1. 9/10

Dr. Sneha Anne Philip disappears in Manhattan.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
September two thousand, one pm, Manhattan. The sun set five
minutes ago technically really, though it's been dark for a while.
Thunderstorms coursed through the city, pulsing and pausing, blackening the sky.

(00:27):
This is the sound of that rain. The rain of
captured on video by a man named Andres Barila standing
in a department store across the street from the World
Trade Center, is Dr Sneha and Philip at eight pm
hours and twenty eight minutes before a Boeing seven sixty

(00:49):
seven slams into one of the skyscrapers above snay House,
swipes her husband's credit card, grabs two bags, and exits
onto the street. She's never seen again. Except that's not true.
Snay was seen again. We just don't know by whom.
She stayed somewhere that night, though we don't know where.

(01:14):
There is a grand story to be told of nine
eleven of the world before and after. This is not that.
This is the story of one missing woman and her
family's questifine her. The story of a thirty one year
old newlywed on the precipice of life, a promising career
in medicine ahead of an artist, a poet, a sister,

(01:35):
a daughter, someone loved, someone lost, someone who disappeared during
a monumental moment in American history. Since September two one,
there's been no sign of Snay huh, no DNA, nothing.
In the absence of evidence, tabloids and rhetors alike poured
over her personal life, her sexuality, her mental health, alcohol use,

(01:58):
legal troubles, snay how the victim? Snay? How the hero Snay?
How the troubled woman? But who was Snay really? Who
is she? For my heart media, this is missing on
nine eleven, The story of one woman who vanished on

(02:19):
the eve of history and my quest to find her.
I'm your host, John Wallzac. Talk to people who knew

(02:54):
snay ha friend or foe, and you'll hear the same descriptors. Brilliant, beautiful,
our tistic, charismatic, and depending on who you ask, either
manipulative or more generously, really good at getting what she wanted.
Sna was smart, I mean brilliant. She spoke five languages, English, Russian, Italian, German, Emalayalam.

(03:16):
She loved books. She was philosophical and poetic. Though she
grew up in a conservative Indian family, she was progressive.
She considered herself a feminist, and she loved gay men
at a time when much of America didn't. Her art
was typically abstract. She was a fan of Jackson Pollock.
One day, much to her parents surprise, she and a

(03:37):
friend painted a mural in her family's basement. Sneh was ageless,
smooth skin, rice smile, piercing brown eyes, black hair, five
six and a hundred and fifteen pounds, but fierce. Her
life began on October seventh, nineteen sixty nine, in southwest India,

(03:58):
in the state of Kerala. It's three years later her
father wanted visa lottery for doctors and moved the family,
say her mother on Zu, and her older brother Ashwyn,
to Albany, New York. Three years after that, her younger
brother John was born. As a kid, sna attended Ludonville
Christian School and later Emma Willard School, an exclusive private

(04:20):
academy that counts among its alumni Jane Fonda and Senator
Kirston jilla Brand, who graduated the semester before Snaha arrived.
Snayha ran track and played flute and the piano. She
decorated her bedroom with posters of Billy Idol and breakfast
at Tiffany's. She idolized Audrey Hepburn and listened to boy
George and Duran duran in Naha graduated from Emma Willard

(04:46):
and moved to Baltimore to attend Johns Hopkins University, where
she pursued both premed and creative writing studies. Whether or
not Snayha really wanted to be a doctor depends on
who you ask. Her family says yes, really, everyone else
says no. They say she really wanted to be an artist.
At Hopkins, was the treasurer of her sorority by muw

(05:10):
It was easy for her to make friends on the outside.
She was gregarious and extroverted, approachable and kind, but she
also had an introverted streak, someone quick and witty who
could turn inward. In May, Snaha graduated from Hopkins by
she was in Seattle. Seattle and ninety three was energy,

(05:37):
the epicenter of American culture. If you just graduated from
college and you're looking for somewhere to go and somewhere fun,
somewhere cool, somewhere to get a start, Seattle sing Keith Place,
and everyone was heading. Hugo Kuga, a reporter New Snaeha loosely.
His girlfriend at the time was her roommate. They shared
a house on Capitol Hill, a gritty, trendy, gay friendly neighborhood.

