{"id":345855,"date":"2026-09-13T21:56:58","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T21:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/345855\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T21:56:58","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T21:56:58","slug":"9-11-families-seek-closure-as-many-victims-remain-unidentified","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/345855\/","title":{"rendered":"9\/11 families seek closure as many victims remain unidentified"},"content":{"rendered":"

Families of 9\/11 victims seek closure as identification efforts continue<\/p>\n

\"Charlee\"Amy<\/a>NEW YORK \u2014<\/p>\n

Twenty-five years ago, the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner made a promise to identify all of the nearly 3,000 lives lost in the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. Since then, families of victims have sought closure as they await word about their loved ones. <\/p>\n

“(A total of) 2,977 people were killed on 9\/11. Each one of them had a family. Each one of them had a story,” said Patrick Dowdell, who lost his father, Kevin Dowdell, in the attacks.<\/p>\n

Logan Miller, who lost his uncle, court officer Mitchel Wallace, said his family initially struggled with the uncertainty surrounding Wallace’s fate.<\/p>\n

“I knew that they weren’t able to find my uncle. He was missing, but I was kind of told, as many were, that there’s thousands of people who are missing or unaccounted for,” Miller said.<\/p>\n

Witness accounts later helped Miller’s family piece together what happened to Wallace that day.<\/p>\n

“He got off the subway, saw what was happening, and decided to run down to the site and help any way that he could,” Miller said.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

Logan Miller<\/p>\n

Mitchel Wallace helps a woman at Ground Zero on September 11, 2001.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

“There were several other court officers who made the trip down to the World Trade Center with him, about a dozen or so. And a few did see him and two other court officers who also perished,” Miller added. <\/p>\n

Although there was no official confirmation of Wallace’s death initially, Miller said coworkers later shared that they saw Wallace running into the south tower.<\/p>\n

“Having coworkers of his be able to testify that they saw him running into the building just minutes before it collapsed was, I think, enough closure of understanding what happened,” Miller said.<\/p>\n

Then, about a year and a half later, Wallace’s remains were identified through DNA testing conducted by the OCME.<\/p>\n

“In the years after, there were certain artifacts that he had on him, such as his badge, his gun holster, his ring that they were able to uncover in 2005, 2006, 2007,” Miller said. <\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

Logan Miller<\/p>\n

Mitchel Wallace (far right) was on his way to work as a court officer at the New York Supreme Court building when the Twin Towers were attacked.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

While about 60% of the nearly 3,000 victims have been identified thus far, more than 1,000 families are still awaiting confirmation.<\/p>\n

Kevin Dowdell, a New York City firefighter based in Queens, was killed while responding to the attacks on the twin towers. His son Patrick said the family was hopeful in the immediate aftermath.<\/p>\n

“You hold on to that hope because if anyone could get out, we thought it would be him,” Patrick said. <\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

Patrick Dowdell<\/p>\n

Kevin Dowdell (center) poses for a picture with his sons at a firehouse in New York City.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

As teenagers, Patrick and his brother James went to Ground Zero to help search for their father.<\/p>\n

“If we find him, we want to help carry him out, and that was our goal,” Patrick said. <\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

Patrick Dowdell<\/p>\n

Patrick Dowdell (pictured) and his brother helped search for victims at Ground Zero in the days after September 11, 2001.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the Dowdell brothers were unable to find their father.<\/p>\n

“Anytime the door would open, we would all turn and look to see if it was him walking in. And eventually, as time went on, we gradually accepted the fact that he might be gone,” Patrick said. <\/p>\n

Kevin’s remains were never recovered, but traces of his presence were found at the site.<\/p>\n

“Someone found his tool shortly after the 11th,” Patrick said.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

Patrick Dowdell<\/p>\n

Kevin Dowdell\u2019s Halligan tool was recovered from Ground Zero after the attacks on the Twin Towers.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

“It was a Halligan, a tool that he was carrying. It has a ‘KD’ for Kevin Dowdell and an ‘R4’ for Rescue Four welded on it. And that’s the only thing that we recovered that was of him from that day,” Patrick said. <\/p>\n

The discovery helped the Dowdell family begin processing Kevin’s death.<\/p>\n

“It was a tough situation to be in, but we were so tight as a family that we helped each other get through it,” Patrick said. “We buried an empty casket. I mean, essentially put memories of him, letters, and some dust from where we thought he was in the south tower. You know, things that reminded us of him.” <\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

Patrick Dowdell<\/p>\n

James (left) and Patrick Dowdell (right) visit their father\u2019s grave.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

Patrick said that while DNA testing has advanced significantly over the past 25 years, the Dowdell family has accepted that Kevin is not coming home.<\/p>\n

“We’ve accepted that we didn’t get him back, and I think we’re OK with that at this point,” Patrick said. <\/p>\n

The OCME has remained committed to fulfilling its promise to identify all of the nearly 3,000 victims, no matter how long it takes. To date, some 1,654 victims have been positively identified.<\/p>\n

The OCME shared this statement, in part: “OCME keeps its solemn promise to the families of 9\/11 victims by continuing the identification effort, including the recent incorporation of the breakthrough technique of forensic investigative genetic genealogy in collaboration with the New York City Police Department.”<\/p>\n

The forensic investigative genetic genealogy, or FIGG, method was used to determine another victim in August.<\/p>\n

“That’s an amazing breakthrough,” said Mike Cariola, CEO and president of Bode Technology. “FIGG allows forensic scientists to go beyond the immediate family and make the ID from more distant relatives. Hopefully this is just the beginning of many more IDs made as a result of FIGG.” <\/p>\n

Bode Technology, the largest private DNA analysis laboratory in the United States, was part of the OCME’s initial testing efforts.<\/p>\n

“Within weeks of the attack, we developed updated procedures to obtain high-quality DNA from highly fragmented human remains,” Cariola said. “It was emotionally draining on everybody, but we were all dedicated to the mission, and doing all we could to help families and the city.”<\/p>\n

Cariola explained that the remains recovered from the attacks had been degraded from intense heat for extended periods of time, making them difficult to test. As time passed, Bode Technology would develop new methods of DNA testing.<\/p>\n

“It is amazing that so many technologies were optimized and utilized as a result of the 9\/11 attack. The OCME continues that work today utilizing many of the same approaches and improving upon them,” Carolia said.<\/p>\n

Watch more stories on the 25th remembrance of 9\/11:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Families of 9\/11 victims seek closure as identification efforts continue NEW YORK \u2014 Twenty-five years ago, the New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[126246,5301,85220,129492,58136,129493,129494,75,84,83,9,24,63,129495,22358,44357,32230,11803,2917],"class_list":["post-345855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-25th-anniversary","tag-9-11","tag-9-11-memorial-and-museum","tag-commemoration","tag-dna-testing","tag-forensic-genetic-genealogy","tag-forensic-scientist","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-ocme","tag-ocme","tag-office-of-chief-medical-examiner","tag-remembrance","tag-september-11","tag-victims"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}