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

[Redbird]

After reading through this thread for the first time, my first thought is there is no way she would have abandoned the life she had established which included a residency in internal medicine. I don't believe anyone that self-disciplined and hard working would have thrown it away for any reason. I tend to believe she did go to the WTC on Sept. 11 and perhaps the companion seen on surveillance tapes was with her.

 

[neverletgo]

It's interesting to hear everyone's theories.

I go back and forth between whether I believe she died in the attacks on 09/11, died the night before on 09/10 somehow, or is alive and living elsewhere. I tend to believe that she is deceased, but I really don't know sometimes.

 

[leilarose68]

i think the woman she went shopping for lingerie with was her lover (so telling that no one knew who she was), and sneha ran away to be with her (hoping that her family would believe she died in 9/11, or could use the excuse of the 9/11 attacks for public perception purposes). i feel like her family is in denial about who she was or was very traditional and didn't want to acknowledge that she was a lesbian. perhaps they were very ashamed of her. maybe her husband allowed her to see women sexually on the side but it wasn't enough. all of the insinuations about her sex life... maybe she was tired of living a lie and had to make a clean break. i wonder how difficult it would be for her to live an undercover life in this way?

this is just my feeling about the situation. i think the 9/11 thing is a convenient excuse for the family and it's telling that the appellate judge wasn't convinced.

 

[leilarose68]

wow i wrote my post before i read cupcake07's! same theory. and i think it's true.

i think the family doesn't necessarily want to find her... they know what the deal is. they know that sneha doesn't want to be found but they do want the public to see sneha as a hero. i feel like the identity of sneha's companion would have been ID'd already if there was a serious effort to find sneha.

major public disasters like hurricanes or 9/11 have been used by a lot of people to disappear and start new lives.

if sneha is out there! if sneha is reading this. i hope you are well and i hope you found what you were looking for.

 

[misterjones]

I had some involvement with identifying missing persons as a result of the 9/11 attacks, and the Sneha Philip case always bugged me. It is highly doubtful she was near (i.e., walking by) the Trade Center and killed by debris. They very likely would have found remains. It is highly doubtful she entered one of the buildings to "help". It really was not possible for non-emergency personnel to enter any of the buildings after the attacks. It's doubtful she was alive after 9/11, since there very likely would have been some sort of trail (e.g., credit card use). As an Indian national, she could have returned to India without a passport, but the credit card issue remains. The odds of her being killed by some other means (say, late on 9/10) is remote. Very likely a body would have been found eventually. She wasn't exactly Jimmy Hoffa. Since records of who entered the World Trade Center the day of (but before) the attacks were destroyed when the buildings collapsed, she could have accompanied someone to his or her office and been killed without a trace. Also, she could have been killed in the Marriott Hotel, which was destroyed that day. Since there was no room in her name, she would have had to have been staying with someone else. I know of at least one other person who likely met her fate that way (though in her case there was a room in her name). These last two scenarios (visitor and hotel guest) are the most likely scenarios.

 

[neverletgo]

Thinking of Sneha today, wherever she may be.

 

[MysteryMaven]

Thinking of Sneha. In regard to the Marriott, she could have stayed there on 9/10 and been killed on 9/11. But again I feel like she would have used someone's phone to call family when she knew she wasn't getting out. Unless she didn't have time. I am going to read up on what happened at The Marriott.
So she bought lingerie and bed linens on 9/10. I wonder what size the linens were and if that matched what she had in her apt.
I assume her husband never found the bags of stuff in their apt?
Also it was mentioned elsewhere that Sneha had her court date on the morning of 9/10, and that she and Ron had a big fight outside the courthouse afterward. I feel like Sneha was going through a hard time personally and professionally and the shopping trip could have been something to make her feel better. Maybe she went out to party on 9/10 and was harmed. Or maybe everything was a catalyst for her to run off. I feel like there is a good argument for all possibilities and it makes this case so frustrating.
1. Sneha was known to go to bars and stay over with people she just met. This can lead to foul play.
2. Sneha was obviously having some issues and may have decided to run away
3. Sneha lived near the WTC and could have died in the attacks

Maybe her DNA will be ID'd in one of the 9,000 fragments left.

 

[Murkywaters]

Thinking of Sneha and her family today.

 

[Littlegreenlady]

http://nymag.com/news/features/17336/

More than 9,000 people were reported missing on September 11, though the NYPD quickly whittled down the list. Officials discovered names that had been listed more than once. People called to say they had heard from “missing” loved ones. Investigators uncovered numerous cases of fraud. But years later, a few stragglers remained, people whose fates had never been resolved. Did they die on September 11? If not, what happened to them? In January 2004, the medical examiner’s office announced that it was removing the last three names from the list of 9/11 victims, leaving the total at 2,749, where it still stands. Sneha’s was one of those three names.

