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

[Copper]

Here's where I'm at:

• Unless remains are identified, there is no way to know;
• It's possible she died in the collapse;
• But if she didn't, calling her a victim of 9/11 allows her killer(s) to get away with it;
• I assume that she was murdered until it's proven otherwise, in the interests of justice.

 

[Rose_Red]

I have learned that there are two kinds of doctors: the ones who will blindly respond to “is there a doctor in the house?” And those who don’t want to get involved or be held liable. I felt really naive to think that the latter group didn’t exist.

I still lean towards her running in to help and not being identified in the rubble. It’s the simplest explanation. But there are too many other factors that I’ve read about - her brother, the videos, how she told her mom that she was going to go to Windows at some point.

Sneha could have run in to help. It didn't seem they allowed her to help at her actual job being put on desk duty. Sneha could have arrived at the scene prior to LE who was sending people home and not allowing people through. Without a uniform or credentials on her, I think that is the only way she got through as nobody reportedly saw her there. The people who worked with her or knew her personally that was not family, do not see her running to help. It seems that they think she would run the other way, but you never know.

You'd think that if she would go to Windows of the World restaurant she would go home to shower and change prior to arriving rather than wearing the same clothes from the night before to a place that seemed fancy. I don't know if it was or not. I have never been there. I am judging by the photographs I have seen of the restaurant.

 

[Rose_Red]

If she died in the attacks it's not surprising her body wasn't found. They said in one of the articles that many, many people presumed to be dead as a result of the attacks were never actually located. A lot of times the bodies were just completely obliterated, or the bits were so small that they could not be identified.

I'm about 75% sure she died in the attacks, but no one's ever going to know unless she or her body turns up elsewhere.

They found DNA of people that were ~100 floors up. It is surprising that Sneha's remains would not be found, not diamonds nor DNA because she was not expected to be at or above where the planes hit. Most of the people whose location was under the hit were able to evacuate successfully, even a blind man with the help of his dog. Although, thousands of 9/11 victims haven't had DNA found, I believe the grand majority of them, were at or above where the planes hit... not outside of the twin towers a quarter of a mile away or 5 minutes away. Most I believe almost all of the people who were outside and ran in to help or were under the 60th floors had at least some DNA identified as proof that they were victims of 9/11.

 

[branmuffin]

Sneha could have run in to help. It didn't seem they allowed her to help at her actual job being put on desk duty. Sneha could have arrived at the scene prior to LE who was sending people home and not allowing people through. Without a uniform or credentials on her, I think that is the only way she got through as nobody reportedly saw her there. The people who worked with her or knew her personally that was not family, do not see her running to help. It seems that they think she would run the other way, but you never know.

You'd think that if she would go to Windows of the World restaurant she would go home to shower and change prior to arriving rather than wearing the same clothes from the night before to a place that seemed fancy. I don't know if it was or not. I have never been there. I am judging by the photographs I have seen of the restaurant.

I am in the camp that Sneha didn't run toward danger when the towers were hit. I base that on contemporaneous reports of how Sneha worked at her job, her co-workers opinions, the belief that she only got into the medical profession because she was pressured to, because that's what her parents wanted her to be. So that leaves us with, where was Sneha when the towers fell? Based on her risky behaviors of meeting up with strangers she met at clubs it's possible that she never went home the night before and she met someone who did her harm. The least likely is that she took advantage of the situation and decided to start a completely new life. The second least likely is that some family member was instrumental in her disappearance. Neither of those choices have any evidence to back up the theory.

 

[DHT1339]

I am in the camp that Sneha didn't run toward danger when the towers were hit. I base that on contemporaneous reports of how Sneha worked at her job, her co-workers opinions, the belief that she only got into the medical profession because she was pressured to, because that's what her parents wanted her to be. So that leaves us with, where was Sneha when the towers fell? Based on her risky behaviors of meeting up with strangers she met at clubs it's possible that she never went home the night before and she met someone who did her harm. The least likely is that she took advantage of the situation and decided to start a completely new life. The second least likely is that some family member was instrumental in her disappearance. Neither of those choices have any evidence to back up the theory.

i also lean more towards her being a victim of foul play on the evening of 9/10 or early morning hours of 9/11, but i've always been suspicious of her brother. just the way he lied off the bat about her whereabouts was very odd

 

[Baby baby Jane]

The body disposal would need to have been completed before 8:45 on 9/11. No way getting in/out lower Manhattan with a body, and back after the first crash. City was paralyzed.
Murderer didn’t know planes would crash, so would have needed to just get lucky with driving to NJ (or other) with a body & knowing an excellent place for disposing. Also murderer would have needed good access to a private car garage so not dragging a body out in public.

