New York City officials have identified a woman killed in the September 11, 2001, terror attacks using a forensic DNA method never before applied to World Trade Center remains, a breakthrough that still leaves roughly 1,100 victims unidentified as the 25th anniversary approaches.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Monday that the woman became the 1,654th victim formally identified from the attacks that killed 2,753 people in New York City. Her name is being withheld at her family's request. She is the first 9/11 victim identified through a process called forensic investigative genetic genealogy, or FIGG, a method that did not exist when the towers fell.
The identification marks the first new match in roughly 25 years. The last confirmed identification came in August 2025, The Hill reported. That gap underscores both the difficulty of the remaining forensic work and the significance of a technique that may finally move the needle for families who have waited a quarter century without answers.
FIGG pairs advanced DNA analysis with old-fashioned genealogy detective work
FIGG combines specialized DNA technologies with traditional genealogical investigation to create leads where conventional methods have failed. Once FIGG produces a potential match, the city's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner confirms the identification through DNA and other forensic methods.
The NYPD's Investigative Genetic Genealogy Squad worked alongside the medical examiner's office on this case, the New York Post reported. That collaboration between law enforcement and forensic scientists reflects a broader trend in cold-case work across the country, where DNA genealogy programs have already helped crack decades-old criminal cases.
Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Jason Graham framed the effort in historic terms. He told reporters that the World Trade Center attack was "the largest mass murder in the history of the United States" and called the identification effort "the most complex forensic identification effort in our history," Breitbart reported.
Graham described the commitment as ongoing and personal. In a statement carried by the New York Post, he said:
"A quarter century after the day that forever changed our world, we are keeping the promise to identify those who died at the World Trade Center in 2001 and return them to their loved ones."
He also called FIGG "a promising new addition to our toolkit," driven by what he described as a "sacred commitment" to apply the most advanced scientific techniques available.
Roughly 40 percent of New York's 9/11 dead remain unidentified
The numbers are staggering even now. Of the 2,753 people killed at the World Trade Center, approximately 1,099, about 40 percent, have never been identified, Fox News reported. For those families, the 25th anniversary of the attacks arrives without the basic dignity of confirmed remains.
That reality gives the FIGG breakthrough weight beyond a single case. If the technique can be applied more broadly to the World Trade Center remains, it could open a path for hundreds of families still waiting. Forensic genealogy has already reshaped how law enforcement approaches cold cases nationwide. DNA evidence has emerged as the key tool in investigations where traditional leads went cold years or even decades ago.
Mayor Mamdani, in his announcement, tied the identification directly to the approaching anniversary. He said in a statement carried by Newsmax:
"As we approach the 25th anniversary of the horrific September 11 attacks, we honor the nearly 3,000 people whose lives were stolen that day, and we remain committed to the families who have spent 25 years waiting for answers."
Mamdani also pledged that the work would continue. "We will continue to work until every possible answer is found and every family that has been waiting can have the clarity and closure they deserve," he said.
A method born after the attacks now serves the victims
One detail stands out: FIGG did not exist on September 11, 2001. The technique was developed in the years since, part of a broader revolution in forensic science that has transformed criminal investigations and mass-casualty identification efforts alike. Its first application to World Trade Center remains came only now, nearly a quarter century after the attacks.
The gap between the attack and this identification, and the even longer gap for the families of the remaining 1,099, raises a practical question the source does not answer: How quickly can FIGG be applied to the rest of the unidentified remains? City officials have not said whether additional identifications are imminent or whether the technique faces limitations with the condition of the remaining samples.
What is clear is that the forensic challenge at the World Trade Center dwarfs anything else in American history. The scale of destruction, the condition of recovered remains, and the sheer number of victims created a problem that has outlasted multiple mayoral administrations and required repeated leaps in technology to make even incremental progress. Cases involving forensic evidence in long-unsolved investigations elsewhere in the country have shown both the promise and the limits of DNA-based identification, results can take years, and not every sample yields a match.
Graham, the chief medical examiner, put it plainly when he described the new method as proof that the city has not stopped looking. "We've now applied new methods to the World Trade Center identification efforts, and we have a new identification for the first time in 25 years using new methods, forensic investigative genetic genealogy," he said.
The family of the newly identified woman chose to remain anonymous. That decision is theirs alone, and it is one that families in cold-case resolutions across the country face under very different circumstances. For 9/11 families, the identification itself, the confirmation that their loved one's remains have been found and returned, is the answer they have waited 25 years to receive.
The city owes those 1,099 families the same relentless effort. Technology caught up to one name this week. The promise means nothing until it catches up to the rest.
