'Amazing' Mom Among 2 Additional 9/11 Victims Identified by DNA Almost 20 Years After Attacks
Dorothy Morgan
Days before the 20th anniversary of 9/11, two additional victims of the terrorist attacks have been identified.
Dorothy Morgan and a man whose name has been withheld per his family's request are the 1,646th and 1,647th people to be identified, the New York City Chief Medical Examiner's office announced on Tuesday.
"Twenty years ago, we made a promise to the families of World Trade Center victims to do whatever it takes for as long as it takes to identify their loved ones, and with these two new identifications, we continue to fulfill that sacred obligation," Dr. Barbara A. Sampson, Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York, said in a statement.
"No matter how much time passes since September 11, 2001, we will never forget, and we pledge to use all the tools at our disposal to make sure all those who were lost can be reunited with their families," Sampson added.
This marks the first time since 2019 that authorities have been able to make a positive identification using DNA analysis. According to the Chief Medical Examiner's office, about 40% of victims remain unidentified.
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Morgan, 47, was on the 94th floor of the North Tower when the attacks occurred, according to WABC-TV. She worked for an insurance company and had spoken to her daughter Nykiah on the phone earlier that morning.
Nykiah, who remembered her mother as an "amazing, giving, caring [and] loving" woman, told the outlet that she was shocked to hear her mother had been identified.
"I didn't expect it after all this time," she said.
Thomas A. Ferrara/Newsday RM via Getty Nykiah Morgan
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Although Morgan never got a chance to meet her second grandson, Nykiah named him after her late mother.
"I'd like her to know a lot about me, the entirety of my life which she missed out on, which I'm sad about," Dorian, 18, told WABC-TV.
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In a tribute to her mother last September, Nikiah shared that she was "eternally grateful" for her mom.
"So here we are, 19 years later," she wrote on Instagram, going on to call her mother "my rock, my voice of reason."
"I just feel like we should've had so much more time together; to teach me motherhood womanhood and so much more. I want to call you on my good days and my bad days to tell you everything. I'm eternally grateful for you and everything you taught me. I'm everything I am because of you. And I thank you," she added. "Love you always!"
