Over 20 years after September 11 attacks, victim’s family finally has remains to bury

John Niven was among one of the over 2500 victims of the September 11 attacks, perishing in the southern tower of the World Trade Center. It is only now, over 20 years later, the researchers have found some of Niven’s remains for his family to bury, CBS News reported on Sunday. 

Despite extensive efforts, 40% of human remains from the attacks remain unidentified, New York City's chief medical examiner Dr. Jason Graham told the American site. "As long as there are families who are continuing to seek answers, this work will continue," Graham promised.

After the attacks, investigators collected DNA from personal belongings, such as toothbrushes and razor blades, belonging to the victims. Niven’s 18-month-old son had his cheek swabbed in hopes of finding his father’s remains. 

Nothing was originally found of Niven and the family buried a box of photos and personal items, Niven’s wife Ellen told CBS. 

"For me, it was very sad. For [the son], it was uplifting, in a way, to realize that people had been working all that time to find any piece of his dad," Ellen Niven said. 

A new line of discovery

It was years later, in 2006, that researchers stumbled onto bone fragments, belonging to the victims, on the roof of the Deutsche Bank building across from ground zero. This opened a whole new line of enquiry, and investigators began searching the building, even looking at the dust vacuumed up in the building. 

It was through this new line of discovery that researchers uncovered 700 small bone fragments. 

 "We ended up going through the whole rooftop and we found over 700 small bone fragments on that rooftop. And then we ended up, you know, obviously if there's remains there, we need to search other areas," anthropologist Bradley Adams said. "So, we went through every floor of that building, even to the point of having vacuum cleaners and vacuuming up dust and debris."

"These remains went through every possible thing that could destroy DNA, from jet fuel to diesel fuel, mold, bacteria, sunlight, all kinds of chemicals that were in the building," Desire, an assistant director of forensic biology said. "Everything was present at ground zero, making this not only the largest forensic investigation in the history of the United States but the most difficult."

Some of the remains have undergone testing as many as 15 times - in hopes of finding DNA. 

As time passes, and new technology is developed, the investigating team are hopeful that DNA may be found. 

"But if there's DNA, we're going to find it," Desire said. "We're going to generate a profile. It may take us a while…Some [fragments] as small as the size of a Tic Tac, we've been able to get DNA from those and generate a DNA profile"

Andrea Haberman, 25 at the time of death, is the most recent victim to be identified, CBS News reported. 

Her family drove 16 hours after the attack and searched over 30 medical facilities - praying their loved one was not among the fatalities.

In 2004, her family received the contents of her purse. They would later donate the purse to National September 11 Memorial & Museum at ground zero. 

Andrea’s remains were returned to Wisconsin. 

The Jerusalem Post reported last year on the discovery of the identity of a man and woman killed in the attacks.