On September 10, 2001, an Indian-American physician vanished in Lower Manhattan. Her name was Sneha Anne Philip. Her case sits at the intersection of a private life in flux and a national catastrophe.
Kerala, Then Upstate
Sneha was born in Kerala in 1969 to Ansu and Philip Kochiyil Philip. She was one of three children. The family later moved to the United States and settled first near Albany, then in Hopewell Junction.
They built a new life in Dutchess County. Sneha grew up between traditions, languages, and expectations. She leaned into academics. Her path pointed toward medicine long before headlines would attach to her name.
Hopkins, Chicago, Medicine
Sneha graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 1991. In 1995, she enrolled in medical school in Chicago. There, she met Ron Lieberman, a student a year behind her, who shared a creative streak.
They balanced medicine with art. Ron played music, and Sneha painted. She later took a year to travel in Italy so the two could graduate together. They planned a shared career and a shared place in New York.
New York Internships
When they moved to New York, Ron began at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx. Sneha started at Cabrini Medical Center in Manhattan. They lived first in a small East Village apartment near her internship.
In May 2000, they married in Dutchess County. The ceremony combined Jewish and Saint Thomas Syrian Christian elements. Ron gave Sneha a minnu, a gold tear-shaped pendant with a diamond, traditional in Malayali weddings.
The couple then moved to Battery Park City. The new apartment sat close to the World Trade Center. It placed them within walking distance of the towers, the river, and the crowded downtown streets.
September 10, 2001
Sneha had the day off. She spent nearly two hours chatting online with her mother. She mentioned visiting Windows on the World for a friend’s upcoming wedding and the possibility of shopping at the Trade Center.
That afternoon, she dropped clothes at a neighborhood dry cleaner. She went to Century 21 near the towers and used the couple’s American Express card to buy lingerie, a dress, pantyhose, and bed linens.
She also purchased three pairs of shoes at the store’s annex. Century 21 surveillance recorded her browsing alone. These purchases and that video are the last confirmed records of her movements before she disappeared.
After Midnight
Ron returned home after midnight and found the apartment empty. He assumed she had stayed out, which had happened before. He went to sleep, planning to remind her to call next time it occurred.
At 4 a.m., his cell phone logged a call from their apartment. He did not remember answering. When he woke at 6:30 a.m., Sneha still had not returned. Then, the morning changed the city forever.
A City Covered in Dust
After the towers fell, Ron used his medical credentials to pass the secured perimeter and reach their apartment. Dust from the collapse covered surfaces. The window had been left open, and the pale grit had drifted inside.
The kittens’ paw prints crossed the dust. No human tracks pressed into the film. The scene suggested no one had come in after the collapse. Sneha did not appear, and the apartment offered no immediate clue.
Missing Flyers, One False Lead
Like many families, Sneha’s family posted flyers across the city. Her case was initially separate from the attacks. To draw attention, her brother falsely claimed last contact during the attacks. The statement later unraveled.
No physical remains tied her to the towers. Yet the scale of the disaster meant many families never received remains. Her family saw her proximity, training, and character as pointing her toward the triage that morning.
Two Investigations, Two Stories
Two investigations would define the case. Ron and private investigator Ken Gallant worked first. The New York City Police Department began its formal inquiry later, after the initial crush on resources eased.
Ron’s inquiry, supported by Gallant, initially leaned away from the attacks. As they pieced together small facts, they shifted, concluding the attacks likely explained her disappearance. The NYPD’s work produced a competing narrative.
The Private Investigator’s Trail
Gallant found two key data points. First, the 4 a.m. call from the apartment to Ron’s cell. Second, lobby security footage from their building, timestamped 8:43 a.m., three minutes before the first plane hit.
The video showed a woman entering the lobby, waiting near the elevator, and leaving after minutes. Sunlight washed the image. Only a silhouette was visible. Her hair and clothing matched Sneha’s appearance the previous evening.
The woman carried no shopping bags. She appeared alone. Family members recognized familiar mannerisms. Ron could not confirm the identification. An NYPD investigator believed the woman was Sneha; the image never achieved certainty.
Gallant checked Sneha’s computer. He found no preparations for a planned disappearance. She had left passport, driver’s license, and credit cards behind, except the American Express card. Ron kept that account open for any future lead.
No new transactions appeared. The private investigation ended with a conclusion. If she was near the towers, her training would have sent her toward the injured. They believed she died at or near the site.
The NYPD Narrative
The NYPD began later and looked backward through the year. Detectives found Cabrini had declined to renew her contract. Administrators cited tardiness and alcohol-related issues. The decision effectively ended her role at the hospital.
Soon after learning of the nonrenewal, Sneha went out with colleagues. The night ended with her arrest. She alleged a fellow intern groped her. Prosecutors dropped that charge and pursued a misdemeanor for falsely reporting.
Prosecutors offered to drop the misdemeanor if she recanted. She refused. She was held overnight. The case remained active months later. On the morning of September 10, she was arraigned and pleaded not guilty.
According to the NYPD, Sneha and Ron fought after the arraignment. Ron denied the claim. The report also said she frequented gay and lesbian bars, some known for rough crowds, and sometimes left with women she met.
Police further asserted that her brother discovered her with his girlfriend. He disputed the story and said he never spoke to the detective who authored the report. The claim stayed in the police narrative anyway.
Sneha had started a new internship in internal medicine at St. Vincent’s Medical Center on Staten Island. According to records, she was suspended for missing a meeting with a substance abuse counselor tied to her employment.
These pieces led the NYPD to a different possibility. Investigators argued she may not have died at the towers. She could have disappeared intentionally or encountered harm in the city during a night out.
