Sneha Philip finally named a 9/11 victim

A doctor has finally been named a victim of the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers - more than SIX YEARS after the terror attacks.

Sneha Philip became the most controversial victim on that tragic day as her death was shrouded in mystery - with claims she may have been murdered by a stranger she took home for sex.

But judges have ruled that she should be listed as one of the official victims of the mass tragedy.

Immediately after the attacks, Sneha was listed as one of the dead as it was assumed she had stopped to help victims of the attacks just two blocks from her home.

But in 2004 the Medical Examiner's office removed her name from the official list of victims after investigators claimed she might have been murdered by someone she had picked up in a bar the night before the terror attacks.

She was accused of going to lesbian bars and spending random nights with strangers - as well as "abusing drugs and alcohol" and "conducting bisexual acts."

However, the state Appellate Division court said the simplest explanation is the most likely - the doctor died trying to help people at Ground Zero.

Justice David Saxe insisted that claims she "recklessly engaged in extramarital sexual relations with dangerous strangers she met in bars" is "not a conclusion permitted by the evidence".

Judge Saxe added in his ruling: "While it is logically possible that [Philip] died by some other means on that date, either by random violence or at the hands of someone she met the night before, there is no factual basis in the evidence for that conclusion.

"Even without direct proof irrefutably establishing that her route that morning took her past the World Trade Center at the time of the attack, the evidence shows it to be highly probable that she died that morning, and at that site, whereas only the rankest speculation leads to any other conclusion."

Marc Bogatin, the lawyer for Philip's husband, Ron Lieberman, and for her parents, said the ruling "will give closure" to her family.

"There's now no question her name will be restored to the official list and that her name will be added to the list of those who died at the memorial, and that's a source of comfort to the family to know that," he said.

Mr Lieberman had acknowledged that he and his wife of one year had an unusual relationship and she sometimes stayed out all night.

But Saxe insisted: "There is no question that they had a happy marriage and, importantly, there was no evidence that his wife's nights out involved any risky behavior."

By Lee Brown, Feb 01 2008 © Copyright 2008 - Showbiz Spy