The DNA matched.
The remains of Sept. 11 victim Alejandro Castano, 35, of Englewood have been found.
Castano’s relatives were notified April 3 that their father, brother and son was no longer one of many unknown disappearances.
Alejandro’s name can be taken off a list of more than 1,300 people who went missing after the Sept. 11, 2001 World Trade Center attack, whose remains were never found.
Although the Castano family knew that Alejandro died that day as he was making an office supply delivery to the South Tower’s 97th floor, they received no tangible proof of what actually happened to him.
During a memorial last year, sister Claudia Castano-Rodriguez said that she, her mother and Alejandro’s son continued to mourn.
"We have no closure, no remains. They haven’t found his body," she said.
"Sometimes I feel like it’s better not knowing if they tell us how he died."
Claudia Castano-Rodriguez said she heard stories of what it was like for some relatives after their loved ones’ remains were found.
One of those stories belongs to Englewood’s Bruce Kane. Kane, the father of Sept. 11 victim Howard Kane, said he tried to reach the Castanos last week but couldn’t get in touch with them.
The remains of Howard Kane were found shortly after the attack through DNA testing, Kane said last year.
Kane likened his experience to what happened to the family of Wyckoff’s Mark Barbiere. After an intense search for the 23-year-old man missing in Colorado, searchers found Barbiere dead last week, buried in six feet of snow.
Kane believes it’s better to have something than to have the unknown.
"They can bring something home rather than believe he disappeared off the face of the earth," Kane said.
"I can only speak from personal experience but I’ve witnessed the pain of those who have nothing. They have nowhere to mourn other than a monument or a stone. Out of about 3,000 Sept. 11 victims there is close to 1,600 in the same boat."
About 57 percent of all Sept. 11 victims have been identified since the attack by officials from the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office using DNA screening, dental records, fingerprints, personal effects and photographs.
According to a 2002 report, death certificates were issued for 1,361 victims whose remains were never found.
Nearly 10,000 samples of unidentified remains existed three years ago. Now, as DNA technology advances the samples are being studied and continuously identified.
Ground Zero workers continue to find bone fragments and other human remains on city streets, under manholes and on rooftops near the site as each year goes by, according to related news reports.
The Castano family didn’t receive Alejandro’s body but the medical examiner did identify his remains, found in the Liberty Street area.
Castano-Rodriguez told a reporter from The Record that her mother feels like she can have "a little bit of closure."
But she said, "without a body, there’s nothing."
Kane said the families of Sept. 11 victims have experienced death in a way few people ever will.
"It’s different when people pass from sickness. These were murder victims," he said.
E-mail: kumka@northjersey.com or call 201-894-6705
