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The bones of a man killed in the 9/11 terror attacks will be tested to establish if his alleged love child is entitled to any of his million dollar estate, according to reports.

Manhattan Surrogate's Court judge Rita Mella ordered chief medical examiner to release bone fragments of late city trader Michael Morgan Taylor as part of a paternity test.

According to the New York Post, if the DNA results come back positive, 24-year-old Austin Rutherford Colby, from Texas, would be owed a portion of Mr Taylor's assets.

The late investor's sister, Mary Kay Crenshaw, 55, of Arkansas, told the newspaper that the paternity case was "a further desecration" of her brother's remains and a "reopening of her own emotional wounds".

But Ms Crenshaw also acknowledged that her brother had a relationship with Mr Colby's mother, 57-year-old Gwendolyn D. Phillips.

Ms Philips, who is black, claims Mr Taylor, who was white, refused to admit paternity of the child because "he was ashamed of having a mixed-race child". She also claims Mr Taylor's name is on her son's birth certificate.

Judge Mella found Philips' paternity claim persuasive, writing: "On cross-examination, significant questions were raised as to her general credibility.

"Philips' claim that Taylor is Colby's father, however, remained consistent.

"She first made this claim at the time of Colby's birth, when she filed and the paternity and support petition and throughout the course of the litigation in this court."

Even if the results are positive, however, Mr Colby is legally required to prove Mr Taylor "openly and notoriously acknowledged the child as his own" during his lifetime - a bar he and his mother say is impossible to meet.

The Standard approached Ms Philips for comment.