WCHS 1991 graduate helps in the quest to bring closure to families of 9/11 victims

The tragedy that took place Sept. 11, 2001, will forever live in the minds of all Americans. Anyone who was age 12 or over on that date can likely tell you exactly where they were when they heard the news that the previously unthinkable was happening: America was under attack. Lives were lost and the feeling of safety and security that came as part of simply being an American was shattered.

Now, 24 years later 1,100 victims have still not been identified, but Jason Graham, a 1991 graduate of White County High School, is working to remedy that. Graham, who grew up in Walling, Tennessee, was named New York City’s Chief Medical Examiner, in 2022, and his department has been at the front of using new technology to identify the victims of the 9/11 attacks.

Since 2001, the New York City Medical Examiner’s office has worked through a mass repository of approximately 22,000 unidentified body parts recovered from the rubble at the site of the World Trade Centers. In the early days, identification relied on techniques such as crushing bone fragments with a mortar and pestle before DNA extraction. However, the enormity of the tragedy that took place that day, in 2001, resulted in the need for improvements in forensic science – fueled partially by the NYC office’s commitment to providing closure to the victims’ families.

Over the years, advances in technology have accelerated the collection process: automated DNA testing using ball bearings and ultrasonic vibration; refinements in sample preparation; and more sensitive analytical methods that can extract DNA from highly degraded bone. These innovations have allowed researchers to obtain DNA from samples once thought unusable, expanding the possibility that the final victims may be identified even as remains degrade or become sparse.

In August, Graham’s office announced the identification of three more previously unidentified victims: Ryan D. Fitzgerald, 26, a foreign currency trader; Barbara A. Keating, 72, a retired nonprofit executive; and another unnamed woman whose family asked that her identity not be released to the public. The medical examiner’s office confirmed the identifications, noting that Keating’s remains were discovered in 2001, Fitzgerald’s in 2002, and the unnamed woman’s remains in 2003.

“This is the most complex forensic DNA identification effort in history, and it stems from the largest mass murder in U.S. history,” Dr. Graham explained. “We’ve become more and more successful at obtaining DNA from bone fragments.”

The case of Barbara Keating’s remains illustrates the challenge that scientists face in identifying the remaining victims. Keating was aboard a jet that crashed into the World Trade Center, and her family had little hope of identifying her remains beyond a fragment of an A.T.M. card that had been recovered from the rubble.

“We had forensic experts telling us two decades ago, ‘Really, you should not expect any DNA,’” her son, Paul Keating, explained in an interview since his mother’s remains have been identified, “because of the physical act of the explosion itself, because of the heat.”

However, that all changed three years ago when the medical examiner’s office reached out to Keating’s family with news: a hairbrush had been identified and believed to belong to Ms. Keating. DNA samples from her son and brother were submitted, and now a match has been confirmed.

“We’re talking about people putting in overtime 24 years later, for us,” Paul Keating said and emphasized the family is eternally grateful for the work Dr. Graham and his colleagues are still doing.  “For me, that’s the amazing, amazing part. You know they’re not going to stop until they’ve identified every person.”

The recent identification of the three victims brings to total matched remains to 1,653 of the 2,753 people killed at the World Trade Center that day. More than 90% of those identifications have come through DNA testing, but, while scientific techniques evolve one thing remains the same: the need for closure for families who have spent more than two decades waiting for answers and the ability to provide a final resting place for their loved ones.

Graham said his time growing up in Walling and his years at White County schools have forever etched in him a sense of community and an understanding for the importance of a strong support system. He said his office will not stop looking for answers that the families are needing.

“Each new identification testifies to the promise of science and sustained outreach to families despite the passage of time,” Dr. Graham said. “We continue this work as our way of honoring the lost.”