Disappearance of Sneha Anne Philip

Sneha Anne Philip
Flyer circulated by Philip's family and friends after her disappearance
Born	(1969-10-07)October 7, 1969 Kerala, India
Disappeared	September 10, 2001 Lower Manhattan, New York, U.S.
Status	Legally dead. September 11, 2001(2001-09-11) (aged 31) World Trade Center, Manhattan, New York, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Physician
Known for	Contention surrounding time and location of her death before the September 11 attacks; declared a victim of the attacks in absentia
Spouse	Ron Lieberman ​ (m. 2000)​

Sneha Anne Philip (October 7, 1969 – legal d. September 11, 2001) was an Indian-American physician who was last seen on September 10, 2001, by a department store surveillance camera near her Lower Manhattan home. She may have returned to the building at some point that night or the next morning. Due to the close proximity of the World Trade Center and her medical training, Philip's family believes she perished trying to help victims of the following day's terrorist attacks.

Two investigations were conducted. The first by Ron Lieberman, Philip's husband, and

Citing the evidence from the police report, a Surrogate's Court judge had denied her family's petition to have her declared a victim of the attacks, suggesting it was equally possible she may have intentionally disappeared or been murdered by someone she met on her frequent nights out. However, on January 31, 2008, a New York State appeals court overturned a lower-court ruling and declared that Philip had been a victim of the attacks, officially making her the 2,751st victim of the Twin Towers' collapse.

Early life

Sneha Anne Philip was born in the Indian state of

Lieberman returned to the couple's apartment after midnight that night and noticed Philip was not there. He believed she had stayed out late or all night, as she had been doing, and resolved to remind her the next time he saw her to call him under those circumstances. Lieberman went to bed as he had to get up early the next morning for work.[2]

Later investigation found that someone had called Lieberman's cell phone from the apartment at 4 a.m. Lieberman does not remember it, but thinks he may have awoken briefly to check his voicemail. When he got up for work at 6:30, Philip had still not returned. That evening, after the September 11 attacks, Lieberman was able to use his medical credentials to get through the security perimeter and return to their apartment. Since the window had been left open, dust from the collapsed towers had accumulated throughout. There were tracks in it from the couple's two kittens, but none from any human.^[2]

Philip was one of hundreds of people reported to police as missing after September 11. Like those of other victims, her family posted flyers all over the city in an effort to find her. Philip's case was the only one not connected to the attacks, and, in order to generate media interest, her brother falsely claimed to the media that he had last heard from her during the attack. She has never been found or otherwise accounted for.^[2]

Investigations

By Lieberman and Gallant

Lieberman called American Express and, upon learning about the credit card purchases on the previous evening, posted flyers in other Century 21 stores. Later that week a clerk from the Lower Manhattan store, who had been relocated to Brooklyn, called to say she remembered Philip, who had come in frequently. On the evening of September 10, the clerk recalled that Philip had been accompanied by another young woman, possibly Indian. After reviewing videotape footage for three weeks, Lieberman found the recording of his wife browsing in the coat department, but without anyone else.^[2]

Since police detectives initially seemed to be unhelpful to Lieberman and assumed that Philip had died with the other victims, he hired private investigator Ken Gallant, who found two pieces of evidence suggesting that she may have returned to the apartment building early on the morning of September 11. The first was the call from the home phone to Lieberman's cell; the second was some videotape from the security cameras in the lobby. Timestamped at 8:43 a.m., just three minutes before American Airlines Flight 11 was crashed into the North Tower, and within the 7–9 a.m. timeframe during which Philip typically returned after her nights out,^[4] it shows a woman entering the building, waiting near the elevator and leaving after a few minutes. Due to the poor contrast from the sunlight in the lobby, the woman was visible only in silhouette, but her hair and dress were consistent with Philip as seen in the Century 21 tape from the previous evening. Philip's family also says the woman exhibits similar mannerisms. She is, however, not carrying any of the bags that she would have had from her shopping trip, and again she is apparently unaccompanied.^[2] Lieberman could not positively identify the woman as his wife, but an NYPD investigator believes it was her.^[5]

Gallant at first considered the possibility that Philip had used the attack to flee her mounting personal problems and start a new life under a new identity. However, her computer's

The NYPD was not able to begin investigating the Philip case for some time after the attacks. When it did, it found many details about Philip's life prior to September 11 that suggested she may have been elsewhere, or already dead, when the towers fell.[2]

Earlier in the year, Cabrini Medical Center had declined to renew Philip's contract, citing repeated tardiness and alcohol-related issues, effectively firing her. Shortly after she had been informed of that decision, Philip went out to a bar with other Cabrini employees. The outing led to her spending the night in jail. She complained to police that a fellow intern