(06:00):
You'd meet people who had and were from other places
and nothing no time to Seattle at all, and people
who dressed well. I've remember that, and Sale is one
of those people. She was not white, she was cool,
she dressed well. She was not from Seattle. Um, oh, okay, yeah,

(06:23):
you're like, you're one of those people. You're one of
those cool people who moved to Seattle. She was easy
to talk to. She uh yeah. I mean, you know,
some people are cool and cold and stand off as
she wasn't. I remember that. She was a warm person,
easy to talk to. Um, easy to joke with. While
in Seattle, took classes at the University of Washington or

(06:45):
you dub and fell into the rave scene. She loved fashion,
especially shoes, and she loved to dance. Her younger brother,
John joined her in Seattle for about a year. By
the summer of had moved east to attend the Chicago
go Medical School. One year later, Ron Lieberman arrived in Chicago,
also to attend med school. Ron was a long haired

(07:08):
Jewish musician from Los Angeles. He was skinny, looked like Jesus,
and played the guitar in He and snay has started dating.
Sometime after that, In ninety six or ninety seven, Snah
took a year off from d school. She flew to Tuscany, Italy,
where she spent six or seven months painting. She loved Tuscany,

(07:30):
she could see herself living there permanently. During this time,
Sah pondered whether or not she really wanted to be
a doctor, or whether she should dedicate herself to art.
It was in Tuscany that Ron proposed to her on
the balcony of her apartment in Florence. She said yes,
and after a blissful Tuscan escape, returned to Chicago and

(07:52):
med school in n She and Ron graduated and moved
to New York City that July. Based did their residencies,
Ron at Jacoby Medical Center in the Bronx and snay
Haw at Cabrini Medical Center in Manhattan. Ron specialized in
emergency medicine. Snah wasn't sure what to do, maybe oncology

(08:13):
or neurology, or maybe she'd be an allergist. On May
thirteenth two thousand, Ron and Snaeha got married at the
trout Beck, a luxurious in and Amenia, New York. Their
wedding was lavish and joyful, so much so it was
featured in a magazine Grace Ormond Wedding Style in two
thousand one. The night before the ceremony, in an ancient

(08:35):
eight hour Indian ritual, temporary designs were painted on the
bride's hands and feet, with Hannah symbolizing her new marital status.
Custom dictates that a woman remains a new bride as
long as the design can still be seen. Spanish flamenco
guitar music entertained guests before the ceremony, while classical Indian
music featuring sitar and tablet drums provided the backdrop. As

(08:56):
the couple stood under an outdoor arbor, over which a
talent or Jewish prayer your shawl was straped well I
guess sing an Indian song, Ron plays a tiny teardrop
shaped gold pendant and cross around Snah's neck, symbolizing their marriage.
He then wrapped the bride in a red silk wedding
sorry elaborately woven with golden thread. The couple drank wine
from a Kiddish cup, over which another guest had recited

(09:18):
a traditional Jewish blessing. Ron ended the ceremony by smashing
a glass underfoot. In the Jewish tradition, the year that
followed the summer of two thousand to the summer of
two thousand one, that was the Golden year, the year
everything seemed right with the world seemed as I see it.

(10:03):
There are four logical explanations for Snay has disappearance. Nine eleven, murder,
she ran away and is alive. Suicide. But come on, murder,
suicide that she's alive. None of that makes sense. Here's
the thing, though, neither does nine eleven, not when you

(10:25):
look at it closely. Nothing makes sense. So what do
you do when the person you love just vanishes? A wife,
a sister, a daughter gone, just gone? What do you
do with that? Snay House family settled on the hero
narrative that snayhow was walking home on nine eleven and
ran into the burning towers to help people, And really,

