The Extremely Bizarre Disappearance of Sneha Anne Philip | True Crime Documentary

[Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign Philip was a fiercely independent and highly intelligent young woman from Kerala India her unquestioning care for her patients curiosity in multiple arts and desire to see the world were all cut shorts by a troubling Disappearance in September of 2001 in the hours leading up to the 9 11 terrorist attacks leaving all who knew her in the Manhattan Community and the entirety of New York City at large grasping for answers in a sea of mysteries that drowned us all in doubts as I hope to provide more substantial reasoning built upon observable evidence and situational analysis this is an examination of The Disappearance of sneher and Philip in the lead-up to one of the darkest days in American history and the decades-long fight for her family to set the record straight on sneha's Fates and ultimately her heroic Legacy thank you [Music] foreign [Music] this is Cold Case Detective sneha and Philip was born on October 7th 1969 to parents Dr cochile and ansu Philip in Kerala India and Indian States right on the Malabar Coast sneha joined a family of three her birth proceeded by her brother ashwin's not long after her introduction to the Philip household her parents welcomed a second son this one named Kevin the lone daughter got along well with both of her brothers even at a young age fostering a fun-filled relationship that often included long days filled with laughter and excitement after a few years however the Philip family decided that their time in Kerala India was coming to an end seeing a move to the United States as the perfect opportunity for both Dr kachel's career and reasoning a bright and burgeoning family the Philips moved to Upstate New York once they arrived sneher and the others settled in hopwell Junction A Hamlet and census designated place in Duchess County close in proximity to Poughkeepsie New York finally in America sneher adapted well to the change in the varying Lifestyles and cultures that surrounded her she especially grew fond of the Fine Arts and had a special gravitation towards music writing and painting sneha's creative Pursuits were only one part to her overall interests though many of her classmates in school teachers throughout her later childhood remarked of her uncanny intelligence for her age in combination with a deep-rooted empathy she held for others these compassionate inclinations followed her throughout High School where sneher decided she wanted to pursue medicine and eventually acquire a doctorate degree of course this wasn't without hesitation sneher still held a crucial bond with the Arts and considered going against all expectations and pursuing painting or a similar focus in college rather than a formal medical degree in the end however the Surefire potential of a career in medicine won the argument and after graduating from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore Maryland snehar enrolled at The Chicago School of Medicine in 1995 finding inspiration from her father's own career as a physician while sneher was at Rosalind Franklin University of medicine and science shortened to RFS she met a fellow doctor in Waiting named Ron Lieberman Allah Los Angeles transplant studying in the class one year behind Snell the two quickly fell in love but not only on an intimate level after just a few conversations sneha learned that Ron was a fellow artist and spent much of his free time as a musician and all-around music lover with her own interests in painting snoher realized the two could share both their professional and personal lives together and the pair started dating during Ron's penultimate year at RFS sneha went as far as to take a year off from school instead traveling around the Italian Countryside all so that she and Ron could graduate together and take the post-grad step in sync once the couple finished at RFS they moved to the East Village neighborhood of lower Manhattan in New York City where they each received internships close by Ron found an opportunity in the Jacoby Medical Center in the Bronx while sneher worked at the Cabrini Medical Center by May of 2000 Ron and sneher were happily married after performing a private ceremony in Duchess County where the Philip siblings grew up the occasion proved to be beautifully unique as well as both families Incorporated aspects to their Jewish and Indian Christian heritages in fact at the wedding Ron presented sneher with a menu the traditional wedding pendant gifted to Brides In the malayali Christian traditions this one was shaped to form a golden teardrop accented with a set Diamond it would be the same piece of jewelry desperately sought by her parents in September of 2001. after the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were terrorized and their only daughter once filled with promise disappeared Without a Trace let us now turn to the timeline of events leading to sneha's disappearance [Music] in the summer of 2000 newlyweds sneher and Ron upsized their living quarters to an apartment in Battery Park City only a few blocks away from the WTC fast forward nearly a year later in Spring of 2001 and sneha's director of residence informs her that her contracts will not be renewed only a few months passed by and her next employer Staten Island's Saint Vincent Medical Center suspended sneha that summer of 2001 for failing to meet