John Ballantine Niven, of Oyster Bay, newly identified as 9/11 victim, NYC officials say
The remains of an Oyster Bay man who died in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, have been identified as that of a married man with an 18-month-old baby at the time of the terror attacks, New York City officials said Thursday.
Officials said they used advanced DNA technology to identify John Ballantine Niven, 44, who died in the south tower. He is the 1,650th person to be identified as part of the city's 9/11 efforts, said New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Dr. Jason Graham with the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
City officials said the remains of 1,103 victims of the attack remain unidentified. A total of 2,753 people lost their lives at Ground Zero.
Niven was an insurance executive at Aon Risk Services who lived with his wife, Ellen, and their son, John, in Manhattan but on weekends flocked to their home in Oyster Bay, where Niven grew up.
In an email, Ellen Niven, who now lives in Locust Valley, said news of the identification was an emotional moment for her after more than two decades.
“I am so grateful for the extraordinary and tireless efforts of the medial examiner's office these many years, working away to complete the process of sifting through literally tons of debris to find people’s loved ones' remains,” Ellen Niven said. “We have a gravesite where we buried a box of mementos, and will now be able to bury part of him, which is meaningful for us. Too many people around the world right now do not have this.”
In one online obituary, Niven was described as a father who went everywhere with his young son, including to car washes and dips in a pool. In quiet moments, Niven liked to read philosophy and history books, the obituary said.
Niven’s son, also known as Jack, lauded the continuing efforts to identify the Trade Center victims.
“As I was, like so many, too young to remember the events of 9/11, it means so much to see how New Yorkers have stayed true to the ‘never forget’ promise,” John Niven said. “The medical examiner's office and the police who continue to deliver this emotional news are doing incredible work.”
In another obituary published three weeks after he died, Niven was noted to have attended Lake Forest College in Illinois and was a member of the Saint Nicholas Society of New York. A memorial was held on Sept. 18, 2001, at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Cold Spring Harbor. He was predeceased by his father, William. His mother, Jeanne Niven, also of Oyster Bay, died in 2008, records show.
The identification of Niven is the third made in recent months with the use of a groundbreaking next-generation sequencing technology, coupled with mitochondrial DNA analysis and other procedures refined in the years since the terror attacks, said Mark Desire, World Trade Center identification manager at the medical examiner's office.
“It took all of our skill set to make this identification,” Desire said in a telephone interview. “It has been a very long mission for us … This family is going to get answers and something physical.”
Next-generation sequencing, also known as NGS, is a breakthrough procedure that had been used by the U.S. military in recent years to identify the remains of American soldiers in the Korean War and other conflicts. As described by one expert, NGS allows specific fragments of DNA to be plucked from a larger, often deteriorated sample. NGS is proving useful in studying degraded DNA and recently played a role in the analysis of rootless hairs found on some of the victims in the Gilgo Beach homicides cases against suspect Rex A. Heuermann, according to prosecutors.
“While the pain from the enormous losses on September 11th never leaves us, the possibility of new identification can offer solace to the families of victims,” Adams said in the statement.
The remains of an Oyster Bay man who died in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, have been identified as that of a married man with an 18-month-old baby at the time of the terror attacks, New York City officials said Thursday.
Officials said they used advanced DNA technology to identify John Ballantine Niven, 44, who died in the south tower. He is the 1,650th person to be identified as part of the city's 9/11 efforts, said New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Dr. Jason Graham with the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
City officials said the remains of 1,103 victims of the attack remain unidentified. A total of 2,753 people lost their lives at Ground Zero.
Niven was an insurance executive at Aon Risk Services who lived with his wife, Ellen, and their son, John, in Manhattan but on weekends flocked to their home in Oyster Bay, where Niven grew up.
In an email, Ellen Niven, who now lives in Locust Valley, said news of the identification was an emotional moment for her after more than two decades.
“I am so grateful for the extraordinary and tireless efforts of the medial examiner's office these many years, working away to complete the process of sifting through literally tons of debris to find people’s loved ones' remains,” Ellen Niven said. “We have a gravesite where we buried a box of mementos, and will now be able to bury part of him, which is meaningful for us. Too many people around the world right now do not have this.”
In one online obituary, Niven was described as a father who went everywhere with his young son, including to car washes and dips in a pool. In quiet moments, Niven liked to read philosophy and history books, the obituary said.
Niven’s son, also known as Jack, lauded the continuing efforts to identify the Trade Center victims.
“As I was, like so many, too young to remember the events of 9/11, it means so much to see how New Yorkers have stayed true to the ‘never forget’ promise,” John Niven said. “The medical examiner's office and the police who continue to deliver this emotional news are doing incredible work.”
In another obituary published three weeks after he died, Niven was noted to have attended Lake Forest College in Illinois and was a member of the Saint Nicholas Society of New York. A memorial was held on Sept. 18, 2001, at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Cold Spring Harbor. He was predeceased by his father, William. His mother, Jeanne Niven, also of Oyster Bay, died in 2008, records show.
The identification of Niven is the third made in recent months with the use of a groundbreaking next-generation sequencing technology, coupled with mitochondrial DNA analysis and other procedures refined in the years since the terror attacks, said Mark Desire, World Trade Center identification manager at the medical examiner's office.
“It took all of our skill set to make this identification,” Desire said in a telephone interview. “It has been a very long mission for us … This family is going to get answers and something physical.”
Next-generation sequencing, also known as NGS, is a breakthrough procedure that had been used by the U.S. military in recent years to identify the remains of American soldiers in the Korean War and other conflicts. As described by one expert, NGS allows specific fragments of DNA to be plucked from a larger, often deteriorated sample. NGS is proving useful in studying degraded DNA and recently played a role in the analysis of rootless hairs found on some of the victims in the Gilgo Beach homicides cases against suspect Rex A. Heuermann, according to prosecutors.
“While the pain from the enormous losses on September 11th never leaves us, the possibility of new identification can offer solace to the families of victims,” Adams said in the statement.
Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.
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