(10:48):
can you blame them? Think of the pain the grief
that leads a family to choose nine eleven as the answer.
And although there's no proof yet that Snay had died
on nine eleven. Officially, that is the answer, that she
died in the attacks at the World Trade Center. For
snayhus family, this is all very painful, so I think

(11:09):
it's important from the get go to make clear what
I hope to accomplish with this show. First, I want
to tell you about real snay Ha, not Reddit Snah
the mystery woman. Second, I want to examine her disappearance closely.
She deserves that. Finally, most of all, I want to
find new information answers. What I can promise you is

(11:31):
the truth, all of it as I know it. What
I can't promise you is a neat, tidy ending. That's
up to you. Yes, you, I'm speaking to the person
sna stayed with an You're out there. You never came forward,
not to her family, the cops, the press. Come forward
now please. I'll protect your identity, and to anyone else

(11:56):
with important information you too, I'll let you know how
to reach us at the end of the show. Any
proper examination of snay has disappearance begins with a minute
by minute account of To piece together this timeline, I
relied on court records, police records, and interviews when possible
times are exact. When not, they're approximate. September two thousand one,

(12:23):
around ten thirty am, Snay is in Manhattan Criminal Court
charged with assault, harassment, and falsely reporting an incident. A
few months ago. She told police that a fellow doctors
sexually assaulted her in a bar. Then, according to the NYPD,
she recanted and proceeded to harass the doctor and his wife.

(12:44):
This is the incident that her family believes led her
to spiral downward. We'll get into it more later. With
her today are her husband, Ron, and her attorney, Mark Freiburg.
Her appearance is brief, the case is adjourned to a
future date. What happened next is disputed. According to an
NYPD detective. While exiting the courthouse, Snah and Ron get

(13:06):
into a heated argument. Ron says this never happened, and
Mark Freiburg, Snayhouse attorney, told me he doesn't remember any argument.
He declined further comment. Sometime between ten thirty and eleven thirty,
while walking a mile from the courthouse back to their
apartment at Rector Place, Ron and Snay has stopped at
a bank and pull a hundred dollars out of an

(13:28):
a t M. They split the money. Between eleven fifteen
and eleven thirty, Ron leaves for work. His shift starts
at one, and he doesn't want to be late. He
has to catch the subway to the Bronx. Ron declined
to speak to me, but here he is. In two
thousand two, on Unsolved Mysteries, kissed her. I told her
I loved her, and I left. Luckily, I left my

(13:50):
keys at home, so I went back and I got
to his string again, and that was the last time
that I saw be four. Ron Leaves tells him she's
going to clean the apartment. They're hosting a small dinner
party the next night, the eleven. She's excited because the
shipment of Orc is just derived from Hawaii. She tells

(14:12):
Ron that at some point she might take a walk.
Early afternoon, sna meditates. She starts cleaning the apartment and
repotting the orchids. Around two to two thirty and her
mom Ato talk via instant messenger, probably a o LL
Instant Messenger or AIM. They chat for one to two hours,

(14:34):
then tells aunt Wo that she better get back to cleaning.
While no one disagrees that Snah and Onto talked via
i AM records indicate that they also may have spoken
by phone and or text, though I haven't been able
to confirm that. Anzo declined to speak to me. Around
four or five, Say signs off and tells her mom

(14:57):
she's going to run errands. Between five and five thirty,
Sammy Fliciano, a doorman, see Snay how walk out the
front of her apartment building. Sammy is the second to
last person that we know of to see Snay alive
September ten. What do you remember of September ten? What
hours did you work and what do you remember of

(15:18):
that night? September two? Was the night before, I mean
the day before, of course, right. Uh? I worked at
three three eleven shift as the casci age. Um, I
remember just working my shift and I'm going home. Do
you have any memories from that night or is it
just kind of get lost in the aftermath of not eleven? No,

(15:42):
I can't remember, honestly. I mean, I just know I
did the night shift, and UM, I remember being picked
up by a friend of mine and that's it. I
can't remember much. So I think the NYPD, maybe a
private investigator spoke with you. I know it's been a
really long time, but um, they didn't. I didn't even
remember that. They they it listed you as the second

(16:06):
to last person to see Dr Philip. And so I'm
just gonna I'm gonna read you what what I found
in the reports and tell me if any of it
strikes a chord. It said that you saw Dr Philip
leave the building sometime between five fifteen and five thirty.
Do you have any memory of that? Um? No, I don't.