with her substance abuse counselor after dealing with an alcohol addiction her mother visited sneha Friday before the attacks where they hung out ate food and watched a movie she spent the night and before leaving the next day sneher made a comment that she wanted a closer relationship with her mother like they had before sneha had a court date on the morning of September 10th where she pleaded not guilty to the charge of filing a false complaint back at home in their Rector Place Apartments at 11AM Ron leaves for work leaving sneher by herself throughout the rest of the morning sneher cleans up in preparation for her cousin anu's arrival on Wednesday September 12th in the early afternoon snoher repots white purple orchids from Hawaii and dries them in the bathtub between 2 and 4 pm she IMS her mother talking about Ron's guitar playing at a recent function at Jacoby Medical Center and her desire to see windows on the World restaurant on the rooftop of North WTC Tower where a friend would be married in spring of 2002 then between 4 and 5 PM sneha changes into sandals a brown short sleeve dress and ties her hair back into a ponytail she departs just after the clock Chimes five times between 5 and 6 PM sneher drops off dry cleaning and heads to Century 21 to shop at a discount shopping center it's located right past the Twin Towers only a few blocks from the apartments she shops the retail store for lingerie a New Dress pantyhose and fresh Linens for the apartments just after 6 PM there's a transaction at that same Century 21 on Ron's American Express credit card which sneha had permission to use between 6 to 7 PM she walks to the shop next door and buys three pairs of shoes from the shoe Annex at some point during the two-hour shopping trip CCTV cameras capture sneher looking at the clothing in the department store this would be the last foam sighting of sneha and Philip later that night Ron arrives home from work just before midnight he notices sneher is absent but also that there are no voice messages from her either something he asked her to do when she was out late just before the calendar flips to September 11 2001 Ron made sure the two house cats figure and Kali were all right and went to bed early the next morning at around 4am Ron's cell phone is pinged with a missed call from a phone line inside the apartment sneher is the only other one with access to the home but Ron doesn't remember receiving a call and says he barely remembers even checking his voicemail around that time two and a half hours later Ron wakes up to his 6 30 alarm Again by his Lonesome while he is initially annoyed he realizes sneher probably just spent the night at her cousins or brother's place in West Village which was a normal occurrence he quickly gets ready and the parts for Jacoby Medical Center via the Uptown 5 train at 8 A.M Ron attends the meeting ignorance to the oncoming catastrophe alongside all of the other blissfully ignorant New Yorkers throughout the city 46 minutes later at 40 seconds past 8 46 am American Airlines flight 11 a Boeing 767 aircraft filled with 92 people on board crashes between floors 93-99 on the North Face of the North Tower also called 1wc at the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan New York City few minutes passed by and Ron leaves a meeting at Jacoby Medical Center he exits the room and finds his co-workers crowding a television set when he approaches he sees a news program detailing a plane crash into the World Trade Center which is only a few blocks from his apartment his mind immediately races to thoughts of snareha at first everyone believes the plane crashed to be in accident but those sentiments don't last long when at 903 am United Airlines flight 77 a Boeing 767 aircraft filled with 65 people on board crashes between floor 77 and 85 on the south face of the South Tower also called two WTC around the same time Ron frantically calls home to his apartment in Battery Park in an attempt to reach sneher but nobody picks up he leaves a phone number on the voice message in case sneha returns home and needs to contact him after that failed attempt Ron then contacts sneha's mother and brother who haven't heard from his wife either meanwhile the horrendous events of September 11th continue across the United States at 9 37 A.M American Airlines flight 77 crashes into the west side of the Pentagon in Washington DC at 9 57 am United Airlines Flight 93 is seized by its passengers from the hijackers who are theoretically heading to the Capitol Building also in Washington DC then within a 30-minute chunk of time the South Tower of the World Trade Center collapses at 9 59 Flight 93 crashes in Somerset County Pennsylvania at 1003 and the North Tower of the World Trade Center collapses at 10 28. as the chaos swirling throughout Manhattan and elsewhere ravages the United States as a whole Ron Remains by his Lonesome thinking up all the scenarios in which sneher could have wound up in his theories range from kidnapping to murder to be being a victim of the World Trade Center attacks herself after hours of anxious waiting Ron decides to leave work and look for his wife around 3pm due to the heavy traffic in the metro area of New York City throughout the day on 9 11. Ron is forced to hitch a ride with an ambulance heading toward Ground Zero the Trek takes upwards of six hours as the squads had to navigate in the opposite flow of traffic and no sign of sneha is