Speaker 1: H H. This episode contains original nine eleven audio, including
Speaker 1: emergency dispatch tapes that listeners may find disturbing. Listener discretion
Speaker 1: is advised. Nine eleven, four oh five am, Lower Manhattan
Speaker 1: is quiet. The Twin towers still stand glittering n feet
Speaker 1: southwest of the Towers of Phone Rings. Someone inside Dr
Speaker 1: Ron Lieberman's apartment calls his cell phone. Any other day,
Speaker 1: who cares right a forgettable call? But today Later Ron
Speaker 1: tells police that he has no memory of making the call,
Speaker 1: but he's alone in the apartment. His wife, Dr. Snaha
Speaker 1: and Philip never came home last night, so it must
Speaker 1: have been him who made the call, he says. Best
Speaker 1: guests half asleep, he used the landline to call his
Speaker 1: cell to see if snay Hall left him a voicemail.
Speaker 1: She didn't. When he went to bed around midnight, Ron
Speaker 1: figured snay Hall was probably with her cousin Anu or
Speaker 1: her younger brother John, both of whom lived nearby, but
Speaker 1: he didn't call on you or John. Instead, he went
Speaker 1: to sleep. For my Heart Media, This is Missing on
Speaker 1: nine eleven, The story of one woman who vanished on
Speaker 1: the eve of history and my quest to find her.
Speaker 1: I'm your host John Waalzac. Before we go any further,
Speaker 1: let me orient you geographically. The key spots in this
Speaker 1: story are clumped together only blocks apart, and it's important
Speaker 1: that you have some sense of place. So take a minute.
Speaker 1: Open Google Maps. First look up the World Trade Center.
Speaker 1: And just to be clear, the World Trade Center was
Speaker 1: a complex. The Twin Towers were part of the World
Speaker 1: Trade Center. Now search for these three addresses to Rector
Speaker 1: place nine feet southwest of the World Trade Center. This
Speaker 1: is Ron and Stay Has apartment building Courtland Street, just
Speaker 1: east of the Trade Center. This is century twenty one.
Speaker 1: The department store, the last place that we know of
Speaker 1: where snay was seen alive. And eighty eight Greenwich Street,
Speaker 1: six hundred feet east of Ron and snay House building
Speaker 1: and nine hundred feet southeast of the Trade Center. This
Speaker 1: is where snay house younger brother John lived, where Ron
Speaker 1: thought she may have stayed the night nine eleven. Around
Speaker 1: six am, Ron gets up for work six nineteen. Someone
Speaker 1: at the apartment gets online for about thirty seconds six thirty.
Speaker 1: By this point, Ron had to be at the Bowling
Speaker 1: Green subway station, about a ten minute walk from his apartment,
Speaker 1: to catch a train north toward the Bronx, where he
Speaker 1: worked at Jacobi Medical Center. He had an eight am
Speaker 1: meeting six thirty two sunrise sometime between seven and nine.
Speaker 1: According to Ron, this is when Snayha would typically come
Speaker 1: home after unexpectedly staying out for the night. Seven fifty nine,
Speaker 1: American Airlines Flight eleven takes off from Boston eight o'clock.
Speaker 1: Ron's work meeting starts. Terrorists hijack American eleven. At the
Speaker 1: same time, United Airlines Flight one takes off from Boston.
Speaker 1: American Airlines Flight seventy seven takes off from Washington. Terrorists
Speaker 1: hijack United Airlines flight one. United flight nine takes off
Speaker 1: from Newark. A security camera captures the woman in the
Speaker 1: lobby of two Rector Place, Ron and Snayhouse apartment building.
Speaker 1: She lingers then walks out the front door. Whether or
Speaker 1: not the woman is snay Ha is a matter of contention,
Speaker 1: an NYPD detective says us. Her family says, no, it's
Speaker 1: hard to tell. Sunlight streams in, there's glare, and the
Speaker 1: woman is grainy. I don't know where you were at
Speaker 1: this exact moment, if you were even alive, but I
Speaker 1: was in an eighth grade art class and carry north Carolina.
Speaker 1: Nine eleven changed my life. It's why I went into journalism.
Speaker 1: A year earlier, on July, I visited the towers with
Speaker 1: my grandparents and brother. That day, I captured video from
Speaker 1: the plaza between the towers and from inside the South
Speaker 1: tower two minutes and forty seconds. As I reported this story,
Speaker 1: I watched it repeatedly, whoa little trade? I zoom into
Speaker 1: the top of the South Tower, then panned down. Grandma,
Speaker 1: what do you have to say, Grandma? Too good? Four
Speaker 1: cent m. I was born on I turned thirteen on
Speaker 1: nine eight oh one. I was a teenager in pre
Speaker 1: nine eleven America for only seventy two hours. Flight eleven
Speaker 1: crashes into the North tower of the World Trade Center.
Speaker 1: An FBI informant taking part in a sting operation at
Speaker 1: the Marriott World Trade Center between the twin towers serendipitously
Speaker 1: captures this audio. One we just had a plane and
Speaker 1: grew up before the World Trade Center transmitted, second and
Speaker 1: starting a little rating companies into the area. Terrorist hijack
Speaker 1: American seventy seven. Yeah, I he thought she fell a
Speaker 1: fower from the two. One Yeah, you guys should call them.
Speaker 1: They're hating dispatch and let him. Know, I have never
Speaker 1: seen so much smoke coming through a film as I
Speaker 1: see from the World's Trade and a by the water Funny.
