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September
7th, 2002
Trade center
death toll revised down by 22
September
7, 2002 Posted: 9:06 AM EDT (1306 GMT)
Tim
Zolandz, a scientist working with the World Trade Center remains, extracts
a DNA sample during testing
to
identify one of the September 11 victims at Bode Technology Group in Springfield,
Virginia.
From
Phil Hirschkorn - CNN
NEW
YORK (CNN) -- New York officials have lowered the death toll from the World
Trade Center by 22 to 2,801, according
to a revised list of victims' names from New York's medical examiner. Officials
say the number is likely to fall as the painstaking verification process
continues, but it will stand for next week's first anniversary commemorations.
The new list "includes deletions due to fraud, people found alive, and
duplications reported by the N.Y.P.D. [New York Police Department]," said
Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner. Of the 2,801
people now counted as victims, death certificates
have been issued for 2,749, sources
said. Roughly half were granted without dentified human remains in order
to accommodate families trying to collect life insurance or charity benefits.
The remaining 52 names are people reported to police as missing at the
World Trade Center, but whose families have not applied for death certificates
or whose deaths remain unverified. About half are foreign nationals, sources
said. The medical examiner's office has received nearly 20,000 pieces of
human remains from Ground Zero. About a quarter have been identified. The
2,801 names will be inscribed on six 6- by 4-foot panels that will be posted
next week on a public viewing fence along the eastern and southern perimeter
of the Ground Zero pit. Additional panels will describe the history of
the 16-acre site, the construction of the Twin Towers, the 1993 terrorist
truck bombing that killed six people, and last year's devastation. The
Trade Center toll does not include the 10 hijackers who slammed the two
airliners into the World Trade Center, but does include the 127 passengers
and 20 crew members on board.
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