A long read, but goes into details about how she was classed as a victim, then wasn't.

It sounds like there were a lot of issues going on with her, and that the marriage wasn't 100% happy. which might go someway to explain why the husband didn't know who her friends were, or where she had been staying

 

[Fukiyama]

Is that article new?

 

[hot cawfeee]

thanks for posting the article ! I have a cousin who is retired NYPD and worked at WTC id'ing remains..........he told me that "if anyone ever wanted to disappear, this is the perfect time to do it" B/c of all the chaos, all the people in and out etc anyone could go anywhere. I think she was unhappy and left.

 

[Fukiyama]

thanks for posting the article ! I have a cousin who is retired NYPD and worked at WTC id'ing remains..........he told me that "if anyone ever wanted to disappear, this is the perfect time to do it" B/c of all the chaos, all the people in and out etc anyone could go anywhere. I think she was unhappy and left.

I totally agree with this. If anyone remembers Post Secret, one of the postcards featured there bore the secret, "Everyone I knew before 9/11 thinks I'm dead."

 

[kilahchris]

A very compelling story. But after doing research and reading up on this case. I come to the conclusion she was not killed at the 9/11 site. There is very little evidence to support that she entered the site or was killed by debris. This is a woman who was struggling professionally, legally, and emotionally. A married woman who hangs out all night and not come home is a sign of failing marriage. Sneha also had a powerful substance abuse problem. A number of things can happen to you hanging out late drinking in New York City. My gut instincts tells me due to chaos of 9/11 she used that day as opportunity to run away from her life in New York. This was something that was planned but the chaos on 9/11 made her plans much easier to accomplish.

From what i read she was a medical intern, I do not believe the first responders and the NYPD would allow her to run into the burning tower given her medical credentials i do not think she would of gotten clearance to enter.

 

[Fukiyama]

From what i read she was a medical intern, I do not believe the first responders and the NYPD would allow her to run into the burning tower given her medical credentials i do not think she would of gotten clearance to enter.

Are you familiar with the documentary film 9/11 by the Naudet brothers? The brothers were filming with the New York Fire Department that day were eyewitnesses to events. One of the brothers was with one of the first companies dispatched to the Towers and the other brother was back at the firehouse. The other brother attempted to go to the Towers himself and had credentials from the fire commissioner giving him total access to everything the Fire Department did, but he was still turned down cold. If he with his credential from the Fire Department itself couldn't get in, I highly doubt some intern with her ID badge from Hospital X would have been allowed. She would have been sent to the staging area where they had all the medical people and ambulances for triage and transportation.

 

[Tssiemer]

I don't think there were people carding and checking credentials at the doors during this.


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[Fukiyama]

I don't think there were people carding and checking credentials at the doors during this.

You mean at the doors of the Towers themselves?

The Naudet brother was stopped long before he got near the WTC complex. NYPD and other law enforcement officials set up a perimeter to keep people away.

 

[flourish]

This is such a fascinating case! Right after 9/11 I thought, "someone (okay I was thinking me) needs to write a book about someone taking advantage of this event to disappear." it's possible that happened here... Truth is stranger than fiction they say. I've been thinking about this case a lot since I first read about it earlier this week. I wonder if we'll ever know.

 

[Fukiyama]

Bump. I turned on the reading of names, but they don't close caption the individual names anymore. D:

 

[Curious-Cat]

I saw this case on Unsolved Mysteries yesterday and have always been interested in it. I always thought Sneha Philip should not have been placed on the 9/11 victims list, but I think the appeals court simply believed she was the figure standing in her apartment lobby the morning of 9/11. Some accounts say she walked away a few minutes before the first tower was hit and others say she walked away after the first plane hit. If they believe it was her and she ran to the scene, I assume it's reasonable to believe she was killed. Strange that her remains have never been found. If she left before the planes hit, perhaps she realized she had left her shopping bags at the friend's place and decided to go back and retrieve them, assuming the friend lived close by. She could have been walking close to the WTC when it was struck.

As for the woman Sneha was seen with in the store, she appeared to be carrying bags as they were exiting. Couldn't the store have checked receipts at the time to get an idea of who she was? Did investigators/police interview witnesses at the lesbian establishments Sneha frequented. In other words, somebody knows something. If that woman was killed in the attacks, haven't family or friends connected the dots or recognized her on the store tape?

 

[jinger]

I don't think she was in 9/11 at all. she either used it as an excuse to disappear or something happened the day before due to her lifestyle choices. Disappeared due to her lifestyle that wouldn't be accepted by her family. She had already lost her job.