Matthew David Yarnell was a man who was killed in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in Manhattan, New York. His remains were identified in March 2015 and was the 1640th victim to be identified.
Background[]
Matthew Yarnell was born on Mount Kisco, New York on July 31, 1975. He graduated in 1997 from the Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University. He worked on the 97th floor of the South Tower as a vice president and programmer analyst in technology at Fiduciary Trust.
Matthew was known to be a prankster. More than once, he would call his mother, Michele, disguise his voice and try to sell her a random product. "Sorry, I'm not interested," she would say and hang up before she realized who was calling.
A woman named Angela Tsuei went on a blind date with him a few months before the September 11th attacks. When the date without an after-dinner plan, he quipped, "Well, the Duane Reade in the World Trade Center is open." So they went to the store and bought gifts for each other. He bought her animal stickers for her nails and she bought him a rubber duck. Between then and the September 11th atacks, the two would spend hours in his apartment in Jersey City, New Jersey giggling and having fun. Angela once said, "When we got down to the end of the paper towel roll, we would end up smacking each other with it all night. We would be just howling with laughter."
9/11 terrorist attack[]
At 8:46 a.m., American Airlines Flight 11 aircraft, hijacked by Al-Qaeda terrorists, hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center. At 9:03 a.m., the United Airlines Flight 175 plane, also hijacked by Al-Qaeda terrorists, hit the South Tower of the World Trade. At some point, Matthew would call Angela and let her know everyone in the South Tower was being evacuated. This was the last time anyone heard from him. The South Tower collapsed at 9:59 a.m. and Matthew was presumably killed in the collapse. Al-Qaeda terrorists would also fly American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m. and a fourth plane, United Airlines Flight 93, crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania at 10:03 a.m. after passengers fought back against the hijackers.
Overall, 2,977 Americans and people of other nationalities and nineteen Al-Qaeda hijackers were killed and 25,000 people were injured in the September 11th attacks.
Aftermath[]
After the attacks, it was determined the Islamic terrorist group Al-Qaeda led by Osama bin Laden was responsible for the September 11th attacks. The US responded to this by starting the War in Afghanistan and the War on Terrorism. Bin Laden was killed in a US military raid in 2011 in Pakistan.
Matthew was one of 97 employees of Fiduciary Trust and its parent company, Franklin Templeton Investments to be killed in the terrorist attacks. During the cleanup of the site, his remains were recovered between 2001 and 2002, but they were not identified.
Identification[]
Since the attack, the New York Medical Examiner's Office has been using DNA technology to identify about 22,000 remains that were recovered. Mark Desire, the assistant director of forensic technology at the medical examiner’s office, commented on the task, "As a forensic scientist, you're trained to be neutral and unbiased. But with the World Trade Center investigation, it's a different kind of case and you meet with the families and the hugs and the thank yous, it gets emotional with them and it really helps with that drive to keep improving that process."
Using the DNA the Yarnell family had provided after the attack, the medical examiner’s office identified Matthew Yarnell's remains in March 2015. He is considered the 1,640 victim whose remains have been identified. His name is on Panel S-41 at the National September 11 Memorial in Manhattan.
Gallery[]
Sources[]
- Matthew Yarnell at Find a Grave
- The New York Times:
- September 11th Families' Association
- September 11 attacks on Wikipedia