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Police Officer

Kathleen O'Connor-Funigiello

New Rochelle Police Department — New Rochelle, NY

September 11, 2001 → Illness

End of Watch August 16, 2018

Age 56

Tour of Duty 20 yrs

The Vigil Panel 169 ›

Gender Female

Incident Service The Sacrifice Department 9

Incident

Police Officer Kathleen O'Connor-Funigiello died as the result of cancer that she developed following her assignment to assist with search and rescue efforts at the World Trade Center site immediately following the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks.

Officer O'Connor-Funigiello had served with the New Rochelle Police Department for 20 years.

September 11, 2001 - The Years After

Police Officer Kathleen O'Connor-Funigiello was assigned to the search and recovery at the World Trade Center site after September 11, 2001. She was 40 years old that fall.

She died on August 16, 2018 - 16 years and 11 months later - of an illness contracted there. She was 56.

She is one of 599 officers honored here, and one of 2 at New Rochelle Police Department.

The most recent of these deaths was October 24, 2025.

Officers who worked the search, rescue, and recovery at the World Trade Center site breathed contaminated air for weeks and months afterward. Many developed cancers and respiratory disease, and they have gone on dying of it ever since.

Seventy-two officers were killed on the morning itself. Hundreds more have died in the years that followed. They are honored here together, because the same attack killed them all. With some it simply took longer.

Survivors

She is survived by her husband, three step-children, and five siblings.

In Our Keeping

Permanent identifier: BO-US-NY-E92B1B02
Stewardship: Maintained by NeuraWeb Global Inc.
Added to badge.nw: August 2, 2026
Last updated: August 2, 2026

Honored here by 1 tribute.

Are you family? This record can be claimed and maintained by those who knew Kathleen. Claim this record.

Also honored at requiem.nw. One record, 2 gates. Kathleen is one person.

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Tributes

You walked into it and it took years to finish the job.
Police Officer O'Connor-Funigiello gave the New Rochelle Police Department 20 years.
Thank you for your service to the New Rochelle community. Gone but never to be forgotten.
Rest easy, Police Officer O'Connor-Funigiello.

— S. Vincent Anthony, U.S. Army 1985-1993

Agency

Department New Rochelle Police Department

Type Police Department

Location New Rochelle, Westchester County, NY

Platform Identity nrpd.westchester.ny.us.gov.nw

Service Record

End of Watch August 16, 2018

Tour of Duty 20 yrs

Age 56

Gender Female

Incident Details

Cause Illness

Cause Detail 9/11 related illness

Weapon Aircraft; Passenger jet

Police Officer Kathleen O'Connor-Funigiello is one of 1 officers lost to illness connected to their service across the full record of this memorial — 0% of all 97,784 officers honored here.

In NY, 629 of 2,147 officers were lost to illness connected to their service — 29.3% of this state's fallen. That is 29.3 percentage points above the national rate of 0%.

At New Rochelle Police Department, 2 of 10 officers on record were lost to illness connected to their service — 20% of this agency's fallen.

New Rochelle Police Department

of 10 officers

20% Illness

NY — Statewide

629

of 2,147 officers

29.3% Illness

Nationwide

of 97,784 officers

0% Illness