There’s a chance she went to a suburb willingly, in a car, the night before and met her fate. Murderer got lucky, and her body disposed & never found.
Having lived near her, worked near her home, shopped at C21 often, I don’t see her shopping trip as unusual. C21 is an impulse-but shop, good return policy esp if you live right by the shop. It opened very very early - you could shop before work so maybe it opened at 7:45 or 8am. People were in there shopping when first plane crashed at 8:46.

She might have spent night with a person who worked in towers and perished which is why no one came forward. She could have been on way to C21 to return, visit friends office in tower (people did that) or go home - many reasons she could have been inside towers, or gone inside to help.

IMO it is so likely she was in that area, at that time. More likely than meeting a serial killer.

 

[DHT1339]

The body disposal would need to have been completed before 8:45 on 9/11. No way getting in/out lower Manhattan with a body, and back after the first crash. City was paralyzed.
Murderer didn’t know planes would crash, so would have needed to just get lucky with driving to NJ (or other) with a body & knowing an excellent place for disposing. Also murderer would have needed good access to a private car garage so not dragging a body out in public.

There’s a chance she went to a suburb willingly, in a car, the night before and met her fate. Murderer got lucky, and her body disposed & never found.
Having lived near her, worked near her home, shopped at C21 often, I don’t see her shopping trip as unusual. C21 is an impulse-but shop, good return policy esp if you live right by the shop. It opened very very early - you could shop before work so maybe it opened at 7:45 or 8am. People were in there shopping when first plane crashed at 8:46.

She might have spent night with a person who worked in towers and perished which is why no one came forward. She could have been on way to C21 to return, visit friends office in tower (people did that) or go home - many reasons she could have been inside towers, or gone inside to help.

IMO it is so likely she was in that area, at that time. More likely than meeting a serial killer.

don't think anyone's speculating that she met her fate at the hands of a serial killer

could've been anyone, really. you never know who out there is capable of what. all it would've taken is to encounter the wrong person, decide to go home with him/her, and that's it

 

[Rose_Red]

i also lean more towards her being a victim of foul play on the evening of 9/10 or early morning hours of 9/11, but i've always been suspicious of her brother. just the way he lied off the bat about her whereabouts was very odd

I am quite surprised he did an interview for the Missing on 9/11 podcast. I am not surprised he did not want it recorded this time though. He still lies without flinching according to what I heard on the podcast.

I also find the brother odd. I wonder if he did this on his own and if Ron is covering for him when he said it was his idea for the brother to lie on camera to get attention on Sneha's case. If the family and Ron didn't think that she was at the twin towers, in the beginning, a lie like that would hinder the investigation... not help it, in my opinion.

I think Ron would lie for the brother because he absolutely denies that the NYPD officers statement about his interview with the brother ever happened. I don't know how he would know considering it would be a meeting between the cop and the brother and it was recorded as evidence, but he continues to support the brother's claim that he did not say Sneha was found on the couch with his girlfriend having an affair. Now, the brother denies even speaking to him and it seems that Ron is 100% on the brother's side even though the cop kept a record and says he has no reason to lie.

 

[Rose_Red]

I am in the camp that Sneha didn't run toward danger when the towers were hit. I base that on contemporaneous reports of how Sneha worked at her job, her co-workers opinions, the belief that she only got into the medical profession because she was pressured to, because that's what her parents wanted her to be. So that leaves us with, where was Sneha when the towers fell? Based on her risky behaviors of meeting up with strangers she met at clubs it's possible that she never went home the night before and she met someone who did her harm. The least likely is that she took advantage of the situation and decided to start a completely new life. The second least likely is that some family member was instrumental in her disappearance. Neither of those choices have any evidence to back up the theory.

