In a ceremony held on Friday, the family of Barbara Keating gathered in Framingham, Massachusetts, to finally lay her to rest. Keating was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 11 when terrorists crashed the plane into the North Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. She had been traveling to return home to California after visiting relatives.
Her remains were identified the previous year through forensic DNA analysis, ending a long wait for closure. Her son, Paul Keating, noted that the family had carved a headstone 25 years ago, but it remained empty until now. “We carved the headstone 25 years ago, but she wasn’t there, and now she will be,” Keating told NPR. “This feels like, at least to some degree, some closure.”
Paul Keating recalled being in New Jersey on business when the attacks occurred. He watched the towers burn and fall from across the water before receiving a call confirming that his mother was on the flight. Barbara Keating was 72 at the time of her death. She leaves behind five children and 12 grandchildren. A retiree who led a chapter of Big Brothers Big Sisters near Boston, she is described by her family as tough, funny, and smart. She will be buried next to her husband, William.
The identification comes as New York City marks the 25th anniversary of the attacks. Dr. Jason Graham, the city’s chief medical examiner, described the ongoing work as a “sacred commitment.” He emphasized that a quarter century later, officials are keeping their promise to identify those who died at the World Trade Center and return them to their families.
While one additional previously unknown woman was identified last month, her name is being withheld at the family’s request. According to city officials, approximately 40% of the 2,753 people who died in the 9/11 attacks in New York City have still not been recovered or positively identified. Teams continue to sift through debris collected from the World Trade Center site, working roughly 60 hours a week to reunite victims with their loved ones.
Does anyone know if there is a public memorial service scheduled, or is this strictly a private family burial?
Nearly forty percent still unidentified? The persistence of those forensic teams is nothing short of heroic and necessary.
It is so moving to see this family finally finding closure after twenty-five long years.