Remains of Victim at World Trade Center Are Identified

John Niven's family say officials' effort reflects 'Never Forget'
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jan 18, 2024 7:10 PM CST
Remains of Victim at World Trade Center Are Identified
Twin beams of light commemorating the fallen twin towers of the World Trade Center are tested on Sept. 7, 2022, in New York City.   (AP Photo/J. David Ake)

The remains of a Long Island man killed at the World Trade Center on 9/11 have been identified more than two decades after the 2001 attacks, the New York City medical examiner's office announced Thursday. John Ballantine Niven was a 44-year-old executive at Aon Risk Services, an insurance firm on the 105th floor of Tower Two of the complex, according to obituaries at the time. He and his young family split time between Manhattan and Oyster Bay, where he grew up.

Ellen Niven, his wife, said Thursday that she and their son, Jack, who was 18 months old when his father died, are grateful for the "extraordinary efforts" of city officials continuing the difficult task of identifying victims' remains. "It is certainly emotional for me, and I'm sure many others, to hear many years later that DNA has been found," she wrote in an email. "It's a real tribute to the City of New York and the teams working behind the scenes all these years to honor that mantra 'Never Forget.'" Niven is the 1,650th victim identified from the deadliest act of terrorism on American soil, when hijackers crashed airplanes into the Twin Towers, killing 2,753 people.

The medical examiner's office has been using advanced DNA analysis to identify victim remains in recent years, per the AP. Roughly 40% of victims of the World Trade Center attack have yet to have their remains identified, as few full bodies were recovered when the towers collapsed. But as DNA testing has evolved, so have efforts to connect more than 21,900 remains to individual victims. In some cases, scientists have gone back to the same remains 10 or more times, hoping new technology will provide answers. The 9/11 attacks killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, at the Pentagon and near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

(More 9/11 victims stories.)

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