It also could have been an accidental death as she seemed to have a substance abuse issue. Least likely I think would be suicide.

I think it was foul play. She seemed to have had issues with her husband, brother, and ex-coworkers. I wonder how many other people she had problems with.

 

[microsleuth88]

After 21 years of no one knowing what Sneha did or where she went after last being seen on cctv, I think all options are open regarding the circumstances of her disappearance.

My personal opinion is that Sneha didn't have the bandwidth to be a selfless individual who would rush to provide aid to 9/11 casualities. I base my opinion on her track record of her employment failures that were catalogued to support her first firing at the hospital and the possibility she was going to get fired again, whereas the selflessness portrayed by her family seem to be based on a fictional character that does not represent the work ethic her employers and coworkers knew. That isn't really a criticism of Sneha; it's acknowledging that she was desperately unhappy and may have been coerced into a profession that she did not want.

About the shopping bags. They were never found at her apartment. So that means one one of two things. She either never went home, or she did go home and someone got rid of them. Which opens up another can of worms.

If she didn't go home, as her husband states, then something happened to her either during the evening of September 10 or on 9/11. If Sneha stayed somewhere else that night then perhaps she died as one of the victims who died in other buildings. If she stayed at someone's place the night of Sept 10, maybe the next morning she and her unknown hookup went for breakfast at WOTW and died there.

Her penchant for hooking up with strangers and staying at their places means she may have met a dangerous individual who murdered her.

For me, the last option for Sneha's disappearance is that she planned in advance to disappear and 9/11 was a serendipitous event that let her pull that trigger.

I do not believe Sneha is alive and believe she died either on Sept 10 or on 9/11 but as collateral damage outside of being a first responder.

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.

This is the part that bothers me about the case is that I do not belive they have ever stated that there was only one entrance or if all entrances were covered by CCTV.

I have a hard time believing she went shopping and had quite a few bags, and did not stop back at home to drop them off. She lived very close to the shopping center. It would make no sense for her to carrying around those bags and go to a bar etc with them.

Nothing had been disturbed, no footprints. They’d left a window open the day before in the apartment so the asbestos dust from the towers had filled the floors/items of the room. Very thick dust as you change imagine from the videos of how much it spread when the towers collapsed. I assume the cats wouldn’t of been fed either.

Again, one of the things about this case that bothers me a lot is that there were no police or investigators that went out to the apartment to see this or investigate. Takes notes, pictures etc..

Everything we know about the night SP was last seen is from what RL has stated, to my knowledge there were no other witnesses to state that SP never came back home that night or to confirm any of the apartment conditions, the only person to state that her Century 21 bags and items were not tat the home and never made it home was RL.

MOO, but considering RL and SP had been seen arguing at the courthouse the day she went missing, and RL denies that happened makes me a little less trusting of his word.

I can't help but feel that SP went back to her apartment after the Century21 shopping trip to bring home what she bought, and maybe that is why her cell phone was back at home. Is it possible another fight ensued over spending? I would think she wasn't being paid while on suspension from work. Two residents back then certainly weren't making tons of money and that location alone would eat up their salaries.

I just wish police would have been involved, went to the apartment, looked at the survillance footage, and been an outside source to back up RL statements and say whether or not everything checked out and when RL/SP were seen coming and going.

 

[Soulmagent]

This is the part that bothers me about the case is that I do not belive they have ever stated that there was only one entrance or if all entrances were covered by CCTV.

I have a hard time believing she went shopping and had quite a few bags, and did not stop back at home to drop them off. She lived very close to the shopping center. It would make no sense for her to carrying around those bags and go to a bar etc with them.


Again, one of the things about this case that bothers me a lot is that there were no police or investigators that went out to the apartment to see this or investigate. Takes notes, pictures etc..

Everything we know about the night SP was last seen is from what RL has stated, to my knowledge there were no other witnesses to state that SP never came back home that night or to confirm any of the apartment conditions, the only person to state that her Century 21 bags and items were not tat the home and never made it home was RL.