The Family Pushes Back
Her husband and family challenged the NYPD’s account. They argued Cabrini dismissed her because she raised concerns about racial and sexual bias. The hospital told a reporter it had no record of a formal complaint.
Ron acknowledged that Sneha visited lesbian bars. He said she did so to avoid harassment after the alleged groping. He maintained she did not have sexual relationships with women she met, and that nights were often social.
He described music, conversation, and art. He recalled one return covered in paint after a night at an artist’s studio. The family accused police of overreach and fabrication to cover a sluggish start on a sensitive case.
They pointed to the scale of the disaster. Many victims were added to official lists without direct physical proof. They argued Sneha’s proximity and training made her presence at the scene more likely than any alternative.
Removed, Then Restored
In January 2004, the city medical examiner removed Sneha from the official victims list. She was one of the final three removed. The decision cited evidence that did not tie her directly to the World Trade Center.
Ron petitioned New York County Surrogate’s Court in 2003 to recognize her as a 9/11 victim. State law required clear and convincing evidence of exposure to lethal peril for the presumption of death to apply.
Ron argued her training would have drawn her to the scene. Her mother testified about the online chat on September 10. Sneha had mentioned Windows on the World and possible shopping at the Trade Center mall.
The court appointed Ellen Winner as guardian ad litem. She introduced the NYPD report and argued there was no clear evidence that Sneha was at or near the towers that morning when the attacks began.
In June 2006, Judge Renee Roth ruled the death could not be tied to the attacks. The court set Sneha’s legal date of death as September 10, 2004, three years after she was reported missing under state law.
A Comparison Case
The family appealed and cited a comparison. Juan Lafuente, a volunteer fire marshal from Poughkeepsie, was accepted as a victim. His case rested on circumstantial evidence. He had recently lost a job and faced depression.
Lafuente’s office was eight blocks north of the site. A deli customer reported overhearing that he had a meeting at the towers that morning. The court accepted that testimony and concluded he died in the North Tower.
Sneha’s family believed differences in venue and profile influenced the outcome. Lafuente’s wife, Colette, was Poughkeepsie’s mayor, and his case was heard in Dutchess County, not Manhattan. They argued for consistent standards across similar cases.
The Appeal That Changed Everything
On January 31, 2008, a New York State appeals court reversed Judge Roth’s decision. The panel concluded the simplest explanation fit the evidence. Sneha likely died while trying to help at the World Trade Center.
Judge David Saxe wrote the majority opinion. He said absolute certainty was not required. Clear and convincing meant highly probable, not irrefutable. In this record, only speculation supported other conclusions about her fate that morning.
Saxe criticized procedural issues in the initial proceeding. The NYPD report contained hearsay and arrived appended to a post-hearing submission. The guardian ad litem had not properly developed those assertions through hearing testimony.
One judge, Bernard Malone Jr., dissented. He argued that Sneha’s nightly routine was unpredictable and that her location on the morning of the attacks was unknown. He believed the degree of speculation remained too high.
The majority carried the day. The court declared Sneha a victim of the attacks. She was officially recorded as the 2,751st victim of the collapse of the Twin Towers in Lower Manhattan.
Grief, Rooms, Ashes
Her family buried an urn containing ashes from Ground Zero in a cemetery near their home. They kept her bedroom preserved, with photographs and diplomas. Memorial rituals shifted with time, distance, and physical strain.
Sneha’s mother preferred to visit the memorial privately on her daughter’s birthday. The long walks at public ceremonies became difficult. The family adapted the remembrance to something quieter, simpler, and focused on the person they knew.
One More Missing Name
The decision in her case left a single missing person whose possible World Trade Center death remained unresolved. Fernando Molinar, a Mexican immigrant, disappeared after September 8, 2001. He told his mother he had a new job near the towers.
A similar Surrogate’s Court petition on his behalf was rejected. Molinar’s case never received the legal recognition granted to Sneha. It lingers near hers, separated by facts, testimony, and differing judicial outcomes.
Aftermath
By the time Sneha was legally declared a 9/11 victim, the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund had already closed. Ron Lieberman received no money, but the ruling allowed her inclusion in the public record of victims.
Her name was inscribed on Panel S-66 of the South Pool at the National September 11 Memorial. For her family, the official recognition gave permanence to what they had long believed.
At Dutchess Community College, where her mother worked as a computer programmer, a memorial specifically honoring Sneha was established. The family also buried an urn filled with ashes from Ground Zero in a cemetery near their home.
Her parents kept her bedroom preserved in Poughkeepsie. Photographs and diplomas lined the walls. They added small reminders over the years, but the room remained a place to remember her as she had been.
Ansu Philip, her mother, no longer attended large memorial ceremonies at the towers. The long walks became difficult. Instead, she visited the memorial quietly on her daughter’s birthday, marking the day in her own way.
Ron maintained close ties with Sneha’s family even after moving forward. In 2010, he remarried with their encouragement. Despite changes in his personal life, his bond with his in-laws endured through grief and respect.
In Kerala, two funds were created in her memory. The Sneha Philip Memorial Fund provided treatment for indigent patients at a clinic outside Aluva. The Mar Thoma Doctor’s Association also established a fund in her name.
The family held on to one hope: that Sneha’s jewelry might someday surface. She had been wearing diamond pieces that could have withstood the intense heat at Ground Zero. They provided photographs to officials for identification.
No trace has ever been found. She remains one of more than a thousand victims of the attacks whose physical remains were never recovered, her absence carried only in records, memorials, and the memories of those who knew her.
