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NEW YORK (AP) — Chopping-edge DNA expertise can be used to investigate the stays of greater than 1,100 victims of the Sept. 11 assault on the World Commerce Heart which have but to be recognized.
Newsday reported Saturday that the New York Metropolis medical expert’s workplace has been accepted to make use of the forensic methodology referred to as Subsequent Era Sequencing, which is already being utilized by the Division of Protection to determine stays from World Conflict II and the Korean and Vietnam wars.
1000’s of human stays from Sept. 11 have but to be recognized as a result of they’re too broken and degraded to be analyzed by standard strategies. They’re at present being saved on the Nationwide September 11 Memorial & Museum on the World Commerce Heart web site.
The medical expert’s workplace might start utilizing the method earlier than the top of the 12 months, Mark Need, chief of the workplace’s lacking individuals and physique identification unit, informed the newspaper.
Whereas the stays of about 1,600 of the two,754 World Hint Heart victims have been recognized, the method has slowed over time and the final identification was made in 2019.
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The medical expert’s workplace started finding out Subsequent Era Sequencing in 2018, however the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the approval course of till this 12 months.
Rosemary Cain of Massapequa, New York, whose firefighter son, George, perished within the twin towers, mentioned she has obtained some stays however would welcome extra.
“If there’s the tiniest little morsel of my son, sure, I need him again. He belongs to me,” Cain informed the newspaper.
Dr. Timothy McMahon, director of the Division of Protection DNA operations for the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System, known as the brand new expertise a game-changer.
“Will it resolve all circumstances? In all probability not,” McMahon informed the newspaper. “However even when it results in 20 p.c identification, that’s vital. You’re bringing closure to somebody’s household on this.”
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