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Doctor added to 9/11 victim list

By Matthew Sweeney | msweeney@am-ny.com

6:25 PM EDT, July 10, 2008

Like countless others, her face was seen on fliers all across the city in the months after 9/11. But only now has Sneha Anne Philip been declared the 2,751 person killed at the World Trade Center, nearly seven years after the attack.

"I just found out today," her mother, Ansu Philip, told amNewYork Thursday. "It's a relief. Losing our daughter is bad enough but having to go through this whole process was terrible."

Like many who died on 9/11, no trace of her remains was ever found. But unlike the other victims, her family had to fight through the courts and endure stories about Sneha's personal life that speculated on her final hours.

Sneha Philip, an internist at St. Vincent's Hospital on Staten Island, lived with her husband, Dr. Ronald Lieberman, in Battery Park City. She was last seen on the night of Sept. 10, 2001 on a security camera shopping at Century 21 across from the World Trade Center. She didn't go home that night.

Her husband, a resident at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx when his wife disappeared, plastered thousand of pictures of her around Manhattan, desperate to find anyone who had seen her. Although her disappearance baffled her family and police, and was the subject of an episode of the television show "Unsolved Mysteries," her name was eventually included on the list of 9/11 victims. But in 2004, the medical examiner removed her name. There was no evidence she died at the World Trade Center, the M.E. said. Her husband fought the decision in court. But in June 2006, a surrogate court ruled against him. His wife engaged in dangerous behavior like drinking, drugs and leaving bars with strangers. She might have been murdered, the court decided. The ruling fueled speculation over her final hours.

"There's no truth about it," her mother said. "It's all speculation. It's all hearsay."

The Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court overturned that decision in late January. The ruling was based on speculation, the court said. It was not unusual for her to stay away from home over night, returning about 9 a.m. the following day to get ready for work, Marc Bogatin, the family's attorney said. The Appellate Division ruled that Sneha Philip, 31, died in the attack, most likely while stopping to help people on her way home from a night out. What she did between shopping at Century 21 and the next morning remains a mystery.

"She was really intelligent, really compassionate," her mother said. "She was my best friend. We talked almost every day. For the longest time I waited for the phone to ring."

The M.E.'s ruling Thursday amends Philip's death certificate this time to show that she died as a result of the attacks that day, Bogatin said.

"Her name will be included at the memorial with the other victims and she will be recognized as a victim," Bogatin said. "Her family will be invited to attend the functions of other victims' families."

The M.E.'s decision yesterday was the final step.

"Even now today the whole things come back to your mind," Ansu Philip said. "There's been no end. I hope this is it."

(Michael Frazier contributed to this story)