Melissa Doi

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Melissa Doi
Born
Melissa Cándida Doi[1]

(1969-09-01)September 1, 1969[2]
New York City, U.S.
DiedSeptember 11, 2001(2001-09-11) (aged 32)
South Tower, World Trade Center,
New York City, U.S.
Cause of deathCollapse of 2 World Trade Center during the September 11 attacks
EducationNorthwestern University
OccupationBusiness development manager at IQ Financial Systems[3]

Melissa Cándida Doi (September 1, 1969 – September 11, 2001)[1] was an American senior manager at IQ Financial Systems, who died in the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.[4][5][6]

Doi is known for the recording of a 9-1-1 call she made during her final moments inside the South Tower, as it was engulfed in flames.[7] Her emotional conversation with an emergency dispatcher was used during the prosecution of Zacarias Moussaoui, the only criminal trial to result from the attacks.[8][9][10] A portion of the call was also featured in the 2012 film Zero Dark Thirty.[11]

Early life and education[edit]

Melissa Cándida Doi was born on September 1, 1969 in the Bronx, New York, to Evelyn Alderete.[12][13] Doi's father was Japanese American, while her mother was Puerto Rican American.[14]

Doi was an only child, and was raised by her single mother in East Harlem.[15] She had a close relationship with her mother's family.[14]

In 1987, Doi graduated from the Spence School, an all-girl's school in Manhattan's Upper East Side. Later that year, she enrolled at Northwestern University, graduating in 1991 with a sociology degree. She was a member of the Delta Gamma sorority.[16]

Doi was said to have "loved" Northwestern, and was looking forward to a class reunion shortly before she was killed.[16]

Career[edit]

After graduation, Doi worked in public relations. In the mid-1990s, she joined IQ Financial Systems, a banking software company, where she was employed as a business development manager.[3][17][18] She played a role in starting IQ Financial Systems,[14] and often traveled abroad to implement the company's banking software.[16]

Co-workers remembered Doi as a kind and understanding manager.[17][19] Journalist Scott Pelley said she was remembered as charismatic and attractive.[20]

Personal life[edit]

Doi's passions included dancing, music and painting.[16] A close friend described her as "incredibly physical at just about everything that she did".[21] At college, she had ambitions to become a professional ballerina,[22] but she enjoyed all kinds of dancing.[17] Doi was also an avid in-line skater, and was known to have purchased rollerblades for children in Throgg's Neck, who she taught to skate.[21] Doi would sometimes skate more than 10 miles from her apartment to her office at the World Trade Center.[23]

Doi had a close relationship with her mother Evelyn, and they lived together at a condominium Doi purchased in Throgg's Neck, an historically German, Irish and Italian neighborhood in the Bronx.[24][13] Prior to moving to the Bronx, they had lived together in a heavily Puerto Rican neighborhood in East Harlem.[25]

Doi was unmarried, and had no children at the time of her death.[3][26]

Death and 9-1-1 call recording[edit]

At 08:46 a.m., American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Doi, who was on the 83rd floor of the South Tower, was initially in a state of confusion, having thought that a bomb had exploded.[26] Doi and some of her colleagues made their way down several flights of stairs to the 44th floor sky lobby of the South Tower.[26] At the 44th floor, announcements were made that the South Tower was safe, and that occupants should return to their offices.[26]

Doi, unaware of the coming danger, stepped inside of a nearly-full elevator, which took her to the 78th floor sky lobby.[26] Doi's relatives suspect that United Airlines Flight 175 struck the South Tower "right after" Doi arrived at the sky lobby.[26]

The South Tower was hit by United Airlines Flight 175 at 9:03 a.m. According to Scott Pelley, Doi and five other people were trapped on the 83rd floor, where IQ Financial Systems was located.[9] The right wing of the aircraft had ripped in to the 83rd floor, where Doi's office was located.[27]

Melissa Doi made an emergency call from the 83rd floor of the South Tower at 9:17 a.m. During the call, the operator tried to keep Doi calm and extract information from her. Doi complained of having trouble breathing, and the intense heat coming from the floor, and asked the operator if anyone was coming to rescue her.[28] At the time, Battalion Chief Orio Palmer and several other firefighters were rising toward Doi, having made it to the 78th floor.[29][30] Doi described hearing voices, which she assumed were her rescuers, however it is unclear what she heard. According to Scott Pelley, it is plausible that she heard Chief Orio Palmer and the men who accompanied him in a nearby stairwell.[31]

Doi asked the dispatcher, "Can you stay on the line with me, please? I feel like I'm dying." The dispatcher urged Doi to keep breathing and praying, and reassured her that she would be rescued.[4][32]

Near the end of the call, Doi spelled out the last name of her mother and asked the dispatcher to set up a three-way call so that she could speak to her mother one last time. However, the dispatcher told Doi that she was unable to make the call.[33]

As smoke and heat began to overcome her, Doi gave the 911 operator her mother's name and phone number in hopes of passing on a last message: “Tell her...that she was the best mother a person could have, and that I love her with all my heart and soul, and that I'll see her in the next world.”[34]