recovered at 9pm Ron arrives at Tribeca only to find the NYPD have now cordoned off the World Trade Center crash site he is able to use his medical credentials to pass through and runs to his Apartments unfortunately due to the loss of power in the area the front doors are locked and Ron must take shelter at his friend's Flats in West Village the following morning on September 12th Ron wakes up and heads back to Battery Park where he is finally able to access the apartment building he heads upstairs walk into his unit and finds the flats covered with soots from the tower's collapse as a bedroom window has been left open in the moment Ron realizes he can use the Sut to his advantage and looks for human Footprints along the floor sadly all he finds are scattered paw prints from the couple's two kittens meaning sneha couldn't have come back after the World Trade Center fell down after another round of checkups with sneher's friends and family Ron decides to report her missing with the NYPD one of over 9 000 missing reports to be filed in the immediate aftermath of 9 11. in the following days Ron took it upon himself to look for his wife he called American Express when he noticed his credit card was missing and they told him the last purchase came at the Century 21 department store on September 10th Ron then ventured to that very store where he put up missing person flyers for sneher in and around the Isles later in the week Ron receives a call from a former employee at the Century 21 store who informs him she remembered seeing sneha in the evening of the 10th the employee also tells Ron she remembers sneha had been with another person at the store that day believing the other person and to be a fellow Indian woman Ron takes this information back to Century 21 who allow him to go through three weeks worth of security footage this is when he finds the CCTV shot of his wife browsing for clothes however she is by herself in all of the Clips in which she appears after waiting for the NYPD to begin their investigation and growing frustrated with their non-plussed attitude at her fate in regards to 9 11. Ron hired a private investigator Ken Gallant initially the investigator believed there was a possibility sneher used the World Trade Center attacks as a cover to escape her struggles in life and start fresh somewhere unknown however this theory is short-lived as both gallant and Ron come to the agreements that sneher most likely returned to the apartments the morning of September 11th saw the attacks happen in real time and immediately decided to go to ground zero and Aid the injured with her medical background this is most likely where she died despite her body never being recovered Ron takes this to the police after enough evidence is collected only to find the NYPD has a separate investigation into her disappearance believing she wasn't in fact a victim of 9 11 but rather as a victim of Foul Play due to her erratic behavior and criminal history in 2003 Lieberman protests the conclusion of his wife's investigation by the NYPD and argues she should remain an official victim of the 9 11 tragedy as well as gaining access to the September 11th victim compensation fund for his efforts in locating her and attempting to bring her home the NYPD presents these findings to the courts who hear Ron's claim But ultimately agree there is not enough evidence to prove sneha was a victim of the World Trade Center attacks and her name is removed from the official list of deaths along with two others in January of 2004 incredulous Ron and the Philip family fights tooth and nail to appeal this ruling arguing the police fabricated their findings via family testimony and circumstantial evidence at the appeal hearing in the late winter of 2008 the defense argued while sneher's disappearance was not guaranteed to be a direct result of the 9 11 terrorist attacks it was highly probable when considering her route home that morning would have taken her right past Ground Zero at the time when the Twin Towers were first hit thus being in the vicinity with her degree in medicine the degree of speculation was greater and sneha's rightful place as an official victim of The Darkest Day in modern American history was restored despite the ruling the story surrounding sneha and Phillips has not been one of potential heroism but one of skepticism blaming her early adulthood struggles on her status as a missing person and claiming both her family and Ron Lieberman used her Vanishing to their financial gain it goes without saying that of all the 9 000 missing person reports to come through law enforcement agencies in the days and weeks after the 9 11 attacks most of them came with the unfortunate Clause that most if not all would see evidence and clues lost in the cracks there was simply too much chaos and hysteria for proper investigations to be held not to mention many of these reports either being duplicates or instances in which police or the families found the victim to be one of the casualties of the attacks themselves if there's an optimistic angle to be had it's that a lot of New York City features a hefty amount of security cameras and other CCTV systems in every nook and cranny around the Metro of course the caveat in this scenario is that many security cameras were either disabled or abandoned the morning of 9 11 and in the days that followed authorities at local state and federal levels did their best to seize as much