Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks, New York City’s medical examiner’s office continues its painstaking effort to identify victims whose families have spent decades waiting for answers.

Of the 2,753 people killed at the World Trade Center, 1,099 remain unidentified, representing roughly 40% of the victims, according to the latest figures cited by the New York Post.

The work began amid unimaginable destruction at Ground Zero, where investigators recovered thousands of human remains, some consisting of only tiny fragments of bone.

For detectives assigned to the temporary morgue after the attacks, the mission was both emotionally devastating and essential: identify as many victims as possible and give their families a measure of closure.

Detectives Worked Around the Clock After 9/11
Retired Brooklyn North homicide Detective Lou Savarese was assigned to the morgue on September 13, 2001.

He worked 12-hour shifts for 53 consecutive days, processing victims while the recovery operation continued at Ground Zero.

Savarese recalled a relentless routine in which investigators moved from one body bag to another with little time to stop.

After finishing their work at the morgue, detectives would sometimes go to Ground Zero during their lunch break to search for additional victims before returning to complete their shifts.

The scale of destruction was unlike anything they had previously encountered.

Savarese said many victims had been crushed beneath thousands of tons of concrete, while others were recovered in recognizable condition.

Even Tiny Remains Were Treated as Full Cases
The condition of the recovered remains varied dramatically.

Some victims were represented by only a small bone fragment, while others appeared almost untouched by the destruction.

Retired homicide Detective Terry Murnane recalled that investigators initially focused on remains that could be identified through personal belongings or other obvious clues.

Victims carrying identification could sometimes be connected to their families through items such as wallets or the identification numbers of first responders.

When no identification was available, detectives collected DNA samples and carefully matched them to individual body bags.

As the recovery continued, investigators began receiving bags containing isolated body parts.

Murnane said detectives treated every recovered part as though it represented an entire victim because each piece could potentially provide the information needed to identify someone.

Families Waited for Answers
While detectives worked inside the morgue, families across New York searched desperately for missing relatives.

Posters bearing photographs and names of missing people appeared throughout the city as relatives waited for news about their loved ones.

For investigators, those posters added another emotional burden.

Murnane recalled seeing the missing-person notices and knowing that many of the people pictured might never be identified.

Still, detectives understood that every sample they processed could potentially provide a family with an answer.

“It bothered me because I knew a lot of those people would never be identified,” Murnane recalled. “I knew this was an important job that has to be done.”

Detectives Also Identified Fellow First Responders
The work became even more difficult when investigators encountered the remains of fellow law-enforcement officers.

Retired Port Authority Lt. John Ryan remembered the day the bodies of Capt. Kathy Mazza, Chief James Romito and four other officers were recovered from Ground Zero.

The six officers had been helping evacuate people when the North Tower collapsed.

Ryan said he personally knew all six.

As their remains were brought into the morgue, he was forced to confront the deaths of colleagues he had known and worked alongside.

Yet the recovery operation continued.

Ryan said detectives treated every recovered body as they would a homicide victim, carefully documenting and processing the remains in an effort to determine who had been lost.

New Technology Is Still Bringing Identifications
The identification effort has continued for decades as forensic technology has advanced.

Four victims have been identified since last year, including a woman whose identity was not publicly released and whose remains were identified using forensic investigative genetic genealogy, a technique that can combine DNA analysis with genealogical research.

The breakthrough demonstrates how advances in forensic science continue to provide possibilities that did not exist in the years immediately following the attacks.

New York City’s Office of Chief Medical Examiner has continued working toward identifying the remaining victims.

Some Families Still Hope for Closure
For families who never received remains, the passage of 25 years has not erased the desire for answers.

Charles G. Wolf, whose wife Katherine was killed at the World Trade Center, has spent decades advocating for families affected by the attacks and supporting the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund.

Katherine was on the 97th floor of the North Tower when the attacks occurred. Her remains remain among those that have never been identified.

Wolf said he does not expect his wife’s remains to be identified, but he has found some comfort in believing that she likely died on impact rather than enduring the building’s fire and collapse.

He has since devoted much of his life to helping other families find their own form of closure.

Twenty-five years after September 11, the search for answers continues. For the families of the 1,099 victims whose remains remain unidentified, the work of forensic investigators represents an enduring promise that their loved ones will not be forgotten.

Course: NY Post