3 Sept. 11 victims' remains are newly identified, nearly 24 years later

NEW YORK — Three 9/11 victims’ remains have newly been identified, officials said this week, as evolving DNA technology keeps making gradual gains in the nearly quarter-century-long effort to return the remains of the dead to their loved ones.

New York City officials announced Thursday they had identified remains of Ryan D. Fitzgerald, a 26-year-old currency trader; Barbara A. Keating, a 72-year-old retired nonprofit executive; and another woman whose name authorities kept private at her family's request.

The three already were among the thousands of people long known to have died in the al-Qaida hijacked-plane attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and long listed among the names on the National Sept. 11 Memorial in New York City. But these families, like many others, never previously knew of any r