At 9:41 a.m. on September 11, 2001, Associated Press photographer Richard Drew captured an image that would become one of the most haunting photographs in modern history.
The photograph showed a single man falling from the World Trade Center, his body appearing almost perfectly aligned with the towering building behind him.
The image became known as “The Falling Man.”
But behind the photograph was a question that has never received a definitive answer:
Who was he?
The attacks of September 11 claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 people. Yet despite decades of discussion, research, and speculation, the identity of the man in Drew’s photograph has never been officially confirmed.
The photograph itself became controversial.
Some newspapers published it, while others eventually stopped showing it after readers complained about its disturbing nature. For many people, the image was too painful to look at.
But for others, it became a symbol of the unimaginable choices faced by people trapped inside the towers.
Over the years, several possible identities were suggested.
One early theory focused on Norberto Hernandez, a pastry chef who worked at Windows on the World.
His family strongly rejected the identification.
Then another photograph from Drew’s sequence appeared to provide a new clue.
The man appeared to have an orange shirt underneath his outer clothing.
Attention eventually turned toward Jonathan Briley, a 43-year-old sound engineer who worked at the restaurant.
His physical appearance seemed to match.
His height, build, shoes, and clothing appeared remarkably similar. People who knew Jonathan also remembered that he sometimes wore an orange T-shirt.
For a time, the possibility seemed compelling.
But there was one problem.
There was no definitive evidence.
And without Jonathan’s clothing from that morning, the identification could never be conclusively established.
For Jonathan’s family, the uncertainty became another painful part of an already unimaginable loss.
His sister, Gwen Briley-Strand, has lived with that question for decades.
THE STORY CONTINUES ON THE NEXT PAGE… 👇👇👇
