The remains of three more victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks have been identified nearly 24 years after the horrific terrorist attacks, New York City officials announced Thursday.
Floral Park resident Ryan Fitzgerald and Barbara Keating, of Palm Springs, Calif. were positively ID’d as well as an adult woman whose family did not want her name released publicly, officials said.
The Office of Chief Medical Examiner used advanced DNA testing and family outreach to ID the remains — the 1,651st, 1,652nd and 1,653rd victims officially identified since the attacks.
Fitzgerald, 26, was working as a foreign currency trader at Fiduciary Trust International in the south tower when a hijacked plane crashed into it. He called family after the first plane hit the north tower to tell them he was OK and about to leave his office, according to a Newsday report.
The oldest of three children, he just moved into Manhattan and spent the summer at a bachelor party in Las Vegas, buying new clothes at Banana Republic and gifts for his girlfriend and enjoying the familiar restaurants downtown, his mother told the New York Times in November 2001.
”It made me feel good that he enjoyed the summer because it was the last summer of his life,” mother Diana Parks said at the time.
Keating, a 72-year-old grandmother, was on American Airlines Flight 11 that left Boston shortly before it spiraled into the lower Manhattan skyline.
“I’m sure she misses her grandchildren, and all the moments they could have had,” her son, Paul Keating, told MetroWest Daily News in 2011.
Fitzgerald’s identification was confirmed through remains recovered in 2002 while Keating’s ID and the third undisclosed victim were linked to remains found in 2011, the medical examiner’s office said.
“The pain of losing a loved one in the September 11th terror attacks echoes across the decades, but with these three new identifications, we take a step forward in comforting the family members still aching from that day,” Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement.
“As a former law enforcement officer who served our city on 9/11, I understand deeply the feeling of loss so many families have experienced. We hope the families receiving answers from the Office of Chief Medical Examiner can take solace in the city’s tireless dedication to this mission.”
Big Apple officials said about 1,100 victims, which amounts to 40% of those who perished in the sickening attack, have yet to be officially identified.
Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Jason Graham vowed to continue to work on identifying 9/11 victims.
“Each new identification testifies to the promise of science and sustained outreach to families despite the passage of time,” he said in a statement. “We continue this work as our way of honoring the lost.”
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