Two civilian cases from the days surrounding the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York remain unsolved two decades later: the street killing of Henryk Siwiak, a Polish immigrant and father of two, and the disappearance of Dr. Sneha Ann Philip, a young physician last seen the evening before the attacks.
Siwiak, 46, was shot and left for dead in Brooklyn hours after hijacked planes struck the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania. He was the only homicide reported in New York City outside the World Trade Center attacks that day, and police say the investigation was hampered by the diversion of manpower and forensic resources to the disaster scene.
According to police and public accounts, Siwiak had emigrated from Poland and was working multiple jobs to support his family. He phoned relatives after the attacks to say he was safe, then boarded a subway to reach a new assignment at a Pathmark supermarket in Bedford–Stuyvesant. Investigators say he accidentally exited at the wrong Albany Avenue stop and ended up about four miles from his intended destination on the first block of Albany Avenue.
A call came into police that shots had been fired on Decatur Street that night. Retired NYPD Lieutenant Tom Joyce, then assigned to the 79th Precinct and one of the first officers at the scene, said the investigative response was limited. "It was the weakest response to a homicide in probably 100 years because there were just no resources," Joyce told reporters, describing a single evidence collection technician with a Polaroid camera and minimal on-scene processing.
Seven cartridge cases were recovered the night of the shooting, raising hopes they might be matched to a weapon. Pioneering techniques were used at the time to try to recover DNA and fingerprints from the shells, but forensic science was not as advanced in 2001 as it is now, and the gun was never recovered. Investigators said the combination of lost time and scant forensic leads resulted in the case going cold.
"Mr. Siwiak was not only the victim of an unfortunate circumstance. He was also the victim of getting killed at the worst possible time in the history of New York, maybe the United States," Joyce said. Fellow former 79th Precinct officer Detective Michael Prate described the block where Siwiak was killed as "notorious for gangs, guns and drugs" and said he believed the killing occurred during an attempted robbery. "I'm assuming he was lost and, when he got down there, he just stepped into the lion's den," Prate said.
Siwiak, who had been in the United States for about 11 months, carried only $5 the night he died because he sent most of his earnings to his family in Poland, his sister told a true-crime podcast in 2024. She said detectives later visited her and that her brother, unfamiliar with Brooklyn, may have been unable to communicate effectively with potential witnesses because he did not speak English well. After he was shot, she said, he tried to knock on a nearby door before collapsing.
A $12,000 reward was offered by the NYPD and the private group Crime Stoppers, but authorities said no information leading to an arrest was received. A police spokesperson said in 2025 that the investigation remains open and that there were no updates.
The disappearance of Dr. Sneha Ann Philip, 31, is another unresolved case connected in time to the attacks. Philip, a medical resident at St. Vincent’s Hospital, was last seen about 7:18 p.m. on Sept. 10, 2001, at the Century 21 department store on Cortlandt Street, across from the World Trade Center. She and her husband lived in Battery Park City, near the towers.
Philip sent her mother text messages in which she mentioned wanting to try Windows on the World, the restaurant atop the North Tower, according to contemporaneous accounts. She was a newlywed who had met her husband, Dr. Ron Lieberman, while in medical school. Philip was never found, and her disappearance has not been solved. She is listed among the official victims of the Sept. 11 attacks by some public records and memorials.
NYPD officials said the department treats both cases as ongoing investigations. Authorities and family members have appealed over the years for witnesses or new information that could lead to answers. Retired officers and family members have told reporters that had the Siwiak homicide occurred on an ordinary day, standard investigative steps — more thorough scene processing, door-to-door canvassing and narcotics debriefings — might have produced leads that are now lacking.
Investigators say solving the Siwiak murder at this point would most likely require a witness coming forward, the recovery of the weapon, or a forensic breakthrough linking evidence to a suspect. For Philip's disappearance, official records rely on the last known sighting and texts from the night before the attacks; authorities have said publicly that her case remains under review but offered no new information.
Both cases remain painful footnotes to the 9/11 attacks for family members who have sought answers for years. Siwiak's sister said her life and outlook changed irrevocably after his death. In public comments, retired investigators acknowledged the broader context of the national crisis that day and its long-term effect on two separate, unsolved civilian cases in New York.
As the city and the nation mark the anniversaries of the Sept. 11 attacks, officials reiterated that the cases remain open and called for anyone with information to contact law enforcement. The NYPD did not provide new leads in 2025 when asked about either case.