Inside the New York lab using genetic genealogy to identify 9/11 victims’ remains

Inside a lab in Manhattan, forensic scientists in white lab coats are still diligently working to keep a promise made 25 years ago.

They're extracting DNA from thousands of pieces of human remains recovered following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, trying to match them to samples from toothbrushes, razors and other sources provided by family members of victims.

What has changed is the science they're using to draw out the DNA from the remains, and the evolving forensic investigative techniques that didn't exist in 2001.

"When … after years of pushing that science, you're finally able to figure out who it is and return that loved one to their family … that's powerful," said Mark Desire, assistant director of forensic biology at the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.  

Forty per cent of the 2,753 people who died at Ground Zero have not had their remains identified, including approximately 10 of the 24 Canadian victims.

Last month, the lab announced it made its first identification of previously unknown remains using a breakthrough technique. 

The woman's family chose to keep her name private. It's the first identification the lab has made in a year.

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The technique combines DNA testing with genetic genealogy — which uses family tree research conducted by members of the New York City Police Department.

"I think it is sort of a new frontier," said Dr. Jason Graham, New York's Chief Medical Examiner. 

"We had really found a breakthrough innovation that's going to open the door, I hope and I believe, likely to many other identifications." 

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For Monica Iken-Murphy, whose husband Michael Iken died in the collapse of the south tower where he worked as a bond trader, this development brings renewed hope.

"I didn't get a ring, I didn't get an ID. People got cards. They found papers with their names on it," she said. But for her, "it's like he went to work and that's it. Nothing."

Monica Iken-Murphy had only been married to her husband Michael Iken for 11 months when he died in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. (Submitted by Monica Iken-Murphy)

Challenges of excavating, preserving remains

Desire was a rookie scientist in the New York crime lab back on Sept. 11, 2001, and was sent to the scene to preserve evidence soon after the second tower was hit. He had never worked on a mass fatality before.

"One of the … first victims I saw die that day landed right in front of us." 

Soon after Desire and his colleague arrived, he heard a sound he described as a "crack," and he realized they were far too close to the south tower as it began to collapse.

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He sprinted toward a nearby building to take cover and barely made it in time. Debris fell on him just as he was escaping into the building through a broken window.  

"It just fell across my legs, shattered my foot — the most violent moment of my life."

He survived, and made it his mission to keep the promise made by then-chief medical examiner Dr. Charles Hirsch to preserve and identify the remains of all the victims. 

Mark Desire, right, the assistant director at the Office of Chief Medical Examiner in New York City, observers a lab technician at work on April 15, 2014. Desire has been working to identify victims of the attack on the World Trade Center since day one. (Bebeto Matthews/The Associated Press)

The World Trade Center was reduced to a 21-metre hill of debris that for visual reference, if spread out, could cover approximately eight city blocks. 

Plans were made to excavate debris from the site and move it for sifting and sorting at a landfill site on Staten Island in hopes of preserving whatever remains they could.

"Everything that destroys DNA was present at Ground Zero: the fire, the water to put out the fire, the jet fuel, the diesel fuel, the chemicals in the building, the chemicals on the ground, sunlight, mold, bacteria," said Desire. 

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Excavation work officially ended in 2002, but scientists continued to search for DNA in the remains they had.

Four years later, more debris was found on the roof of a nearby Deutsche Bank building, where more than 700 bone fragments were recovered.

That led to reopening searches in the area that lasted until 2014, leading to approximately 2,000 additional bone fragments being recovered.

Firefighters and emergency personnel remove debris from the site of the World Trade Center towers' collapse in New York on Sept. 13, 2001. The debris was later moved from Ground Zero to a landfill on Staten Island where workers sifted through it searching for human remains. (Stephen Chernin/The Associated Press)

At first, the remains were preserved by freezing them. 

Later, as best practices for handling remains for forensic purposes changed, they began drying the bone fragments out to preserve them longer.

Nearly 22,000 pieces of human remains have been recovered since 2001.

The science behind identifying remains

During the early years, victims were identified using fingerprints, dental records and what was then considered cutting-edge DNA technology. 

Since then, science has advanced such that more DNA can be extracted from bone fragments. But it still hasn't advanced far enough.

Bone, Desire says, is the toughest material to get DNA from.

"Blood and hair and skin cells — easy. Bone … you have to pulverize it."

He says thousands of samples that still need to be identified haven't even had DNA extracted because they're so badly burned.

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One of the challenges scientists face is whether to keep testing a sample. Each time remains are tested, some of the material is consumed and can't be re-tested. Doing too many tests on one sample risks losing it altogether before a match can be made.

"It's very stressful, because we have remains today that we've tried 10, 15 times over the years," said Desire. 

That's why this new technique brings so much hope.

The process involves sending DNA from unidentified remains to an outside lab that can generate a whole genomic sequence.

Then, similar to genealogical methods that have been used to generate new leads in cold cases, New York police conduct family tree searches. If a prospective match is found, it would come back to the medical examiner's office to confirm a relation through DNA testing.

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Desire noted that there were 47 sets of remains for which they have full DNA profiles that don't match any of the 17,000 reference samples provided by family members.

So the individuals may have relatives that never contacted the lab or provided samples.

"Using genealogy to help identify them, that was an excellent next step."

The chief medical examiner's office is renewing its call to families to provide samples — in hopes it can help make more matches. 

Families face tough decisions

Despite the lab's ongoing work, many families of victims whose remains have never been found don't want to know if a match is made.

"That can be very traumatic," said Jennifer Odein, the World Trade Center anthropologist at the New York City Medical Examiner's Office. 

She is the direct line between families and the lab, and says some families are contacted multiple times because their loved one has been matched multiple times to their remains.

"And if they've already had phone calls in the past they might have said, 'OK, we've had enough, we've had our ceremony … we're OK with not getting the notification.'

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Long ago, Abigail Carter, a Canadian expat whose husband Arron Dack died while attending a trade show at Windows on the World in the north tower, decided she didn't need to know if his remains were ever found.

"I know he was there," said Carter. "He called me and that was good enough for me."

She has found her own way to honour him.

Abigail Carter's husband, Arron Dack, was born in the U.K., but raised in Canada. He was 39 and left behind two children when he died after the north tower was struck. (Marc Aderghal/CBC)

At their daughter's wedding this past summer in France, where Carter now owns a chateau, they placed a framed photo of Dack on a chair, and later added a martini — shaken, not stirred, just as he liked it — to make sure his presence was felt.

"He was very funny and very charismatic. He had different personas a little bit. He had a very, very silly, silly side," she said.

Iken-Murphy understands that complexity of grief. She hopes that one day, her husband Michael's remains will be matched to samples provided to the lab, but says she wouldn't want to keep them herself.

"I want to remember Michael as a whole human. With his beautiful face and his blue eyes and his smile."

Instead, she says they'll stay at the repository in the 9/11 Memorial and Museum at Ground Zero where all the unidentified remains are stored by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.