Melissa Doi

Melissa Doi
Melissa Cándida Doi (September 1, 1969 — September 11, 2001) was an American businesswoman in the financial industry who was a victim of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. She is known for the recording of the 9-1-1 call she made during her final moments from inside the South Tower as it was engulfed in flames. Her emotional conversation with an emergency dispatcher was used during the prosecution of Zacarias Moussaoui, the only criminal trial to result from the attacks.
Early life
Melissa Cándida Doi was born on September 1, 1969 in the Bronx, New York, to Evelyn Alderete. Doi graduated from the Spence School, before attending Northwestern University, where she graduated in 1991 with a sociology degree and was a member of Delta Gamma sorority. She had ambitions to become a ballet dancer. Doi was close to her mother Evelyn, having purchased a condominium in the Bronx, where they both lived at the time of Doi's death.
Death and 9-1-1 call recording
On August 16, 2006, the New York City Fire Department, acting under a court order, released the audiotapes of 1,631 calls to fire dispatchers, which included then 911 calls from trapped office workers, including Doi's. The call, which lasts 24 minutes, was released in 2006. The recording was played during the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui.
Melissa Doi makes her call from the 83rd floor of the World Trade Center South Tower at 9:17 a.m., on September 11, 2001. When the South Tower was hit by United Airlines Flight 175 at 9:03 a.m., she and five other people were trapped in the impact zone on the 83rd floor, where IQ Financial Systems was located. During the call, the operator tries to keep Doi calm and extract information from her. Doi says, "Well, there's no one here yet, and the floor's completely engulfed. We're on the floor and we can't breathe, And it's very, very, very hot".
During the crisis, Doi asks the dispatcher, "Can you stay on the line with me, please? I feel like I'm dying." The dispatcher urges Doi to keep breathing and praying, saying, "It's going to be fine" over and over, continuing to repeat this long after Doi had stopped talking.
Near the end of the call, Doi spells out the last name of her mother and asks the dispatcher to set up a three-way call so that she can speak to her mother one last time. "We couldn't put her on," the dispatcher says, "We don't have a three-way system for that."
As smoke and heat begin to overcome her, Doi gives the 911 operator her mother's name and phone number in hopes of passing on a last message. That evening, Alderete receives a call from the 911 operator, Vanessa Barnes, who had spoken with Doi while she was trapped in the stairwell: "Tell my mother that I love her and that she's the best mom in the whole world."
After minutes, the call cuts off. It took three years for her remains to be found in the rubble. Doi is memorialized at the South Pool, on Panel S-46 of the National September 11 Memorial.
See also
Casualties of the September 11 attacks
Benjamin Clark
Frank De Martini
Kevin Cosgrove
Betty Ong
List of tenants in Two World Trade Center
References
External links
1969 births
2001 deaths
Businesspeople from New York City
Northwestern University alumni
Terrorism deaths in New York (state)
Victims of the September 11 attacks
People from Throggs Neck, Bronx
People murdered in New York City
Spence School alumni
21st-century American businesspeople
21st-century American businesswomen