(16:29):
Do you do you remember that? Actually, Dr phil No,
that's the that's the that's that. That's the other question.
I mean, I don't have no memory of the persons
of that residents name. I mean faith, I'm sorry, face,
no memory of that face. Yeah, but Snay Philip, you
recognized the name. The name sounds very familiar, just the faith.
I cannot pay for it. I cannot put a face
into it. So, unfortunately, twenty years later, Sammy doesn't remember much.

(16:55):
At the time, Snay has apartment building. Rector Place was
called Park with a C Place park Place. It's a
twenty four story building built in it had about three
hundred units. Google mapp it. It's about nine dred feet
southwest of the World Trade Center. By nine eleven, Rector

(17:15):
was at about occupancy, many of its residents worked on
Wall Street. I know which unit Ron and Snaha lived in,
but I'm not publishing it. I don't want people to
disturb the current owner, who understandably does not want publicity.
What I can tell you is that it was a
one bedroom, that Ron and Shall lived on, one of
the cheaper floors, and that their unit did not face

(17:37):
the World Trade Center. When Snaha leaves Rector sometime around
five or five thirty PM, she's wearing a brown dress
and sandals. Her dress is, according to Ron, quote, kind
of a shirt style dress that came to her knees
short sleeves. Later in court, Ron's says she wore quote,

(18:01):
a knee length brown collared short sleeve shirt dress with
buttons down the front, sandals, a beated black and gold
choker with a tear drop shaped cross pendant, a gold
engagement ring with a diamond in the center, a gold
wedding band with small diamonds studded around it, and earrings
with diamonds, studs, and flower shapes. Her toenails were painted purple.

(18:23):
After she leaves the apartment, Snayha drops off dry cleaning.
Then she walks the Century One, a massive department store
across the street from the World Trade Center, just east
of the Twin Towers. Century One, no relation to the
real estate company, is a New York icon, a beloved
spot where for decades shoppers could treasure hunt for discounted

(18:45):
high fashion. I say could, because in September Century declared
bankruptcy citing the impact of the COVID pandemic. Earlier this year,
the company CEO, Raymond Guindey, graciously gave me a final
tour of the store, which will likely never reopen. It
was emptied out, partially lit and running on fumes with

(19:07):
a skeletal staff. Close your eyes and wander around with me,
a two hundred thousand square foot six story complex with
flickering lights in the middle of a pandemic, looking for
the last known location of a woman who disappeared on
the evening before nine eleven. Thanks for walking up all
the escalators with us. I appreciate it. Get in my

(19:30):
work out I handed in India print out of the
last known image of snay Ha A still of her
in the women's coat area, captured by a security camera.
So this is probably literally this picture the area this
was taken I think it was around here, let me,

(19:50):
or in this area here? So did the women's coat
area was in the same place in two thousand one
that it was untild recently, yes of us. So like
when we're looking and that looks like a door or something,
I think it's that door. And I think that column
is that column. This picture is maybe taken over here someplace. Wow. Okay,

(20:13):
and where are we on the top floor? Where are
we were on the fifth floor? The one floor? It's
six floors. We tried to pinpoint the camera that caught
the image. Do you think it is that a that
a camera? Yeah, all those domes always cameras. Well. I know,
I think you're probably right because I imagine I mean,
either this would have been aimed more closely this way

(20:34):
or or the other way. They had like at least
got it, So you know they have been the cameras
from two one. Probably probably not because they constantly, but
the location is pretty much, say the same. They swap
out the camera technology, you know, a better six O
five Snap purchases several items, including Lingerie and bed Lennon's

