Peyton Moreland (0:00)

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Monday.com the first work platform you'll love to use. You're listening to an Ono Media podcast. Hey everyone and welcome back to the into the Dark podcast. I am your host, Peyton Moreland. I'm so happy you are here. If you are watching on YouTube and I look boo scary, it's because I literally just got off of a plane because I was supposed to come home yesterday but our flight kept getting delayed and I really needed to record today. So I literally stepped off the plane, got home and now I'm recording. So yeah, I I'm not gonna say sorry, but if I did spook you, that's why going into my 10 seconds for this episode, like I said, we were just got off the plane and that's because we were in Vegas. Garrett and I were in Vegas for one of his sister's volleyball tournaments. And honestly it was so fun. I was actually talking about this on my Instagram. But I love sports tournaments. Like I think a lot of people would be like, oh, I just hate sitting there all day. I hate just waiting around for game to game. I love it. Like I genuinely think I was just cut out for that. I love the environment. I love that everyone just gets so intense over just this silly little sport. I love that everyone there, it like shares the same passion. I don't know, there's something about it. That environment just makes me feel alive and I love it. So yeah. But that being said, it's gonna be a quick 10 seconds. I want to jump right into today's episode. So imagine this. A woman is dealing with some Huge problem in her life, including substance abuse, a crumbling marriage, infidelity, the loss of her job, and she's in trouble with the law. So basically everything that could go wrong in this woman's life is going wrong. And then one day she vanishes without a trace. Now, given that setup, you may think the explanation is obvious, right? You might assume that this woman ran away from all of her problems, that she maybe went missing on purpose. Well, let me add a few more details to the story. Lets say that before her disappearance, this woman lived in New York City, just a few blocks away from the World Trade center. And she goes missing on September 10, 2001. That changes the calculation a little bit, doesn't it? That situation I just described isn't a hypothetical, is a real account of something that's happened to an actual woman named Sneha and Philip. Or at least it might be. As you'll see once I get into today's episode, there is a lot of controversy about her case. A lot of details about her life are disputed and up for debate. So I want to explore her background and what we think we know about her to understand the mysteries surrounding her disappearance. So let's get into it. Now, Sneha was born in India, but when she was young, her whole family actually moved to the United States. So that's where she and her two brothers grew up. In 1995, she actually enrolled in a med school in Chicago. And that's where she met Ron Lieberman. He was also a med student, but he was originally from California. So even though they had different backgrounds, there was a spark between these two college kids. And they began dating and became serious very quickly. In fact, Sneha began making major life decisions on her boyfriend Ron's behalf. See, she was supposed to graduate a year before him. And apparently she didn't want to start her career while he still had a year of school left. So she took a year off to make sure they'd get their degrees at the same time in 1999. And then they both accepted internships in New York City so they could live together as they entered the working world. Now, this young couple really were committed to one another and deeply in love, at least as far as anyone could tell. And In May of 2000, they got married. And the wedding incorporated elements of both of their cultures. Snakes. Neha was Indian and Ron was Jewish. So it was a very personalized and touching ceremony. Ron even wrote an original song that the band played during their reception. So it's no surprise that everyone who knew Ron and Sneha thought they were totally in love and very devoted to one another. And for roughly the next year and a half, they worked on getting their careers off the ground while still in New York City. Now, the apartment they rented together as newlyweds was very close to the World Trade center, just about two blocks away. They could walk from their home to the Twin Towers in about seven minutes. And it was also close to many of Sneha's family members who lived in New York. Her brother's apartment was about a five minute walk from her and Ron's place and her cousin was also in the neighborhood. So anyway, that was Sneha's Life for about 16 months. Newly married, newly graduated from med school, newly living in New York with her family. And she and Ron were still newlyweds. They were still working in the medical field and trying to make the transition from being interns to fully fledged doctors. And while from the outside looking in, Sneha seemed to have made it. She had a lot of charisma and she never had any difficulty meeting people or becoming friends with them. She had had an active social life and people honestly adored her. She was also beautiful and young, just 31 years old. It honestly seemed like she had a bright, promising future ahead of her. Now, in mid September of 2001, SNEHA had a few days in a row off of work. She had lots of time to run errands and take care of things around the house. And that is exactly what she did on September 10, 2001. Ron didn't have to start his shift until later in the day, so the two of them were together that morning until 11am that's when he kissed her goodbye and walked out the