NY NY - Sneha Ann Philip, 31, New York City, 10 Sep 2001

[Baby baby Jane]

I think that sadly Sneha was most likely a victim of foul play on 9/10. It is very weird to me that not one single person confirms seeing or hearing from her after C21. Some things that stick with me:

1. Where are her cell phone records? I was in my mid-20s in 2001, working professionally in Europe, and all my friends then had a cell phone. I find it difficult to believe that a doctor who was affluent enough to live in that part of NYC would not have had a cell phone in 2001. Think about all the heartbreaking calls placed by the 9/11 victims. I’ve read conflicting accounts of whether she in fact had a cell phone and it’s weird to me.
2. It’s been stated that her brother lived near to S and to C21, and that S would often stop in to visit him. There’s a map shown in this discussion
   , and the Missing on 9/11 pod gives the address of S’s apt and her brother’s apt at the time. It’s not hard to imagine S ducking into his building on a stormy night when she was laden down with large bags of shopping.
3. The narrator of Missing on 9/11 states that when interviewed, the brother gave unclear answers to 2 questions: What happened after dinner on the last evening he claims to have seen S? What was he doing on 9/10?
4. Brother’s girlfriend - was she ever interviewed? What did she say? Seems this is a critical witness account that is missing.
5. Surveillance footage from lobby of S’s building - I have read that there were other entrances to the building that were *not* under CCTV surveillance. If that’s correct then S could have returned home at any time on night of 9/10 or early morning 9/11 without being captured on camera.
6. I’ve read that a detective or private investigator who viewed the lobby footage from 8.43am on 9/11 showing a woman that might be S believes that woman came from *inside* the building. If it is S then that’s obviously consistent with her having returned to the building earlier without being captured on camera.
7. I find it odd for S to have headed out to a bar for the night carrying large bags of shopping, especially when she was doing her shopping close to home. If she did go to a bar the night of 9/10, seems likely she dropped the shopping somewhere first - where?
8. It’s also odd that after C21 there’s no further activity on the credit card she was carrying. If she went to a bar/ restaurant that night, it’s weird that there are no further recorded transactions. I guess people did carry more cash back then though.
9. Phone records show a call to Ron’s cell from R+S’s own landline at 4 AM. Ron stated that he doesn’t remember making that call but he "guessed" it was him calling the cell phone to check his voicemails.
10. Ron stated that he arrived back in the apartment building around 11.15pm on 9/10 (doorman had already clocked off) and/ or left shortly before 6.30am on 9/11. I haven’t read of anyone confirming those movements, but perhaps there is security footage of R arriving/ leaving?
11. It seems theoretically possible that S returned home on night of 9/10 or early morning of 9/11 and for some reason called R (for example, because wasn’t actually in the apartment at that time).
12. Also, from memory it was a phaff to call your cell voicemail from another phone. At the least I think R would have had to go thru a menu and key in a code. Seems weird that he would be wide enough awake to complete that process but still so sleepy that he had no recollection of making the call.
13. In this discussion (mentioned above), starting around 1h05
    , the profiler notes it highly irregular that only 2 days after S goes missing, brother tells the press the “hero” story - ie that Sneha is dead. Not missing, but dead. Profiler asks: if you truly don’t know what happened to her, if you want people to help find her, why would you tell the public that she’s definitely dead, only 2 days after she went missing?
    
    
14. I don’t think it’s likely S seized the opportunity of 9/11 to run off and start a new life, but if she did, she would need to have done significant prior planning, particularly regarding cash to live on. Seems like she was used to, and enjoyed, a comfortable life. It also seems like she was smart enough to plan for a getaway, knowing she wouldn’t be able to use her cards. Imo, there would be something in her financial records showing some kind of preparation.
15. I do agree that if it is really S in the lobby footage at 8.43am on 9/11, then it seems more probable than not that she died in the attacks.

I can only reply to bullet 1. Why didn’t S have a cellphone?
USA were late adopters to cell phones. I do not know why, but can confirm that New York City had VERY poor service in 2001 - even as late as 2010 it was terrible, still areas now. The view was that having a cell could be pointless because you wouldn’t receive or make a call in the denser areas of mid town and down town. 3G and Smartphone improved connectivity and ease of texting. Her husband, working in the Bronx probably had better reception. People used home answering machines to relay messages as it was more reliable. Husband probably checked his cell phone from home phone because it was easier - remember those phone from 2000? The little screens barely backlit, the scrolling with the little arrow buttons. It might not have been charging next to his bed.
Cell phone at work - mostly strictly forbidden! I can recall at some hospitals (visiting a patient in 2001) it was considered to interfere with equipment.

A lot of people just didn’t see the need, intrusion, expense etc. She also might have had a pager when she was employed which negated need for cell phone.

Not suspicious that she didn’t have one.

 

[Sonny Crockett]

Completely agree 100% that it's not strange whatsoever that SP didn't have a cell phone in 2001 - by all accounts, that is. Circa 2001 I knew a lot of people in the U.S. who also didn't have cell phones - myself included.

To those who were around during that era, cell phones were not only expensive, but were perceived by many as a "hassle" to have to deal with. And, IIRC half the time they didn't work anyway due to not being able to get a signal, etc. Also wanted to echo that you couldn't bring them into many businesses/areas. And, as was said in most & maybe all offices/workspaces ATT it was even forbidden to have them with you - almost certainly because they were deemed a "distraction", etc. So, it's no surprise at all that many people chose not to have them ATT.

