Another 9/11 Victim Has Been Identified Through DNA Testing 17 Years Later

DNA testing has led to the identification of another victim of the September 11 terrorist attacks as efforts to return remains to loved ones continue 17 years after the tragedy.

Scott Michael Johnson was a 26-year-old securities analyst at investment banking company Keefe, Bruyette & Woods at the time of the attacks on the World Trade Center, CBS New York reports.

Johnson is the 1,642nd person to be identified among the estimated 3,000 killed when hijackers crashed two planes into the Twin Towers. He is the first person to be identified by the New York City medical examiner’s office in about a year, after a man whose family withheld his name was identified last August.

Hoping to provide closure, the examiner’s office has continued to test victims’ DNA — mostly from bone fragment — as forensic tools advance.

“In 2001, we made a commitment to the families of victims that we would do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes, to identify their loved ones,” said Dr. Barbara Sampson, the city’s chief medical examiner.