ME's Office Stops WTC Victim Identification

After three and a half years, the city's Medical Examiner's Office will end its effort to identify remains from the World Trade Center. The ME's Office says that it has exhausted current DNA technology, only identifying 8 victims since this past September. Over 1100 people still remain unidentified, and the ME's Office sent letters to families saying that they will resume the identification process when new technologies and techniques are in place. Almost 10,000 bone and tissue fragments that have not been identified will be preserved at the WTC memorial. This is a sad moment, but Gothamist is confident that the city will remain committed to doing its best in giving these families some closure over the next years.

And the NY Times has a feature on the NYPD's counter-terrorism unit made up of highly educated analysts. Based in Coney Island, the unit was created partly because the federal government doesn't turn around info as quickly as the NYPD would like.