Last known moments of doctor who disappeared without a trace day before 9/11
25 years on from Dr. Sneha Anne Philip's disappearance and it's still unknown what really happened to her.
Sneha was a 31-year-old internal medicine physician and resident doctor living in New York City. She had a Manhattan apartment with her husband Dr. Ron Lieberman less than half a mile away from what was the World Trade Center.
The day before the devastating attacks on September 11, 2001, Sneha had enjoyed a day off work. Everything appeared normal for her, but her husband ended up sounding the alarm the next morning after Sneha failed to come home the night before.
The day prior, Sneha spent time in her apartment, repotted some orchids, and then chatted to her mom over instant messenger for a couple of hours, The Independent reported.
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While speaking to her mother, Sneha recalled a fun night out she'd had the night before and revealed what else she had planned for the week ahead.
Later on that afternoon she went to a nearby department store where she purchased lingerie, a dress, bed linen and some shoes. She'd been captured there on CCTV.
According to official records, that was the last known whereabouts of Sneha.
She wasn't home when her husband Ron returned to their apartment after a shift at the Jacobi Hospital the night before. However, it apparently wasn't uncommon for Sneha to stay with relatives in the West Village without letting him know, so he simply presumed that's where she was.
Per The Independent, Ron left again the next morning without having seen his wife. When he heard the harrowing news about the 9/11 attacks, he started to call round friends and family asking if they had seen Sneha – but nobody had.
Sneha was later listed as one of the presumed victims of 9/11, but what truly happened to her all these years later remains a mystery.
A theory her family has what that she died a hero. They think that Sneha had been in the area of the World Trade Center when the planes truck the two towers and then rushed to help the injured, said New York Magazine.
Meanwhile, city officials believe the 31-year-old might have been living a double life. Reportedly her 'struggles' – which her loved ones have admitted to her having – had cost Sneha her job and caused issues her in her marriage to Ron. They also suggested she died the night before the 9/11 attacks.
Her family have long disputed this, however. They even hired a private investigator to look into the matter.
The investigation found no signs of an affair or planned disappearance, WBTW claimed. She'd left her glasses, passport, ID and credit cards at the apartment.
As it's still not fully clear exactly what happened to Sneha, her name has been added and removed from the list of 9/11 victims on a handful of occasions.
She was first removed from the list in 2004 by the medical examiner’s office because police could not confirm that she was alive on the day of the terrorist attacks. A judge then ruled her death as being on September 10.
But her family appealed this and the decision was reversed four years later as it was determined that it was far more likely that Philip died in or near the World Trade Center than not.
Sneha's name now appears on the 9/11 Memorial in New York City.
Topics: True crime, New York, News
Niamh Shackleton