After 24+1⁄2 minutes, the call cut off. At 9:58 a.m., the floors directly below Doi buckled, and the South Tower collapsed.[35] It took three years for Doi's remains to be found in the rubble.[26]

On August 16, 2006, the New York City Fire Department, acting under a court order, released the audiotape of Doi's call to the emergency dispatch. The recording was played during the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui,[4] and was also featured in the intro to the 2012 film Zero Dark Thirty.[11]

A 2013 study suggested that Doi's emotional suffering was increased by the false assurance that she would be rescued.[36] False reassurance can hinder a trapped person's ability to accept their fate, or to end their call with emergency dispatchers and contact loved ones, both of which are palliative.[37] There is currently no standardized training for emergency dispatchers to handle end-of-life experiences, and very little attention has been paid to providing better training since 9/11. Most funding has gone to improving communications technology.[38]

Legacy[edit]

Doi's name is displayed on Panel S-46 at the South Pool the National September 11 Memorial.

The Spence School has established the Melissa Candida Doi '87 Scholarship Fund, in memory of Melissa Doi. The endowment provides a four-year scholarship to deserving Spence students.[39] Another scholarship, the Melissa Doi Memorial Scholarship, was established and fully endowed by the Sigma chapter of the Delta Gamma fraternity, which Melissa had joined at Northwestern University. It has been awarded since 2007.[40]

Doi is memorialized at the South Pool, on Panel S-46 of the National September 11 Memorial.[1] She is also memorialized at 10 other locations in the United States, including the Queen Elizabeth II September 11th Garden.[41]