MOO, but considering RL and SP had been seen arguing at the courthouse the day she went missing, and RL denies that happened makes me a little less trusting of his word.

I can't help but feel that SP went back to her apartment after the Century21 shopping trip to bring home what she bought, and maybe that is why her cell phone was back at home. Is it possible another fight ensued over spending? I would think she wasn't being paid while on suspension from work. Two residents back then certainly weren't making tons of money and that location alone would eat up their salaries.

I just wish police would have been involved, went to the apartment, looked at the survillance footage, and been an outside source to back up RL statements and say whether or not everything checked out and when RL/SP were seen coming and going.

IF she took her new purchases to her brothers to show them to the brothers girlfriend . Maybe there was a motive of an affair on both mens parts.

 

[Rose_Red]

IF she took her new purchases to her brothers to show them to the brothers girlfriend . Maybe there was a motive of an affair on both mens parts.

Yes. The brother was reportedly aware of the affair between his sister and the Sneha as he caught them having sex on the couch not too long before she went missing according to the NYPD. The husband was aware that the brother's girlfriend was a really close girl friend of hers and would spend a lot of time together, but I don't know if he knew how close they were.

Although, the husband may not have known exactly what type of relationship Sneha had with his brother's girlfriend, he was aware that she had a court hearing on September 10th. I don't know if he was aware of the details of the case, but those also suggest that Sneha could have had an affair with another man. If a quarrel did happen, it is suspect that he is denying it because it would be reasonable for a married couple to fight over these type of circumstances. It would actually be odd if they did not have a spat about it at one point or another.

It could also be neither of them and it was a motive for whoever Sneha was going home with that night. I thought that maybe Sneha bought linens because she knew whoever she was going home with that night was in a relationship and wanted clean sheets. What if there was another scenario like with what the brother reportedly told the NYPD or her aggressively pursuing married individuals and Sneha caught sleeping with someone else's husband/wife?

If it was the husband it would have been in his best interest to not hire any private investigator if this was the case, but he did so anyway.

 

[Rose_Red]

This is the part that bothers me about the case is that I do not belive they have ever stated that there was only one entrance or if all entrances were covered by CCTV.

I have a hard time believing she went shopping and had quite a few bags, and did not stop back at home to drop them off. She lived very close to the shopping center. It would make no sense for her to carrying around those bags and go to a bar etc with them.

Again, one of the things about this case that bothers me a lot is that there were no police or investigators that went out to the apartment to see this or investigate. Takes notes, pictures etc..

Everything we know about the night SP was last seen is from what RL has stated, to my knowledge there were no other witnesses to state that SP never came back home that night or to confirm any of the apartment conditions, the only person to state that her Century 21 bags and items were not tat the home and never made it home was RL.

MOO, but considering RL and SP had been seen arguing at the courthouse the day she went missing, and RL denies that happened makes me a little less trusting of his word.

I can't help but feel that SP went back to her apartment after the Century21 shopping trip to bring home what she bought, and maybe that is why her cell phone was back at home. Is it possible another fight ensued over spending? I would think she wasn't being paid while on suspension from work. Two residents back then certainly weren't making tons of money and that location alone would eat up their salaries.

I just wish police would have been involved, went to the apartment, looked at the survillance footage, and been an outside source to back up RL statements and say whether or not everything checked out and when RL/SP were seen coming and going.

There was a bellboy that said she left at ~5:15PM on September 10th wearing a brown dress and sandals. They used that as the date and time she was last seen on her missing posters and to report to NYPD on the morning of September 12th. The bellboy was expected to be working there for several more hours before the next bellboy took over. If she returned right after walking out of Century 21, then that same bellboy who saw her leave would see her returning, I think.

I don't think those purchases were for herself or for her husband. I don't think she had the intention of returning back home that night knowing that Ron wouldn't be off from his shift until near midnight. She also may have told the a cashier in Century 21, she would be doing more shopping after that trip as her plans afterwards.

I do think wherever she was going was close by, which may have been the brother's apartment. Both her cousin's and brother's and her own apartment seem to all be in walking distance of where she was last seen. I believe there was also the Marriot motel there? She could have been purchasing the linens to go there with the woman she was reportedly seen with by the cashier. I haven't done research on the hotel at the WTC, but heard there was one.