footage in New York City as they could to solve the 911 plot but little did they know these preservation efforts while delayed in nature ended up aiding the smaller investigations just as much this is the exact situation that impacted the search for sneha and Phillips and provided the most important clue when assessing what could have happened to her either on the evening of September 10th or sometime on September 11th when private investigator Ken Gallant looked into snoher's disappearance he was able to track down security footage from the main lobby at Rector Place Apartments in Battery Park the couple's residents of about a year the tapes showed that on the morning of Tuesday September 11 2001 at the 8 43 a.m timestamp a woman enters the Rector Place Lobby walks towards the elevator stands for only a couple of moments and leaves unfortunately we do not have access to these tapes however they were used in Ken gallant's official case documents and presented to the courts when sneher's case was argued in front of a judge the documents show that while the quality of the CCTV footage was severely contrasted by the angle of the sun's Rays pouring through the Lobby's window one could make out the basic details of the woman in the shot Ron testified that the figure in the frame shared the same mannerisms as his wife sported a haircut and or ponytail similar to the one sneha had around the time and even wore clothes that resembled the dress worn by sneher in the Century 21 security footage seen earlier that's not the only thing suggesting the woman could be sneha the time of day also provides a major clue Ron testified in court that on the occasion when sneha wouldn't return home after a night out which wasn't necessarily infrequent her time of arrival the next day always fell between 7 and 9 am with a time stamp of around 8 43 am it fits perfectly within the pattern an NYPD investigator who also testified at the court hearings even went as far to say he believed the woman to be sneher Philip despite never meeting the woman in person and only having access to her case fire the biggest counter-argument to the claim is that the woman in the security footage isn't carrying any bags or extra belongings which sneher certainly would have been holding after coming back to the apartment for the first time since her shopping spree however it's possible this is why the woman left the lobby after standing around for a moment or two at Rector place if it was sneha maybe she realized she had left her Century 21 bags on the train or at the place she spent the night and left as quickly as she arrived to fetch them others think that the time stamp on the CCTV system was off by a minute or two and leaving the lobby was in fact sneha's reaction to hearing the first plane crash into the North Tower at the World Trade Center seeing as though happened only a couple of blocks away usually CCTV system clocks are programmed with the most accurate timestamp possible however there is no way to prove one way or another and in the mass hysteria of 911 that quickly followed the capturing of this footage it's fair to question its accuracy when it comes to timing regardless the Unseen security tapes are the biggest clue involved in sneha's disappearance and feed into the countless theories concocted over the years since Ron's initial attempts to find his lost wife let's now turn to the most prominent theories surrounding sneha's disappearance foreign [Music] theories regarding the status of sneha and Philip have burned through both the internet and various investigative agencies like wildfire in the years since America's Darkest Hour of those theories most come to the conclusion that sneher was somehow involved with the tragedy of 9 11 and ended up a victim however the biggest Theory Strang from that line of thinking came from the agency responsible for finding snareha the NYPD itself after months of deliberation Ron took it upon himself to find his missing wife by any means necessary explaining the purchase of services from Ken gallons part of this was due to the nypd's incredibly busy workload following the events of 9 11 but also because they originally showed a lack of interest in sneha's case they were adamant she was probably a victim of the Twin Towers attack and bore no further investigation at first Ron was incredulous believing his wife couldn't possibly have been at the towers and was sure something had happened to her the night before luckily with the professional insight and detective work of Ken Gallant both men came around and realized looking at all the facts sneher was indeed a likely victim of 9 11. in a bizarre twist though as Ron and Gallant came around to this conclusion law enforcement flip-flopped to Ron's original Theory as it turned out the NYPD were investigating sneha's disappearance but from the perspective that she had brought her own Vanishing upon herself of course like any perplexed widower would do Ron asked for a detailed explanation having just accepted The Tragic Truth his wife died along with three thousand others on September 11 2001 did he miss something as it turned out the NYPD had been building a pretty lengthy and detailed timeline of sneha's past focused not on her medical degree or affinity for painting but rather her run-ins with the law and other personal issues Ron had long since stopped attributing to her disappearance these detailed reports started with sneller's