door. Now, she spent a few hours cleaning and tidying their apartment, and then at about 2pm she went online and chatted with her mother. Now that lasted until 4 when Sneha mentioned that she had to go because she was going to run some errands. And then she signed off. Now, from what I can tell, she left a little over an hour later because the doorman in her building saw her walk outside at around 5:15 or 5:30pm and just like she told her mom, she went shopping. After that, security cameras filmed her at a nearby department store called Century 21. Sneha ended up buying some clothes, shoes and lingerie, which she paid for with her husband Ron's credit card. Now, this was a huge shopping trip. She spent about $500 in total when she left Century 21. That is the last time Sneha was ever seen alive. At least it's the last time that we know of and can confirm. There's a lot of debate about what happened after that, and I'm going to dive into that a little bit later. But for now, I'm just going to focus on what can be verified in this story, like how her husband Ron got home later that night and found an empty apartment. Now, he wasn't totally surprised. Like I said, Sneha was a very social person who liked visiting local bars and seeing live bands. It wasn't unusual for her to go out on her own without Ron, except usually she would call him or leave a note to explain where she'd been. But I mean, she didn't always remember to. So that night she hadn't left any kind of message about her evening plans, but Ron chalked that up to her being forgetful. He was a little annoyed at her, but at the time he didn't think he had anything to worry about. He didn't think anything bad had happened. So he went to bed early because he had a shift the next morning and she still wasn't home at the time that he fell asleep. And then when Ron woke up on the morning of September 11, 2001, there still wasn't any sign of Sneha. She'd been gone all night, but again, this wasn't unusual for her. Like I mentioned before, her brother and her cousin lived in the area. Sometimes Sneha slept at their place rather than coming home. She also had a history of sleeping at friends apartments if she had a lot to drink and didn't feel like getting back to her place. And it's 2001, Sneha didn't own a cell phone, so it's not like she would have been able to reach Ron if she'd spontaneously decided to spend the night somewhere else. Again, he wakes up, he's annoyed that his wife hasn't bothered to check in and say where she was. But he still doesn't think he had to worry. Ron put it out of his mind, got up, got ready for work and made it to the hospital by 8am and I think we all know what happened after that. And might I say this is probably the worst timing for someone that lives two blocks away from the World Trade center to go missing. All right, you guys, I'm jumping into an ad. 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And as you guys know, my husband Garrett has little siblings and his family uses Green Light with them because, let's be honest, these are things you need to be learning earlier than when you move out. With Green Light, parents can send money to their kids and keep an eye on kids's spending and saving. And meanwhile, kids and teens build money, confidence and skills in a fun, accessible way. Like with games, the Green Light app also includes a chores feature where you can set up one time or recurring chores customized to your household and reward kids with allowance for a job well done. Green Light is the easy, convenient way for parents to raise financially smart kids and families to navigate life together. Start your risk free Greenlight trial today@greenlight.com dark that's greenlight.com dark to get started. Greenlight.com dark Ron was still at the hospital pretty early in his shift when the first plane struck the World Trade Center. He and the other doctors gathered around a TV set, watching the breaking story. They were stunned and scared. But Ron could only think of his wife. Wonder if she was all right. And I want to be clear. Sneha did not work at the Twin Towers. She didn't have any plans to be there that day. So there was no reason for Ron to think the attack had affected her at all. But of course, the two of them lived so close by that it felt impossible not to worry. And it's important to note that by this time, Ron hadn't heard from her in nearly 24 hours. So he just wants to talk to her on the phone and confirm she's okay, figure out where she's at. So Ron called his home's landline. It rang and rang, but Sneha didn't pick up. Of course, she could have been running errands or showering. There was plenty of explanations for why she might not answer. So he waited a few minutes and tried again. And then again. But all day long, Sneha failed to pick up the phone. And obviously, Ron is really starting to get worried. He tried calling her brother, her cousin, her parents, to check and see if she had been in contact with any of them. And every family member gave the same answer. They had not heard from Sneha since the day before, on the 10th. Now, with everything going on on this awful day, all Ron wanted to do was get home and search for his wife. But he couldn't leave work, not that day. He was a doctor in New York during the deadliest foreign terror attack in American history. He needed to stay at the hospital and tend to the injured. So even though Ron was terrified for his wife, he didn't get a chance to go home until 3pm and even then, it wasn't a quick or simple commute that day. He was headed right toward ground zero. I mean, the streets were clogged with ambulances, fire trucks, police cars, and scared fleeing people. It actually took him six hours to get from the hospital to