Hurricane Katrina victim confirmed 20 years later: “She belongs to her” | Hurricane Katrina

A woman who died at home Hurricane Katrina In a community outside of New Orleans, but has remained unknown for nearly two decades, it was finally named before Friday’s 20th anniversary.

The woman was confirmed with the help of the CBS branch in New Orleans WWL LouisianaDorothy Virginia Driggers Taquino, appointed as 81.

The news gives her family the opportunity to move her from an unmarked grave New Orleans According to an unidentified victim of the burial plot she chose in the nearby parish of St. Bernard, “she imagined spending eternity there,” an article by the local guardian report partner and published Wednesday.

“I can only say she finally became where she belongs,” niece Jean Driggers told WWL Evening News anchor. Devin Bartolotta.

Driggers recalled how she and other relatives were unable to reach her “Aunt Dot,” who died and lived in the Arab suburbs of the New Orleans area, eventually destroyed by the storm when they decided to evacuate before arriving in Katrina on August 29, 2005.

Driggers told Taquino’s WWL: “I’m torn. It really hurts me, but I just don’t know what to do.”

According to WWL, Tarkino was found dead on September 12, 2005. Her body moved along with hundreds of others to the temporary morgue established in San Gabriel, Louisiana, about 65 miles (105 kilometers) west of New Orleans, a site of a catastrophic federal embankment failure Hurricane Katrina Many of the approximately 1,400 people died in the storm.

However, as WWL stated, investigators worked hard to confirm her identity after the chaos of the hurricane. Driggers provided researchers with a genetic sample to help them work hard to find the Taquino, but they reportedly said it wasn’t enough to actively confirm the identification.

Taquino’s body was buried along with 83 other unidentified storm victims Hurricane Katrina Memorials near New Orleans City Park.

Taquino Louisiana It said it began investigating the status of unidentified storm victims.

Use information from sources, e.g. Missing and unidentified people in the countryand documents of more than 800 autopsy completed by the Federal Mortuary in the temporary morgue of St Gabriel, exit point noted a case involving a woman wearing a carved necklace after an Arab storm with the engraved “Joseph Cohen High School”.

Her case is one of the only details from within the city limits of New Orleans.

The media reached out with coroner Ray Theriot, whose jurisdiction included Arabia, who gave the case.

Theriot relies on utility bills, driver’s license documents and property records to prove that the woman who matches Taquino’s description lives in the Arabic address where the body was found. He then matched Takino’s high school diploma with the inscription on Joseph Cohen’s necklace.

“We have the right people. There is no doubt.” Theriot told WWL’s Bartolotta, reducing the remaining unidentified victims in the memorial by 29.

With Hurricane Katrina approaching its 20th anniversary, the process of transferring Taquino from the New Orleans Memorial to the cemetery of her choice remains incomplete. The relocation is clearly due to the need to take place in the years since many New Orleans coroners’ offices moved in the years since Hurricane Katrina, which is clearly slowing down, WWL reports.

Still, Driguez said she felt comforted by Taquina’s identity and learned about it when she visited her house.

She recalled her thoughts: “If you like something, you have to let it go” because she was disappointed that the early genetic samples weren’t enough to help track Taquino.

“Okay…it knocked on my door,” Driggs said. “So it should have been.”