"One of the biggest questions we get is, 'You're still working on this? Why haven't you finished?'"
"We just keep going back to those samples where there was no DNA. Now the technology's better and we're able to do things today that even last year we weren't able to do," Desire said."
"That commitment was a very solemn promise to do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes, to get them identified," he said."
New York City medical examiner's missing persons unit continues the forensic investigation into World Trade Center victims, testing all 21,905 recovered remains ranging from fragmented body parts to small bone shards. The official World Trade Center death toll was 2,753, yet about 40 percent—roughly 1,100 people—have no identified remains. The forensic biology team, led by assistant director Mark Desire, re-examines samples where no DNA was previously found as extraction technology improves and enables new identifications. City chief medical examiner Dr. Jason Graham affirms a solemn commitment to identify victims for as long as necessary.
Read at www.npr.org
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]