Philip's brother says the report of him catching her with his girlfriend is completely fabricated and that he never even spoke with the detective who wrote it. Similarly, Lieberman says the couple never fought at the courthouse after her arraignment. The police, they believe, were extrapolating from what little they could find in an effort to make up for their early inattention to the case.[2]

Court proceedings

Surrogate's Court

In 2003, after the NYPD investigation concluded, Lieberman filed a court petition in

Despite it being suggested that the chances of success were low,[2] Lieberman and the Philip family's lawyer went ahead with an appeal. On January 31, 2008, a five-judge panel reversed Judge Roth's decision,^[4] finding the simplest explanation to be the most likely – that Philip died trying to help people at the World Trade Center.^[7] Judge David Saxe, writing for the other three majority judges, stated, "This is a disturbing case." Saxe observed that the central problem was the lack of direct evidence putting Philip at the site of the attack. However, he said while the City of New York applied the "clear and convincing" standard set forth in statute:

Even assuming that the clear and convincing standard is applicable, the standard does not require an absolute certainty; it merely requires that the evidence make the conclusion "highly probable". Even without direct proof irrefutably establishing that her route that morning took her past the World Trade Center at the time of the attack, the evidence shows it to be highly probable that she died that morning, and at that site, whereas only the rankest speculation leads to any other conclusion.^[5]

Judge Saxe dismissed the claims made in the NYPD report, saying they constituted hearsay, and had not been properly introduced in the original hearing, instead appended by Winner to a post-hearing report. Nor did she properly follow up on assertions made in the report during the actual hearing. Thus, "any reliance by the court on purported facts asserted in those reports but unproved at hearing was improper." If Lafuente had been found to have faced exposure to the attacks, then Philip could be too, he concluded. Saxe considered it unlikely that she had deliberately disappeared due to the lack of evidence of preparations, and agreed with Lieberman, Gallant and Stark that had she died some other way, some evidence would have turned up in the years since the attack.^[5]

The dissenting judge, Bernard Malone Jr., said:

Since it is not known where the decedent spent the night of September 10, it requires speculation to say, as petitioner does, that her route home … southwest of the World Trade Center, took her across or dangerously near the World Trade Center grounds, or that at 8:48 a.m., when the attacks began, she was even in the vicinity of the World Trade Center.^[5]

Malone contrasted Philip's case to Lafuente's by noting that he had had a more predictable daily routine, a more stable life, and that there was independent evidence confirming the meeting at the World Trade Center he might have been on his way to. "The degree of speculation is greater here", he said.^[5]

Philip was thus officially declared the 2,751st victim of the Twin Towers' collapse.^[8] The decision leaves only one missing person whose possible death at the World Trade Center is unresolved. Fernando Molinar, a Mexican immigrant,^[9] has not been seen or heard from since September 8, 2001, when he told his mother on the telephone that he was starting a new job at a pizzeria near the World Trade Center. A similar petition to Surrogate's Court on his behalf also was rejected.^[2]

Aftermath

Since the victims' fund made all its payments and closed in 2003, Lieberman will not receive any money. The decision does mean that Philip's name can be added to official

No physical remains have been found for over a thousand victims of the attacks at the World Trade Center, but Philip's family retained hopes that the jewelry she wore at the time of the attacks, which included diamonds that would have easily withstood the temperatures of the Ground Zero fires, would eventually be recovered and matched to photos the family provided to the city clerk.[2]

At the

Philip's parents have kept her room at their house in Poughkeepsie the same as it was when she lived there, as a memorial, with some added photos and her diplomas. Due to the walking involved, her family no longer attends memorial ceremonies at the tower; Ansu Philip, her mother, prefers to visit the memorial on her daughter's birthday. Lieberman remains close to his former in-laws, and remarried in 2010 with their encouragement.[12]

Two memorial funds have been established in Kerala in Sneha's name. The Sneha Philip Memorial Fund, started by the family, pays for the treatment of indigent patients at a clinic outside Aluva. The Mar Thoma Doctor's Association has also started a fund in her name.^[12]

See also

• Casualties of the September 11 attacks
  • Lists of victims of the September 11 attacks
• Killing of Henryk Siwiak, unsolved killing in Brooklyn that is New York City's only official homicide on September 11, 2001
• Disappearance of Michele Anne Harris, upstate New York woman last seen on late night of September 11; investigation was similarly hampered by the diversion of law enforcement resources to the attacks.
• List of people who disappeared

References