Melissa Doi

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

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. A recording of her emergency call was used during the prosecution of Zacarias Moussaoui, the only criminal trial to result from the attacks. A portion of the call was also featured in the 2012 film Zero Dark Thirty.

Early life
Melissa Cándida Doi was born on September 1, 1969 in the Bronx, New York, to Evelyn Alderete. Doi's father was Japanese, while her mother's parents were immigrants from Río Grande, Puerto Rico.

Doi was an only child, and was raised by her single mother in East Harlem. She had a close relationship with her mother's Puerto Rican family and heritage.

Education
In 1987, Doi graduated from the Spence School, an all-girls' school in Manhattan's Upper East Side. Later that year, she enrolled at Northwestern University. Although she initially studied engineering, she graduated in 1991 with a sociology degree. She was a member of the Delta Gamma sorority.

In late 1990, Doi worked as an intern for a project which sought to increase the participation of women of color in the reproductive justice movement, by reducing cultural stigma against abortion within ethnic minority communities. The lead author wrote that Doi had helped by making hundreds of phone calls, as well as locating and reviewing reference materials. Doi helped to identify boundaries within the project through her "sincere reaction" to it.

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

Career
After graduation, Doi worked in public relations. She later joined IQ Financial Systems, a banking software company, where she was employed as a business development manager.

Co-workers remembered Doi as a kind and understanding manager. She helped one of her subordinates through a difficult pregnancy, by allowing her to work from home. A customer described Doi admiringly as a "take-charge woman". Journalist Scott Pelley said she was remembered as charismatic and attractive.

Personal life
Doi's passions included dancing, music and painting. A close friend described her as "incredibly physical at just about everything that she did". At college, she had ambitions to become a professional ballerina, but she enjoyed all kinds of dancing. 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. Doi would sometimes skate more than 10 miles from her apartment to her office at the World Trade Center.

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. Prior to moving to the Bronx, they had lived together in a heavily Puerto Rican neighborhood in East Harlem.

Doi was unmarried, and had no children at the time of her death.

Death and 9-1-1 call recording
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. Doi and some of her colleagues made their way down several flights of stairs to the 44th floor sky lobby of the South Tower. At the 44th floor, announcements were made that the South Tower was safe, and that occupants should return to their offices.

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

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. The right wing of the aircraft had ripped in to the 83rd floor, where Doi's office was located.

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. At the time, Battalion Chief Orio Palmer and several other firefighters were rising toward Doi, having made it to the 78th floor. 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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

Aftermath and legacy


Melissa Doi's death certificate was issued on September 26, 2001. Three years after the events of September 11, her remains were identified from the rubble of the World Trade Center.

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.

The Sigma chapter of the Delta Gamma fraternity has established the Melissa Doi Memorial Scholarship, which has been awarded since 2007. This scholarship has been sponsored by Melissa's friends, Lisa Tung and Spencer Glendon.

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

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, and was also featured in the intro to the 2012 film Zero Dark Thirty.

It has been suggested that Doi's emotional suffering was increased by the false assurance that she would be rescued. 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. 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.

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