I can't really blame the NYPD on this one. I think their resources were limited given 9/11.

 

[Rose_Red]

This is the part that bothers me about the case is that I do not beleive they have ever stated that there was only one entrance or if all entrances were covered by CCTV.

I have a hard time believing she went shopping and had quite a few bags, and did not stop back at home to drop them off. She lived very close to the shopping center. It would make no sense for her to carrying around those bags and go to a bar etc with them.

Again, one of the things about this case that bothers me a lot is that there were no police or investigators that went out to the apartment to see this or investigate. Takes notes, pictures etc..

Everything we know about the night SP was last seen is from what RL has stated, to my knowledge there were no other witnesses to state that SP never came back home that night or to confirm any of the apartment conditions, the only person to state that her Century 21 bags and items were not tat the home and never made it home was RL.

MOO, but considering RL and SP had been seen arguing at the courthouse the day she went missing, and RL denies that happened makes me a little less trusting of his word.

I can't help but feel that SP went back to her apartment after the Century21 shopping trip to bring home what she bought, and maybe that is why her cell phone was back at home. Is it possible another fight ensued over spending? I would think she wasn't being paid while on suspension from work. Two residents back then certainly weren't making tons of money and that location alone would eat up their salaries.

I just wish police would have been involved, went to the apartment, looked at the survillance footage, and been an outside source to back up RL statements and say whether or not everything checked out and when RL/SP were seen coming and going.

This is not regarding the CCTV footage at the apartment, but the CCTV footage at Century 21.

The person that Unsolved Mysteries highlighted as Sneha doesn't look like Sneha to me. Sneha's exit is only seen from one angle on the show, I believe. I know the quality is terrible, but I can't tell if that is actually Sneha. I wondered if UM had highlighted the wrong person on the CCTV. I wish they had shown additional shots of the overhead camera when she was exiting as well or any other angles available of her exiting. I haven't seen any other shows question this, so it is probably just me.

Because my eye sees something else, I wonder if LE went through all the recordings available from Century 21 that night or if they just looked at what Ron had gathered and took his word for it. I also wonder if the mystery woman that UM says could have been with Sneha shopping resembles the brother's girlfriend at all as well as the description the cashier gave Ron as being seen with Sneha.

 

[branmuffin]

With all the backtracking about who said what and complete denial regarding the issues of Sneha being found with her brother's girlfriend and her going to gay and lesbian bars I began to wonder whether Indian Syrian Christians which Sneha's family were, get involved in honour killings. And they do. That adds another element to this mystery in my opinion.

So-called honor killing in Catholic family shocks Indian state

The murder of a socially poor Dalit Catholic man who had married a woman belonging to an upper-caste Syrian Christian family has fueled protests across India's southern state of Kerala.

www.ncronline.org

 

[microsleuth88]

There was a bellboy that said she left at ~5:15PM on September 10th wearing a brown dress and sandals. They used that as the date and time she was last seen on her missing posters and to report to NYPD on the morning of September 12th. The bellboy was expected to be working there for several more hours before the next bellboy took over. If she returned right after walking out of Century 21, then that same bellboy who saw her leave would see her returning, I think.

I don't think those purchases were for herself or for her husband. I don't think she had the intention of returning back home that night knowing that Ron wouldn't be off from his shift until near midnight. She also may have told the a cashier in Century 21, she would be doing more shopping after that trip as her plans afterwards.

I do think wherever she was going was close by, which may have been the brother's apartment. Both her cousin's and brother's and her own apartment seem to all be in walking distance of where she was last seen. I believe there was also the Marriot motel there? She could have been purchasing the linens to go there with the woman she was reportedly seen with by the cashier. I haven't done research on the hotel at the WTC, but heard there was one.

I can't really blame the NYPD on this one. I think their resources were limited given 9/11.

I think the purchases were for her. It was revealed that at the Century 21 (department store) she used their American Express card to buy lingerie (no specifics on if this was a bra, pair of undies etc as they normally all ring up as lingerie in the receipt), a dress, pantyhose and bed linens, and then she bought three pairs of shoes at an annex to the store. All totaling about $550.