(20:59):
six four D. I found a single source that states
say made another purchase at this time, though I haven't
been able to confirm it. The sun sets, snay Ha
buys three pairs of shoes in a different part of
the store. And here we have a critical question. Why

(21:21):
wasn't snay captured on camera in the women's shoe area? Oh,
I'd spread at the time. Was the UM security system
in terms of like camera coverage, because one thing that
I read is that there were not security cameras in
the women's shoe area. That seem accurate to you. I
don't know if it's surprising because pretty much him everywhere. Yeah,

(21:41):
I would be surprised it would. They usually go all
over like you see. Guindy took me to the security room.
It had one of those big mirror like windows. I
pressed my face against the glass to see inside. The
timeline of of when Dr Philip disappeared UM the doorman
at her building on After Place saw her leaving sometime

(22:02):
around five fifteen five dirty. But obviously if you look
at this still from the security footage, you know it's
a sixteen fifty seven twenty four, so four fifty seven roughly.
Do you know, by chance if the time was calibrated
or correct or off or I have no idea. I figured,
I figured, I'm asking you the time on a security

(22:22):
camera was correct twenty years ago. But I did hear
that there was a transaction done and like around six
pm or something. Yeah, So there, as far as I know,
there were I believe to transactions. One was for lingerie
bed linens um and then the last was for three
pairs of shoes. So so we're she was caught on

(22:43):
camera and exactly where we're standing right now browsing women's coats,
where where would lingerie bed linens and then also women's
shoes in relation to where we are right now, where
are the different areas? So the lingerie would have been
a couple of floors down, probably on three bed men's
would be in the basement of this building. And then

(23:03):
to get two shoes, it makes sense that she paid
to transactions to get two shoes. It's into separate building
on the other side, and it makes sense that she
paid for it and then went to those buildings kind
of like an annex where she shopped separately in the
shoe area. Which building what streets just so it faces
on Broadway the shoe annex, uh, and it there's a
way to connect from here without going outside, but it's

(23:25):
kind of circuitous. Some people just go out the front
door and walk next door. It's easier. So how far
how big of a compost? I'm gonna have to get
Google Maps. How big of a complex is? Does you said?
It's five six buildings total? I mean so basically it
fronts the main street on Church Street, which is to
the west, and it it goes through the series of

(23:45):
buildings to Broadway, which is the east. So it's almost
the full square block, although a couple of chunks are
not part of this door. But it makes sense that
she would work her way to shoes and then that
would be her final transaction. Yeah. And then if she
was exiting um having purchased shoes, would she walk out
on Broadway or probably? Okay, that makes the most sense.

(24:09):
Sometime between seven seven thirty, snay Haa exits Century one,
probably onto Broadway. She carries two bags with five fifty
dollars worth of shoes, bed, linens, and lingerie. It's still
raining on and off. M That thunderstorm was so I

(24:51):
don't know how to say. It was so strangely beautiful
that it was eerie. It was like something is happening
something is coming. I don't know what it is. I'm
going to have to record this nine. Monica Bravo is
an artist in residence at the World Trade Center, working
out of an empty space on the ninety two floor

(25:11):
of the North Tower. That evening, she captures video as
rain rolls into the city as Snayhouse shops below, Monica
films from above. Later, Monica turns her footage into a
work of art called September tenth two one, which translates
to roughly, it's impossible for you to die on the

(25:33):
eve of your death. Monica waited all summer for this
rain to film it. It started at to fifty five,
if I'm not wrong. It started like like you know
when you see the storm coming and you see like
the big cloud like low, and you go, oh shoot,
I'm going to get all wet like like that, and
then it's dark and you see like it's like a
dark monster coming. And I started seeing it from the

(25:55):
window and that's when I started taping. And it's fascinating
how fast that um cloud came over that it just
touches the window with a drop of water. I don't
know if you see it in the first second of
the film. It's just like you see the storms coming
and then immediately you know the storm is present when
it's the first few drops on the on the on

(26:16):
the window, and you know you are part of the storm.
So it did not stop until probably nine pm. It
was it was always raining, and there was lightning at
the end of a very frightening lightning. You I used
to be so scared of lightning until that day. And
you know what made me get like rid of that
fear was that this is my thought then not right, so, oh,

