Man with SW Florida ties verified the 9/11 Ground Zero flag

Nearly 25 years after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, a part-time Southwest Florida resident says his expertise helped verify a famous U.S. flag tied to Ground Zero. Nick Petraco, a forensics expert at John Jay College who previously worked nearly 40 years as an NYPD forensics detective, described how he and colleagues tested a flag that had surfaced in Everett, Washington in 2014. A man there dropped off the flag, claiming it was the Ground Zero version. Police asked Petraco’s team to run tests for dust samples, including those with human remains. He later wrote a report concluding it was the real flag, later returned to the 9/11 memorial.