Barbara Keating was 72 when American Airlines Flight 11 carried her into the North Tower. She had spent the summer on Cape Cod visiting her grandchildren, and she was flying home to Palm Springs. On August 7, 2025, the New York City medical examiner’s office gave her name back. Technicians had identified her from minute remains recovered in the trade center wreckage, matched through advanced DNA testing against a hairbrush from her home and samples from her relatives. Her son Paul told reporters that a scrap of her ATM card was the only other trace of her ever found. She was the 1,652nd person identified among the 2,753 killed at the World Trade Center. Her family has buried her beside her husband.

Continue reading → The Hairbrush