(26:39):
that's going to happen to me. I'm in Tawaiwan. We
have the I don't know how to say in English Paris,
you know this thing that yeah, yeah, yeah, we have that.
So I was like, I would safe here. First I'm
gonna be dead, I don't know, from another fire, but
not here. I was thinking about fire the whole time
I was there. The moment I leave that night, I
take the tape and I thought maybe I should take

(27:02):
everything else, and I said, well, no, there wouldn't be
a fire. But I was thinking all the time about fire.
And I looked at the water sprinkles and that's it.
Oh no, there's sprinkles here, We're gonna be fine. Around midnight,
Monica leaves the North Tower, less than nine hours before
American Airlines Flight eleven slams into it one floor above.

(27:25):
There are only two artists left on the ninety floor. One, Jeff,
leaves after Monica. The other, Michael Richards, a sculptor, sleeps
in the tower that night and dies in the attack.
The next day. Eleven PM, Sammy Fliciano says Doorman ends
his shift at Rector Say hasn't returned to the apartment,

(27:49):
neither has her husband Ron. Around eleven fifteen, Ron returns
home from work. Snay is not there, nor are her bags.
There's no sign she's been in the apartment since she
left about six hours earlier. Here again is Ron on
unsolved mysteries. Sometimes she would feel uncomfortable staying by herself

(28:09):
at home, and her brother lives very close by, and
her cousin also lives very close by, so she would
sometimes go spend the night with him. And I thought, well,
maybe she just decided to stop at her brother's house
or her cousin. Around midnight, Ron goes to sleep. Nine

(28:29):
eleven four oh five am, someone places a call from
the apartment landline to Ron's cell phone. Ron has no
memory of making that call. Next time I'm missing on
nine eleven. Second, before we go, I want to let

(29:02):
you know that at the end of each episode, I'll
be giving you homework, something you can do, some way
you can help move the story forward, and then I'll
give you our tipline, an email where you can send
us information or even documents. Some of these tasks will
be interactive and relatively easy, some will be specialized and difficult.
The goal is to add you, our audience, to our

(29:24):
investigative team. This week one, did you know Snay Huh? Two?
Do you have any unpublished images or video captured in
Lower Manhattan on September two one or on nine eleven? Three?
Did Snay has? Stay with you? If so, please reach
out to us. If you want, we'll protect your identity.

(29:48):
You can reach us by phone at one eight three
three New Tips that's one eight three three six three
nine eight four seven seven again one eight three e
six three nine eight four seven seven, or you can
reach us via email at tips at iHeart media dot com.

(30:08):
That's tips, t I P s at iHeart media dot com.
Ben Bollen is our executive producer. Paul Decan is our
supervising producer, Chris Brown is our assistant producer, Seth Nicholas
Johnson is our producer. Sam T. Garden is our research assistant,
and I'm your host and executive producer John Waalzack. Cover

(30:28):
art by Pam Peacock. Special thanks to Tamika Campbell at
iHeart and to Christophe Zappery in New Orleans. Also thank
you to Sammy Fliciano, Raymond Guindey, Hugo, Cogia, Monica Bravo,
Andrey's Bardi La and ASoP Rock. Original theme music by
ASoP Rock. Check out a soops website at ASoP rock
dot com. Wedding article voiced by any Reese. Archival audio

(30:51):
from Unsolved Mysteries provided by Cosgrove Mirror Productions. Audio of
the Reign of nine ten provided by Andres Bardi La.
You can find him on Twitter at at b A
R R I l A. You can view Monica Bravos
art at Monica Bravo dot com, m O n I
k A Bravo dot com, and you can find me
on Twitter at at John wallzac j O n w

(31:15):
A l c z A K. If you like this show.
Check out our first season Missing in Alaska, about the
nineteen seventy two disappearance of two congressmen. Missing on nine
eleven is a co production of iHeart Media and Greenford Media.