final days as a resident of the Cabrini Medical Center where she held an internship because she was classified as an intern sneher could not be outright fired however she was informed her contract wouldn't be renewed due to issues stemming from being late and alcohol abuse that didn't stop sneha from spending time with her old co-workers outside of the medical center one night not long after the bad news sneha went out to a bar with her peers to hang out and drink for a while instead of a peaceful night however snareha wound up spending the next 12 hours in jail after engaging in a heated confrontation with one of her younger cohorts according to police sneha filed a criminal complaint stating that she had been groped and touched inappropriately by one of the interns who was also arrested and booked with a forcible touching charge yet after a short-lived investigation the NYPD and the District Attorney's office in Manhattan decided to drop the charges on the accused intern and instead did a 180 degree turn and slapped sneher with a misdemeanor charge for filing a false complaint if this is difficult to hear imagine how it must have felt in the moment for snareha not only that but she was also told by the prosecution team that all charges would be dropped if she simply recanted the original complaints this did not sit well with her in the slightest she wasn't about to surrender her story of abuse and not stick up for herself so she denied the DA's offer and stuck to her original claim as a result sneha was put into handcuffs and ordered to spend one night in jail in which she obliged and spent the night meditating with a fellow inmate the NYPD reports didn't stop there however they went as far as to include Ron's part of the equation in sneha's Life or in this case the apparents lack thereof according to official reports sneher was discovered to have been spending entire nights out with strangers and folks she would meet at the various gay lgbtq plus friendly bars throughout Manhattan such as Julie's hen Henrietta Hudson's and Meow Mix the thing was Ron wasn't ignorant to his wife's late night escapades while he didn't know the identities of all the acquaintances she made he did know what she was doing in general and told her it was okay as long as she called to let him know she was safe and in good hands and in terms of the types of bars sneha frequented Ron told the NYPD that had no impact on their marriage in fact Ron gave a perfect explanation saying sneha had absolutely no interest in being hit on at normal bars especially after the incident with the intern ended so badly for her the falsified accusations by the NYPD didn't stop there though their documents also included a supposed interview with sneha's brother who allegedly told police he had walked in on sneha having sex with his girlfriend at the time yet when sneha's brother was questioned about this at the appeal hearing he vehemently denied ever making these remarks much less part participating in an interrogation regarding that situation in general most damning of all the police records contend that on the morning of September 10 2001 after a court proceeding for sneha's criminal charge appeal she and Ron got into a heated verbal confrontation on the courthouse grounds that ended with Ron storming away and sneher incredulous by herself the problem is this never happened according to Ron he said they had an intentional discussion but nothing escalated Beyond Civility and that he left for work like he always did after the morning at court all of these falsified events and circumstantial happenings led the police to argue sneha disappeared as a result of her own doing either getting into trouble due to her late night activities or using 911 as a means to fake her own death an escape to start a new life getting away from the transgressions that shadowed her a faked death was already ruled out by Ken Gallant however he initially suspect acted the same thing but did the proper investigative work garant combed through sterner's computer files and found none of the usual signs of someone researching starting a new life she also kept almost all of her credit cards in the apartments including her driver's license passports and glasses the glasses were the biggest tell she rarely ventured further than New York City outskirts without bringing them with her so if snerha didn't run away could she have been killed during her night out like the NYPD originally thoughts while it's not impossible it's also not likely this wasn't the first time sneha spent the night out on the town and spent time with new friends at bars and their apartments around the city she knew what she was doing knew who she shouldn't hang around and was obviously cognizant of the dangers women face at bars in a major metropolitan area she wouldn't have done what she did if she didn't know how to protect herself and recognize the warning signs there also wasn't any criminal pattern the 90 of September 10th to Warrant a murder investigation there were no unsolved homicides no unidentified Indian women no bar shootings or reported kidnappings and of course there were almost no crimes reported at all on September 11th and only one unsolved homicide was reported by the end of the day there's also no pattern of disappearances in the New York City area in the days leading up to 9 11 and following outside the obvious Twin Towers victims in fact there is only one disputed