Ken Tietjen: Honoring a Legacy, Fighting for Justice

By Emily Schopfer

MIDDLETOWN – Janice Tietjen recalls the exact time her son was born. It was 9:27 p.m. July 4, 1970, and fireworks were lighting up the night sky. She also recalls the moment she knew he had died: Sept. 11, 2001.

Ken Tietjen – Kenny to his family – was just 31 years old when he was killed in the line of duty during the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Kenny was a Port Authority police officer for nine years and was in training to become a member of the Emergency Services Unit. He was not supposed to be at work that day.

“Kenny was supposed to be home,” Janice said. He was in the process of building his home in Belford, awaiting a Home Depot delivery. When the delivery was canceled, Kenny went into work. According to The Ken Tietjen Foundation, he was posted almost half an hour away at the PATH station on 33rd Street in New York, but when he heard about the attacks, he commandeered a taxicab and rushed to the World Trade Center.

For Kenny’s younger sister Laurie, the memories of that Tuesday morning are “way too vivid,” even 25 years later. Laurie worked in Manhattan at the time but was in her company’s Parsippany office on Sept. 11. She watched the events unfold live on televisions scattered around her office and remembers the collective realization that what was happening was not an accident. “The second the second plane hit, we knew,” she said.

Laurie also remembers sympathizing with the victims’ kin, thinking, “these poor families.” About 20 minutes later, she found out hers was one of them. Janice was at work when Laurie called to tell her the first tower was hit. As soon as Janice got the call, she said she knew right away Kenny would be there. “If there was a problem,” Janice said, “he would be there.”

“When the second plane hit, and the towers came down, I knew he had perished,” she said.

Kenny was one of 72 officers from eight local, state and federal agencies who were killed in the 9/11 attacks, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page. The site notes that over 25,000 people were saved because of the heroic efforts of Kenny and his fellow officers.

HONORING KENNY’S LEGACY

For Janice, her son’s choice to become a first responder came as no surprise since “he loved helping people.” Two weeks before he died, he had donated his car to a local Middletown family, she recalled.

Laurie, however, said his choice shocked her at first, since her brother was not particularly fond of loud noises or sirens. “But he was always very adventurous and very kindhearted,” Laurie said, so she came to understand why he chose that path. “It was who he was,” and after becoming a first responder, he really “came into himself,” she said.

In her brother’s memory, Laurie runs The P.O. Ken Tietjen Memorial Foundation, an organization that started rather accidentally.

After the attacks, Kenny was originally declared missing. “One of the hardest parts was the waiting,” Laurie said. About two weeks later, the family received a phone call from the Port Authority: a woman had come forward claiming she had been trapped with several Port Authority officers, a story later deemed a hoax.

In the wake of tragedy and an “absolutely heartbreaking” deception, Laurie said she and her family witnessed unimaginable kindness from their Middletown community. When she returned home Sept. 11, neighbors had arranged to display blue lights on their lawns in Kenny’s honor. The family also anonymous received a realistic oil painting of Kenny, left on their doorstep. Janice said they are forever grateful for this beautiful gift.

Even though he lived in Matawan at the time, Kenny grew up in Middletown and was putting down roots there. That is why he is one of the 37 Middletown residents honored at the World Trade Center (WTC) Memorial Gardens near the Middletown train station.

COURTESY THE KEN TIETJEN FOUNDATION

Even after all this time, “they just have not forgotten him,” Laurie said of the community. The Ken Tietjen Foundation blossomed out of this kindness.

In the weeks after Sept. 11, the family started receiving donations in the mail. These donations came from friends, family, community groups and businesses, fellow Port Authority police officers, even strangers. The Tietjens decided to use the donations to continue an annual family tradition, this time in their son’s honor. Each year during the Christmas season, the family would “adopt” a local family in need and provide them with food, clothes and toys in the spirit of holiday giving. Kenny’s job was to provide the children with bicycles, a responsibility he did not take lightly. Less than three months after Kenny was killed, the foundation provided 11 bikes for the 2001 holiday season. In 2025, it donated 300 bikes but has donated as many as 1,500 in a single season.

The foundation has grown, integrating horses and Laurie’s Holmdel horse farm into its mission. “The horses have become a wonder ful conduit for connecting first responders to the community,” according to The Ken Tietjen Foundation website.

“He was the biggest practical joker in the world,” Laurie remembered fondly of her big brother, and a “huge animal lover.” This was something the siblings shared. Kenny would constantly find stray dogs, mostly pitbulls, and would knock on Laurie’s door, begging her to help find them homes. “His love for animals (is) one of the reasons I volunteer at the Humane Society,” she said. Laurie recently became a member of the Tinton Falls Associated Humane Society Board of Directors.

Kenny “absolutely” was a hero, alongside the other first responders, but most importantly, “he was an ordinary person who chose to make a decision to do something incredible,” Laurie said. Even if Kenny had known what he was rushing toward that day, Laurie said she is sure her brother still would have done what he did.

“It didn’t surprise me, but it broke my heart,” she said. She would even venture to say that almost all, if not all, first responders “would have done the same thing he did.”

“It’s in their blood; it’s who they are.”

FIGHT FOR JUSTICE

Janice Tietjen remembers her son with nothing but love but still feels anger at what she sees is a lack of justice for her son’s death. Scattered around Belford are lawn signs reading “September 11th, 25 years, Still No Justice.” These signs were created by Janice and her husband, Ken Tietjen Sr., to raise awareness that after a quarter century, there still has been no trial for the main 9/11 defendants. The defendants are currently being held at Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. military base and detention camp located on the southeastern coast of Cuba.

Kenny’s parents spent a week visiting Guantanamo Bay, a trip Janice said was arranged by the Department of Defense.

She saw the 9/11 defendants with her own eyes and found the entire experience both disturbing and frustrating. “Justice delayed is justice denied,” she said.

Janice is worried that, after 25 years, the “murders” of thousands of people are going to be forgotten. She herself has written over 100 letters to different organizations and politicians to push for a trial, she said, but has received no response.

But the tide may be turning for Janice and others like her. Lt. Col. Michael Schrama, an Air Force judge, ruled last month that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed “mastermind” of the attacks, will stand trial in June 2028. Mohammed was captured in 2003 and has been held at Guantanamo Bay since 2006. Additional defendants who will stand trial include Walid bin Attash, Ammar al-Baluchi and Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi.

Laurie and her husband are also planning to visit Guantanamo Bay, but their trip has been repeatedly delayed. When she doesget there, Laurie said her objective is “to thank our military members who are away from their families” and who “keep us safe.”

It “breaks my heart to see how first responders are treated now,” Laurie said. She urged the public to give them grace and simply thank a first responder when able. Reflecting on the “Never Forget” slogan often associated with 9/11, Laurie said the world needs to never forget what it felt like Sept. 12. She teared up as she spoke about the unity of that day. “This world has come so far from that,” she said, but she hopes people can remember how to come back to that again.

This article originally appeared in the September 2-10, 2026 print edition of The Two River Times.