{"id":399,"date":"2026-09-11T15:42:30","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T15:42:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gameroco.com\/?p=399"},"modified":"2026-09-11T15:42:30","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T15:42:30","slug":"sister-of-man-believed-to-be-9-11s-falling-man-breaks-her-silence-25-years-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gameroco.com\/?p=399","title":{"rendered":"Sister of man believed to be 9\/11\u2019s \u2018Falling Man\u2019 breaks her silence 25 years later"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For\u00a0<strong>25 years, one photograph from September 11 has remained etched in people\u2019s memories<\/strong>. Richard Drew\u2019s haunting image, known as \u201cThe Falling Man,\u201d captured a person falling from the World Trade Center. The photograph became controversial when published, but over time it has also come to represent the unimaginable human cost of 9\/11.\u00a0<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"emoji\" role=\"img\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/s.w.org\/images\/core\/emoji\/17.0.2\/svg\/1f494.svg\" alt=\"\ud83d\udc94\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The man\u2019s identity was never officially confirmed. Journalist Tom Junod later concluded that\u00a0<strong>Jonathan Briley, a 43-year-old sound engineer who worked at Windows on the World<\/strong>, was the most likely person pictured. But because there was no definitive proof, the question has remained unresolved. Briley\u2019s sister, Gwen Briley-Strand, has now opened up about the grief her family has carried for decades.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gwen remembered Jonathan as a\u00a0<strong>deeply religious man who had recently been ordained a deacon<\/strong>. She said some years feel like 25 years ago, while others feel like yesterday. \u201cIt\u2019s a wave of grief. Some years are better than others,\u201d she explained. She also rejected the idea that people who fell from the towers should be judged, believing instead that they were victims trapped in an unimaginable situation.\u00a0<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"emoji\" role=\"img\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/s.w.org\/images\/core\/emoji\/17.0.2\/svg\/1f64f.svg\" alt=\"\ud83d\ude4f\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For Gwen, the photograph is therefore much more than a famous piece of photojournalism.\u00a0<strong>It represents her brother, a son, a family and a life that existed long before that single heartbreaking image.<\/strong>\u00a0Drew has said the photograph was never intended to reduce anyone to their final moment\u2014it was part of a sequence documenting what was unfolding. Twenty-five years later, \u201cThe Falling Man\u201d remains a painful reminder that behind every photograph from 9\/11 was\u00a0<strong>a real person whose loved ones were left behind.<\/strong>\u00a0<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"emoji\" role=\"img\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/s.w.org\/images\/core\/emoji\/17.0.2\/svg\/2764.svg\" alt=\"\u2764\ufe0f\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For\u00a025 years, one photograph from September 11 has remained etched in people\u2019s memories. Richard Drew\u2019s haunting image, known as \u201cThe Falling Man,\u201d captured a person falling from the World Trade Center. The photograph became controversial when published, but over time it has also come to represent the unimaginable human cost of 9\/11.\u00a0 The man\u2019s identity&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-wrap\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gameroco.com\/?p=399\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Sister of man believed to be 9\/11\u2019s \u2018Falling Man\u2019 breaks her silence 25 years later&rdquo;<\/span> &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gameroco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gameroco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gameroco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gameroco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gameroco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=399"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gameroco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":400,"href":"https:\/\/www.gameroco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399\/revisions\/400"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gameroco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gameroco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gameroco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gameroco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}