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1,650th victim of 9/11 identified after 22 years

FILE - In this Sept. 11, 2012 file photo, The Tribute in Light lights up lower Manhattan in New York. Plans are back on to beam twin columns of light into the Manhattan sky to represent the World Trade Center during next month’s anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. The Tunnel to Towers Foundation announced Friday, Aug. 14, 2020, that it is working on plans to shine the twin beams during its alternative 9/11 ceremony. (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams, File)

NEW YORK (NewsNation) — More than 20 years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the remains of a Long Island man who was killed in the Twin Towers have been identified, according to the New York City medical examiner’s office.

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 Trade Center complex, according to obituaries at the time. He and his young family split time between Manhattan and Oyster Bay, where he grew up.


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.

Roughly 40 percent of victims of the World Trade Center attack have yet to have their remains identified, as few full bodies were recovered when the giant towers collapsed.

The 9/11 attacks killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, at the Pentagon and near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.