IIRC, cell phones didn't become common-place until the mid-200X's...and some people didn't have them even then.

Side-note: I'm an admitted late adopter to new technology anyway, and didn't get one until much later in the decade.

 

[PeterPenelope]

I can only reply to bullet 1. Why didn’t S have a cellphone?
USA were late adopters to cell phones. I do not know why, but can confirm that New York City had VERY poor service in 2001 - even as late as 2010 it was terrible, still areas now. The view was that having a cell could be pointless because you wouldn’t receive or make a call in the denser areas of mid town and down town. 3G and Smartphone improved connectivity and ease of texting. Her husband, working in the Bronx probably had better reception. People used home answering machines to relay messages as it was more reliable. Husband probably checked his cell phone from home phone because it was easier - remember those phone from 2000? The little screens barely backlit, the scrolling with the little arrow buttons. It might not have been charging next to his bed.
Cell phone at work - mostly strictly forbidden! I can recall at some hospitals (visiting a patient in 2001) it was considered to interfere with equipment.

A lot of people just didn’t see the need, intrusion, expense etc. She also might have had a pager when she was employed which negated need for cell phone.

Not suspicious that she didn’t have one.

Interesting! Thanks

 

[dotr]

.

 

[GatorFL]

Sneha did have a cell phone, confirmed by her husband Ron. The New York article was in error.

A TRAGEDY WITHIN A TRAGEDY: MAN’S WIFE WAS LAST SEEN ON SEPT. 10 NEAR THE WORLD TRADE CENTER – Natalie Pompilio

 

[Sonny Crockett]

I stand corrected. Here's the quote from the above article which mentions the cell phone:

"He called every number in her cellular telephone’s memory, but no one had spoken to her."

So, it sounds like she left her cell phone in her apt. when she left. And, this does illustrate that people treated cell phones differently in that era than they do today. I.e., today you would always take your cell phone with you - when you leave your home.

 

[PeterPenelope]

Sneha did have a cell phone, confirmed by her husband Ron. The New York article was in error.

A TRAGEDY WITHIN A TRAGEDY: MAN’S WIFE WAS LAST SEEN ON SEPT. 10 NEAR THE WORLD TRADE CENTER – Natalie Pompilio

Wow thanks - that’s an interesting article, written so close to the time. It really captures Lieberman’s pain and makes it hard to believe he had anything to do with the disappearance.

I expect then that her cell records were checked for calls made/ received prior to her disappearance and no leads were obtained…

So assuming all calls to/ from her landline and cell phones have been investigated, it seems that if she met up with a friend/ family member/ acquaintance on 9/10, then either she didn’t arrange it by telephone beforehand, or someone is lying.

 

[branmuffin]

Completely agree 100% that it's not strange whatsoever that SP didn't have a cell phone in 2001 - by all accounts, that is. Circa 2001 I knew a lot of people in the U.S. who also didn't have cell phones - myself included.

To those who were around during that era, cell phones were not only expensive, but were perceived by many as a "hassle" to have to deal with. And, IIRC half the time they didn't work anyway due to not being able to get a signal, etc. Also wanted to echo that you couldn't bring them into many businesses/areas. And, as was said in most & maybe all offices/workspaces ATT it was even forbidden to have them with you - almost certainly because they were deemed a "distraction", etc. So, it's no surprise at all that many people chose not to have them ATT.

IIRC, cell phones didn't become common-place until the mid-200X's...and some people didn't have them even then.

Side-note: I'm an admitted late adopter to new technology anyway, and didn't get one until much later in the decade.

I think your profession made it more likely you would have a cell phone back in the early days. I traveled for work so when cell phones made an appearance I was given one by my employer. That was in 1996. It was a Nokia with a screen maybe 2 inches square. Without the infrastructure we have now with cell towers everywhere service was patchy when I was traveling. Most people still used pagers. Medical staff still use them so it makes more sense SP had one of those.

 

[ch_13]

I lived in NYC then and I would say cellphones were pretty ubiquitous, especially amongst well-paid professionals. But most people still maintained landlines and that was the primary means of communication--cell phones still charged per-minute for calls made during the day. It wouldn't be unusual to leave your home without your phone, especially if you weren't planning on meeting with anyone or you expected to return shortly.

One thing to note though is that in the aftermath of 9/11, the entire cell phone network went down. There were cell phone towers on top of the WTC and between that and the overwhelming traffic it took a couple of days before service returned. So even if Sneha had her phone it would have been useless following the collapse (assuming she was in NYC).

Additionally, I'm not sure if it was possible to track someone by their phone in those days. There was an on-going transition from analog to digital standards and I don't think they had yet developed the technology to track where phones pinged. At least, I don't recall anyone ever being tracked that way in the late 90s/early 2000s.

 

[Sonny Crockett]

Thanks for the info. re: cell phone use/usage in NYC specifically during the 2001 time-frame. This definitely gives us a context re: this specific SP case. As was said, note that cell phone availability/usage/signals definitely varied in other parts of the country.

 

[HmmMysterious]

Maybe DNA testing on the remains of the unidentified WTC victims will one day solve this mystery.

For some reason, I keep thinking Sneha died in the attacks, either she was in a elevator or one of the top floors.

 

[iamnotagolem]

Sorry just catching up, how certain are they that she never returned to her apartment? I’m the type to bring all my shopping home and immediately put it away. I can tell you that my husband wouldn’t have any idea if I brought home new stuff and put it away even if he was to go searching for that specific item.