The National September 11 Memorial & Museum hosts several of Melissa Doi's personal belongings, including her artwork, and her rollerblades.[42] Oral histories related to Doi are also stored there.[21]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c "Melissa Cándida Doi". National September 11 Memorial & Museum. Archived from the original on November 6, 2016. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
  2. ^ "Melissa Doi (Missing Person)". WorldTradeAftermath.com. September 11, 2001. Archived from the original on February 9, 2013. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
  3. ^ a b c "Stipulations" (PDF). 2006. Melissa Doi was a 32-year-old, single woman, who worked as a business development manager for IQ Financial Systems on the 83rd floor of the South Tower (WTC 2) of the World Trade Center.
  4. ^ a b c Moore, Martha T. (August 16, 2006). "1,631 calls to dispatchers on 9/11 released". USA Today. Archived from the original on February 5, 2013. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
  5. ^ "List of Victims from Sept. 11, 2001". Fox News. September 11, 2001. Archived from the original on January 23, 2013. Retrieved September 11, 2012.
  6. ^ "September 11: A Memorial". CNN. June 19, 2002. Archived from the original on September 28, 2021. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
  7. ^ Dwyer, Jim (August 17, 2006). "More Tapes From 9/11: 'They Have Exits in There?'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-10-26.
  8. ^ Powell, Michael; Garcia, Michelle (August 17, 2006). "More Voices From 9/11: 'I'm Going to Die, Aren't I?'". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on April 11, 2023. Retrieved April 11, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. ^ a b "Melissa Doi". The New York Sun. Archived from the original on 2012-09-10. Retrieved 2012-09-11.
  10. ^ "A Call for Help". The Washington Post. August 16, 2006. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
  11. ^ a b Raalte, Christa Van (1 January 2017). "Intimacy, Truth; and the Gaze: The Double Opening of Zero Dark Thirty". Movie: A Journal of Film Criticism.
  12. ^ Alderete, Evelyn. "Inside the Collection: Drawing". National 9/11 Memorial & Museum. Archived from the original on May 17, 2023. Retrieved May 17, 2023.
  13. ^ a b "Melissa Doi Obituary". The Patriot-News. October 17, 2001. Archived from the original on April 11, 2023. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
  14. ^ a b c Delgado, Jose (11 September 2021). "Reviven la tragedia de perder a los suyos". El Nuevo Dia – via PressReader. (translated from Spanish): "Doi Alderete, of Puerto Rican and Japanese descent, was one of the directors of the financial firm IQ Financial, which she had helped to found...She completed her bachelor's degree in Sociology at Northwestern University. Yet she worked primarily in public relations before approaching the field of finance."
  15. ^ "AP News video interviews". YouTube. Retrieved 2023-11-09. Evelyn describes raising Melissa at 0:32 seconds in the video, note that her last name has been misspelled in the transcript included in the video description.
  16. ^ a b c d Carpenter, Ellen; Murtaugh, Dan (September 21, 2001). "Obituaries - CAMPUS". The Daily Northwestern. Northwestern University. Archived from the original on September 19, 2012. Retrieved September 19, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  17. ^ a b c "Melissa C. Doi: Dancing Through Life". Legacy.com. September 2001. Archived from the original on June 20, 2017. Retrieved September 11, 2012.
  18. ^ Mulligan, Thomas S. (2002-09-09). "Lessons From the Recovery". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2023-11-09.
  19. ^ Mulligan 2002: "Melissa C. Doi, 32, whom one customer recalled admiringly as “a take-charge woman...An understanding boss, she once helped a subordinate through a difficult pregnancy by letting her work from home some days."
  20. ^ Pelley 2019, pp. 39–40: "Doi brightened and lightened every meeting at IQ Financial Systems -- a firm creating software for Wall Street. Her complexion was light brown. Her hair was absolute black, pulled back in a tight, profesional style. But the feature no one could fail to notice was her illuminating smile that tickled her eyes to laughter."
  21. ^ a b c "Summer Activities On View in the Memorial Exhibition Gallery". National September 11 Memorial & Museum. 2001-09-11. Retrieved 2023-11-09.
  22. ^ Pelley 2019, pp. 39–40: "Doi had dreamed of being a ballerina...Later, after graduating from Northwestern, she returned to her native New York City seeking more fortune than fame...
  23. ^ Kirsten, Madsen. "New Sports-Related Artifacts Installed in the "In Memoriam" Gallery". www.911memorial.org.
  24. ^ Plambeck, Joseph (2012-03-22). "Fluid Reasons for a Constant Allure". The New York Times. Retrieved 2023-11-09.
  25. ^ LoPriore, Danny (20 September 2001). "Zero degrees of separation in aftermath of terror". HRVH Historical Newspapers. Bronxville Review Press and Reporter. p. 21. Retrieved 2023-11-09.
  26. ^ a b c d e f g "The 9/11 Decade: A Lost Cousin Remembered". Ossining Daily Voice. September 9, 2011. Archived from the original on April 11, 2023. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
  27. ^ Pelley 2019, p. 40: "The nose of flight 97 had hit two floors below her. Part of the right wing ripped in to Doi's 83rd floor.75"
  28. ^ Adler, Margot (August 16, 2006). "After a Court Battle, More Sept. 11 Tapes Released". NPR. Archived from the original on July 29, 2017. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
  29. ^ Pelley 2019, pp. 40–42: "... there was a firefighter rising toward Doi. Chief Orio Palmer...The only recording of his radio transmissions was lost in the labyrinthine bureacracy of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. When the CD was discovered in 2002, the audio revealed that Palmer had climbed far higher than anyone had known...Palmer was now nine floors below Missy Doi and rising fast."
  30. ^ Pelley 2019, p. 43: "From his radio transmissions, we know Palmer reached the 78th floor....The nearest survivors to Palmer were likely five floors above him on 83--including Missy Doi and her five coworkers."
  31. ^ Pelley 2019, p. 44: "What Doi heard is unknown. But based on the records I have studied, it is plausible that Orio Palmer, Ron Bucca and perhaps some of the men of Ladder 15 continued climbing the intact Stairway A, fighting the fire as they rose."
  32. ^ "9/11 victims heard on tapes". Associated Press. August 17, 2006. Archived from the original on April 11, 2023. Retrieved April 11, 2023 – via Deseret News.
  33. ^ Rich, Moore; Content, Contributed (2006-08-17). "'I FEEL LIKE I'M DYING'". New York Daily News. Retrieved 2023-11-12.
  34. ^ Zuckoff 2019, p. 484
  35. ^ Pelley 2019, pp. 45–46: "At 9:58 a.m. the exterior columns along the east wall buckled. The failure raced around the corners to the north and south faces. Two WTC tilted to the southeast and foundered on the floors where Orio Palmer was climbing towards Missy Doi.86"
  36. ^ Rosenthal, M. Sara (2013). "The End-of-Life Experiences of 9/11 Civilians: Death and Dying in the World Trade Center". OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying. 67 (4). SAGE Publications: 329–361. doi:10.2190/om.67.4.a. ISSN 0030-2228. PMID 24416875. S2CID 19556248.
  37. ^ Rosenthal 2013, p. 353: "In this respect, telling callers that firefighters are “on their way” or “in the building” (which was true) is not as accurate as “I don’t know how long it will take them to get up to you” or “I don’t know if they will get to you in time.” Christakis (1999) points out that false hope can contribute to greater suffering, and failure to prognosticate deaths accurately leads people to “die deaths they deplore in locations they despise” (Christakis, 1999, p. xiv). Kübler-Ross (1969) showed that the dying do not wish to be isolated, abandoned, or misled. Trapped and dying civilians in the WTC who could not escape still could make decisions about who to call and how to die. Such decisions were obfuscated by hopeful rather than truthful prognostication from emergency dispatchers."
  38. ^ Rosenthal 2013, p. 354-356.
  39. ^ "Endowment". The Spence School.
  40. ^ Scully, Whitney, ed. (Fall 2011). "In Memory". Anchora of Delta Gamma. Vol. 127, no. 3. Delta Gamma. p. 5.
  41. ^ "Melissa C. Doi". Voices Center for Resilience. Retrieved 2023-11-10.
  42. ^ "Collections at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum". 9/11 Memorial & Museum.

Bibliography[edit]

External links[edit]

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