and would drive there and back in her red Sebring convertible.
Barbara was returning home to California after visiting family in Massachusetts.
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