missing person's report from the week of September 11th that is the case of Fernando molinar molinar was last seen or heard from on September 8 2001 when he talked to his mother on the phone about his new job near the World Trade Center at a local pizzeria he hadn't started yet but his real start date was never known despite seeming like an obvious candidate as a potential victim to 9 11 the petition to list him as an official death was denied by a Duchess County judge in January of 2004. there isn't any true connection between sneher and molinar except for the fact they were both immigrants to America foreign Philip we agree with her widower Ron private investigator Ken Gallant the Philip family and now the entirety of Duchess County courts that sneha perished as a result of the September 11th attacks at the World Trade Center furthermore we believe that sneha was dealing with a lot of pressing matters in life feeling the pressure that medical school and starting a new life and career can bring however it was not the type of thing to push a person to throw it all away and start a new life sneher lost her job not her Physician's license or the ability to practice medicine she already had another job after all rather it would have made sense for sneher to spend the night in the places that made her most happy she had dealt with a stressful court hearing that morning and after spending the evening shopping felt it best to stay out where exactly she went is anyone's guess it's not exactly fair to go around asking people of their whereabouts on the night of September 10th as the topic of 911 is an incredibly triggering event for some New Yorkers who are there living through it and do not understand the fascination or desire to talk about it in the way the rest of the world often does it's an understandable point and while unfortunate does demand our respect what we can say however is that it makes all the sense in the world for sneher to have seen the attacks unfolding at the Twin Towers on Tuesday morning and run to ground zero to help in any capacity she could the first sign is the obvious sneha had spent the better part of six years devoting her life to becoming a doctor like her father she was inspired by his compassion and care for regular folks across the world and wanted to carry that Legacy herself when it came down to it she loved people and wanted to lend her talents to keeping more people healthy and Alive thus when a plane crashes into the Twin Towers and an obvious crisis unfolds in front of you sneher would have been one of the first people to put her head down and do what she could sneha also had the World Trade Center on her mind the time she disappeared remember her instant messenger conversation with her mum on September 10th she talked about trying the restaurant on the 106th and 107th floors of North Tower 1 WTC branded as Windows on the world the desire stemmed from an upcoming wedding sneha would be attending in the spring of 2002 where one of her friends would be married at the windows on the world venue it's possible this was the first thought that ran through sneha's mind when she saw the top of the north power on fire on the morning of 9 11. it could have been her good friend up there in imminent danger whether or not sneher was the woman in the apartment Lobby's security footage is not for us to decide as we have never seen the tapes nor sneher herself however we can deduce by the descriptions provided and the acknowledgment of both her husband and an investigating detective that the woman did appear to be snap based on a few unique parameters ultimately there were hints that sneha was still alive up until a minute before the plane struck the Twin Towers on 9 11. after those next few tragic hours there were zero hints and signs and sneha and Philip was gone just like nearly 3 000 others were by Sundown there Still Remains a chance that sneher's remains could be identified investigators collected over 22 000 individual pieces of human remains from Ground Zero back in the cleanup efforts post 911 and many have yet to be tested against DNA submitted by victims family members who wish to claim proof of their loved ones Fates overall there are 1 347 victims of 9 11 whose remains have yet to be found including snehus it's possible a match shows up one day however the rate of identifying victims has increasingly slowed over the years as a lot of the DNA either shows up as a repeat match or the requisite DNA is not in the system of submitted samples most likely we will never know the exact fates of sneher and Philip but that doesn't mean we can't remember her for the doctor that she was an empathetic dreamer with the hopes to cure sickness maintain health and give back a higher quality of life for all the people she saw she died doing what she set out to do offering the ultimate sacrifice it's unknown how many folks Dr Philip cared for that morning under the smoking Towers but regardless of the number her Legacy will live on in honor of the three thousand lives lost and the countless lives impacted by the violent consequences that have since taken hold since September 11 2001 we will show our remembrance and restore honor to the name of sneher and Philip this is Cold Case Detective

Channel: Cold Case Detective

Views: 994,339

Keywords: cold case detective

Id: PvahgzDzHvQ

Length: 36min 10sec (2170 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 10 2023