On the morning of September 11, 2001, terrorists managed to hijack four planes and send two of them plummeting into the World Trade Center's twin towers in New York.
The third airplane was plunged into the Pentagon and a fourth airplane crashed in Pennsylvania after several brave passengers were able to overpower the hijackers.
The events of 9/11 took the lives of 2,977 victims in New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. The effects of heat, bacteria and chemicals like jet fuel have made it nearly impossible to identify the dead.
But, for the first time since March 2015, the remains of a Sept. 11 World Trade Center victim have been identified.
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Since 2001, scientists have been testing 21,900 bits of remains; often testing the same bone fragment 10 or more times. Each time, they hope to connect tiny fragments to individual victims.
It has been nearly two years since DNA technology has identified any of the remaining 1,112 unknown victims of the terrorist attacks.
Until now.
On Monday, August 8, 2017, The New York City medical examiner's office confirmed that it has positively identified another set of remains from the 9/11 terror attacks at the World Trade Center.
Thanks to advances in technology that has made it more sensitive to DNA detection, a male victim has been identified.
His family has requested that the medical examiner's office withhold his name out of respect for their privacy.
Due to the devastating destruction, few full bodies were actually recovered after the towers burned and collapsed
He is the 1,641st victim of the 2,753 people killed at the lower Manhattan site. Today, 40 percent of those killed have still yet to be identified.
New York City's chief medical examiner, Dr. Barbara Sampson refuses to give up on the difficult task of identifying the victims.
"This ongoing work is vital because with each new identification, we are able to bring answers to families affected by tremendous loss," Sampson said.
For many families of the unidentified victims, this could be a sign of hope, an omen that the closure they've waited for so long to get is not that far out of reach.