his house, meaning Ron did not get to look around in his apartment until 9pm it had been roughly 12 hours since the terrorist attack, and it was like he'd stepped into another world. One of his apartment's windows had been left open. So all of this dust and ash had blown inside, coating every Surface of their home, the floors, the counters, all of it. Ron could see paw prints where his cats had walked through this, but there were no human footprints. And there was no sign whatsoever that Sneha, who had been missing since the day before, had been home at all that day. And if she wasn't home, she wasn't with her family. Ron didn't know where else to look. So once again, at this point, he gets in touch with Sneha's relatives, and he lets them know that he still doesn't know where she is. He can't reach her. And they're concerned, but still they don't believe that she'd been involved in the terrorist attack. She had no reason to be at the World Trade center that day. But when someone around this time goes missing, that's kind of what everyone assumes. And on top of that, Sneha's mother had a feeling deep in her gut that Sneha was alive. Except if she was out of touch and not at home, she might have been in trouble. Her family theorized that Sneha might have been kidnapped sometime on the night of September 10, that her disappearance had nothing to do with 9 11. But it was still a dangerous situation and something they needed to act on. So they did everything they could to track her down. They printed flyers with her picture. They hung them up all around Manhattan. They called Sneha's bank and credit card company, hoping they'd learned that she had been active. But there was no activity on any of her accounts after September 10th. They also reached out to Sneha's friends, co workers, and even the employees at her favorite bars and restaurants. They also questioned the doormen from her apartment building. The hope was that someone might have spotted her and could share a tip on her whereabouts. But none of it helped. No one had heard from her after that century 21 shopping trip. And through the whole desperate search, Sneha didn't come home or return their calls or contact them in any way. And honestly, her disappearance is falling on deaf ears. There's too many missing persons pictures hanging up at this point. So during their exhaustive investigation, her loved ones could only track down one clue. And it was hard to say how helpful the clue was. Sneha's apartment building had security cameras in the lobby, and there was a clip of a woman walking in through the front doors on the morning of September 11, 2001. She strolled inside, approached the elevator, waited there for a few minutes, and then she turned around and walked out of the building again. But here's the thing. The clip's really grainy. It's hard to make out any details. And honestly, it's impossible to say for sure if this woman was Sneha or not. In terms of her build, it is a good match. She didn't have any shopping bags with her. And remember, she had spent a full $500 on clothes and shoes the day before. So if she'd spent that much money, you'd think she would have made sure she had the bags with her when she finally came home the next morning. And the other question was, if this woman was Sneha, why did she just turn around and leave rather than heading up into her apartment? Well, there might be one explanation. The woman walked into the building and then left again right around 8:45am now, that is the same time that the first plane struck the World Trade Center. Remember, this apartment is only a few blocks away from Ground Zero. So after her family saw this footage, put two and two together, they had to face an unsettling possibility. Maybe Sneha had walked into the building just in time to see a TV news report or hear a radio bulletin about the collision. And then maybe she ran outside to see what was going on. Maybe ran toward Ground Zero to try and help people who could be injured. Lots of doctors actually ran into the towers that day, only to be trapped when they came down. And maybe Sneha was missing because she had done just that. Now, of course, that is just a theory. Sneha's family has no way to prove that it's true. In fact, they knew if they wanted to solve her disappearance, they needed to get the experts involved, which is why they opened a missing persons case with the New York Police Department. Her husband Ron and the others were clear that Sneha went missing on the 10th, not the 11th. This is an important distinction for them to make to police. They still didn't know for sure if her disappearance had anything to do with the World Trade center attacks. But they hoped that the detectives could piece everything together and figure out exactly what had happened to her. So the police do begin investigating, and they find some surprising evidence. Before she had gone missing, Sneha may have been abusing alcohol. Apparently, she had a habit of drinking dangerous amounts. And she may have dabbled with other drugs, too. It was actually bad enough at this point that Sneha had lost her job due to her possible substance abuse. Back around the start of the year in 2001, she had been a hospital intern, not a fully fledged doctor yet. And the internship was Structured like a temporary position. She'd work for a set amount of time, and then at the end of the internship, the hospital could decide whether to hire her or just let her employment end. Well, in the spring of 2001, when her internship was over, they decided not to bring her back for another term. This is a pretty big setback in her career. Their reasoning for letting Sneha go was that she had shown up for a shift drunk at least one time. And oftentimes