These don't sound like items you buy for someone else. Pantyhose might have been for her court appearances, and bed linens possibly for the guest room as it was stated that her cousin was planning to come visit on Wednesday.

It's possible she went to her brother's apartment. Sadly we'll never know for sure as I do not believe any surveillance footage was pulled near relatives homes.

 

[microsleuth88]

IF she took her new purchases to her brothers to show them to the brothers girlfriend . Maybe there was a motive of an affair on both mens parts.

Exactly, the brother was all over the place with changing his story so we have no idea if he saw her that evening. Telling police the story of the affair with his GF and then denying it. Why would the police make that up? It doesn't make any sense.

Yes. The brother was reportedly aware of the affair between his sister and the Sneha as he caught them having sex on the couch not too long before she went missing according to the NYPD. The husband was aware that the brother's girlfriend was a really close girl friend of hers and would spend a lot of time together, but I don't know if he knew how close they were.

Although, the husband may not have known exactly what type of relationship Sneha had with his brother's girlfriend, he was aware that she had a court hearing on September 10th. I don't know if he was aware of the details of the case, but those also suggest that Sneha could have had an affair with another man. If a quarrel did happen, it is suspect that he is denying it because it would be reasonable for a married couple to fight over these type of circumstances. It would actually be odd if they did not have a spat about it at one point or another.

It could also be neither of them and it was a motive for whoever Sneha was going home with that night. I thought that maybe Sneha bought linens because she knew whoever she was going home with that night was in a relationship and wanted clean sheets. What if there was another scenario like with what the brother reportedly told the NYPD or her aggressively pursuing married individuals and Sneha caught sleeping with someone else's husband/wife?

If it was the husband it would have been in his best interest to not hire any private investigator if this was the case, but he did so anyway.

Unfortunately, RL completely controls the narrative around SP disappearance. We really only know what he tells us happened, and the only hard facts we have are the receipts and surveillance footage from Century 21. The apartment lobby footage has never been confirmed as her, and RL initially stated he did not believe that was her in the photos.
When did he hire the PI? Was it many months or years later? I would think by the any hope of additional surveillance or memories would be erased or clouded. Especially back then where data was so quickly deleted and copied over.

With all the backtracking about who said what and complete denial regarding the issues of Sneha being found with her brother's girlfriend and her going to gay and lesbian bars I began to wonder whether Indian Syrian Christians which Sneha's family were, get involved in honour killings. And they do. That adds another element to this mystery in my opinion.

So-called honor killing in Catholic family shocks Indian state

The murder of a socially poor Dalit Catholic man who had married a woman belonging to an upper-caste Syrian Christian family has fueled protests across India's southern state of Kerala.

www.ncronline.org

I don't think this was a case of an honor killing, but I do think their religion and culture played a role in why they completely shut down any idea of foul play and ran with the 9/11 story. They were probably ashamed of her sexual preferences, her personal lifestyle choices, and the recent firing from her residency, as well as, facing firing from her current residency in addition to the pending court case. I think they did not want anyone to know about her personal life choices and the issues she had due to their social standings and beliefs. So instead of seeking the truth they did not want to know what happened to her really, and just wanted the hero narrative to be what everyone believed.

 

[microsleuth88]

Does anyone know of any of the documents from the police investigation have ever been made public? I feel since the police initially believed she went missing prior to the 9/11 attacks they had to had something they were going on besides the hearsay.

 

[Rose_Red]

Does anyone know of any of the documents from the police investigation have ever been made public? I feel since the police initially believed she went missing prior to the 9/11 attacks they had to had something they were going on besides the hearsay.

Does anyone know of any of the documents from the police investigation have ever been made public? I feel since the police initially believed she went missing prior to the 9/11 attacks they had to had something they were going on besides the hearsay.

I believe people have requested them. I don't know how much of it if any have been released. Have you tried to request them?

 

[GatorFL]

I believe people have requested them. I don't know how much of it if any have been released. Have you tried to request them?

I was not able to get the police files. I did get court transcripts.