New York medical examiner identifies three 9/11 victims 24 years later

The New York City medical examiner has newly identified three victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, including a passenger on one of the jets and an employee who was working at the World Trade Center.

The three people are the 1,651st, 1,652nd and 1,653rd victims of the 9/11 attacks identified by the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, out of a total death toll of 2,753 people, the medical examiner’s office said Thursday.

The remains used to identify Palm Springs, California, resident Barbara Keating, who was 72 at the time, were found in 2001, officials said. She was on board one of the jets flown into the World Trade Center towers by al Qaeda hijackers on Sept. 11, 2001, and her family had little hope of her remains being identified.

“We had forensic experts telling us two decades ago, ’Really, you should not expect any DNA’ because of the physical act of the explosion itself, because of the heat,” her son Paul told The New York Times.

The remains used to identify Floral Park, New York, resident Ryan Fitzgerald were found in 2002. On the day of the attacks, he was at work at the Fiduciary Trust Co. International offices inside the World Trade Center, according to The Times.

The family of the third victim requested that her name be kept private, the medical examiner’s office said.