she would come in late. And even when she was on time, she didn't always seem prepared and mentally ready to work. She'd often get distracted and make careless mistakes. And that's just unacceptable for a doctor and even for a very junior medical intern. The hospital had worried that Sneha wasn't able to care for her patients the way they needed her to, so they decided to stop working with her. Now, shortly afterward, she had gotten a new job at a new hospital. Except her new bosses had required Sneha to attend counseling for drug and alcohol abuse. It was not optional. It was mandatory for her position. But Sneha had flat out refused to meet with the mental health professional. Now, she hadn't been fired over this yet, but it did mean she was already in trouble at her new job, too. So this alleged drinking problem was creating huge problems in Sneha's professional life. And at this time, she was also facing a bunch of personal challenges. Like I mentioned at the beginning of the episode. See, according to the police investigation, Sneha was spending a lot of time out at gay bars, and she frequently went home with other women. Now, I mentioned before that Ron initially wasn't worried when Sneha, his wife, failed to come home on September 10th. He knew that she had a history of going out all night. Well, the officers thought that when she'd been out, it actually been to cheat on Ron with other women. And she'd also reportedly had an affair with someone a little closer to home. The police knew this because of a statement that supposedly came from her brother John. Apparently, one night, Sneha was visiting John and his girlfriend at their apartment. They were relaxing, drinking, having a good time, and eventually they ran out of alcohol, and John offered to leave and buy more. And when he got back, he caught Sneha and his girlfriend. So his sister and his girlfriend together on the couch, and they were having sex. Now, after that, John and Sneha, the siblings, had a huge fight. And they still weren't on speaking terms by the time of her disappearance. And if all of Those other issues weren't enough. Sneha was also dealing with legal problems. See, Sometime in early 2001, Sneha had gone to a bar with a group of co workers from her first internship, the one that she had been fired from. Nobody knows exactly what happened while they were out that night, but according to Sneha, one of her colleagues groped her. And in the moment, she was so shocked that she hit him. In response, she didn't know what else to do. And then later that night, according to some reports, she went to that guy's apartment. See, Sneha knew that her colleague was married and she wanted his wife to know what kind of man he was. So even though the co worker hadn't invited her over and didn't want her there, she allegedly found a way into the building, knocked on the door of his unit, and told his wife the entire story. After that, she actually went to the police to report the co worker for touching her inappropriately. Except after the officers did an investigation, they determined that this was a false complaint. According to the investigators, Sneha had lied about the groping to get her co worker in trouble. Except Sneha insists she wasn't lying, that she was telling the truth and the police were dismissing what had happened to her for some reason. Now, because it's all hearsay, I don't know what actually happened between Sneha and her colleague, but I do know that the city of Manhattan filed criminal charges against her for allegedly filing this false complaint. And they also charged her with assault and trespassing for hitting the man and for then going to his apartment to complain to his wife. She actually had to spend one night in jail because of these charges. Again, I don't know if she actually lied or not or what evidence the police may or may not have had against her. I do know that if she'd been found guilty, she could have gotten into even more serious legal trouble. In fact, on September 10, this is the last day that we know for sure that Sneha was alive, she had to go to court to offer a plea on those false complaint charges. Sneha goes says she's not guilty, but while she was there, she apparently had a huge fight with her husband, Ron. Now, according to the police, he confronted her right there at the courthouse about everything, the cheating, the drug and alcohol abuse. And this was one of the last times that Ron and Sneha ever spoke because he then had to leave for work around 11am and later that afternoon, she left the apartment after talking to her mom and potentially never returned. So let me just summarize, in case you're lost. The police thought Sneha was abusing drugs and alcohol, cheating on her husband, filing fake complaints, and getting into legal trouble. And based on all of that, they just didn't think they could confirm that Sneha had died at the World Trade Center. There were too many other possibilities. Like maybe she was abducted or murdered sometime on the night of September 10th. And if she was going out to bars looking for sexual partners, she might have crossed paths with someone dangerous or violent. Or maybe she had taken her own life rather than face her reality. Or she might have even skipped town during the attacks. Maybe she'd wanted a fresh start with a new identity and she knew it would be easy to disappear during all of this. Now, to be clear, there isn't any hard evidence to support any of those theories. There wasn't any evidence to suggest she'd been at the Twin Towers either. Basically, nobody could prove anything. And the investigation ended with no firm conclusion. One way or another, Sneha had disappeared the day before 9 11. And no one knew where she went.