Speaker 1: It's unbelievable. They about are on the news stations. Uh,
Speaker 1: they only gave a second on this is like set
Speaker 1: the longest sey on it. Uh. You should go to
Speaker 1: a fifth instantly with the ego. See the side of
Speaker 1: up building. It looks like, uh, the numerous flows exploded out.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's insane right now as somebody ansder every
Speaker 1: available the abolist that they could possibly get over there,
Speaker 1: this is gonna be, uh, the event of the century.
Speaker 1: Eight ft two people start jumping from the towers Emergency
Speaker 1: responders Russian around nine at Jacoby Medical Center in the
Speaker 1: Bronx Ron. Lieberman's work meeting ends here. He is on
Speaker 1: Unsolved Mysteries. After the meeting that came outside and we
Speaker 1: saw the TVs were on, and uh we saw the
Speaker 1: first plane hit. So I immediately went and called home
Speaker 1: and there was just the message machine on nine O
Speaker 1: two North. Another plane, another plane, another plane was another plane,
Speaker 1: another plane. All right, I'm hanging on and I'm going
Speaker 1: down there. United one seventy five crashes into the South
Speaker 1: Tower of the World Trade Center A no, no accident.
Speaker 1: I think they go to done tape. Luke Kushin, a
Speaker 1: Canadian artist, captures this dramatic footage from Rector Place south
Speaker 1: of the towers. Take a minute to google his video.
Speaker 1: Luke l you see Kushin ce ou r c h
Speaker 1: E s n E see the towers. Okay, now to
Speaker 1: the left, see that brick building. That's Rector Place, Ron
Speaker 1: and snayhouse building in the lobby is resident manager Juan FIGAROA.
Speaker 1: I remember hearing like a loud boom, and I heard
Speaker 1: over the radio, Um Jose Pard, who was my handy
Speaker 1: man at the time, Um screaming over the radio saying
Speaker 1: they hit the building, they hit the building. And I
Speaker 1: was like, what is he talking about? What is he
Speaker 1: talking about? And as I went outside through the back door,
Speaker 1: and I've looked up, I saw that there was a
Speaker 1: hole at the in the World Trade untem And all
Speaker 1: of a sudden my phone rang and it happens to
Speaker 1: be my daughter who had just given birth uh to
Speaker 1: a to a baby boy. And she says, oh my god,
Speaker 1: oh my god, that's hold And I said, Okay, you
Speaker 1: gotta come downstairs right away. I told you gotta come downstairs.
Speaker 1: You and your sister gotta come downstairs right away. One
Speaker 1: not only works at Rector, he lives there too, sharing
Speaker 1: a ninth floor apartment with his wife, two daughters, and
Speaker 1: baby grandson. On nine eleven, his wife is at work,
Speaker 1: but his daughters are home upstairs as pandemonium breaks out
Speaker 1: at the World Trade Center only nine feet away and
Speaker 1: six five two very six five soil. We got another
Speaker 1: one at the World Traded the additional two building. Uh huh,
Speaker 1: I don't know why you get to keep on though
Speaker 1: a new one. Yeah, this is a different one and
Speaker 1: it's confirmed. Oh okay, okay, all right, asked herz alright, one,
Speaker 1: it's okay. Another plane now, not the plane. This is
Speaker 1: a new hole, new thing now, Oh okay, all right.
Speaker 1: Holds going on. They're saying it might be a telliecise.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, it has to be because one are the other?
Speaker 1: Two planes clashed into the same building. Okay, South, Hi, South,
Speaker 1: do you guys are busy? Yeah, there's a Jennifer. Yeah, hi, honey,
Speaker 1: what's up? There's like any major disaster going on in
Speaker 1: the like? Are you in the whole money? Two planes
Speaker 1: went into the World Trade Center? Really, yes, where have
Speaker 1: you been? Where are you? I'm stuck on the frybar.
Speaker 1: I can't don't go it. Okay, well I have I
Speaker 1: have a blast because you'll be there for quite a
Speaker 1: long time. Are you? You got lights and signs? I
Speaker 1: don't know? That's all around me everywhere I was going?
Speaker 1: What was going on? Two Turkish planes went into the
Speaker 1: World Trade Center. We got like sixty four units on
Speaker 1: this assignment already. A right, how are my honey? If
Speaker 1: you can make your way anywhere, let me know? Okay,
Speaker 1: all right, o, goodbye bye. At Jacobe Medical Center in
Speaker 1: the Bronx bron Lieberman's Hospital, doctors start preparing for a
Speaker 1: surge of severely injured patients. Ron Laws here, how are
Speaker 1: you doing? How you Cannon? How are you doing? All right? First,
Speaker 1: chef callie. Only trauma patients have to be brought into Jacobe,
Speaker 1: and I guess say one of trauma centers. Okay, iss
Speaker 1: mine me anything that is not critical? Is that to
Speaker 1: your lawco Alright? Okay, you got it. But ambulances continue
Speaker 1: to drop off patients with minor injuries. Bro oh yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like the bed over at North Central Ground c
Speaker 1: d uh spoke with Jacobe. Uh, you know they're getting
Speaker 1: still getting samina cases. Is it possible to have them
Speaker 1: diverted to here at m CBS. I've just announced that,
Speaker 1: re announced it twice. Okay for old units only the
Speaker 1: um bring trauma into Jacobe. We're available, rampy, all right, hey, thanks,
Speaker 1: bye bye. Jacoby administrators are upset. No one seems to
Speaker 1: be listening. They emptied out the e er to make
Speaker 1: space for severe cases fed upon the city. Wife Stock Lombardi.
Speaker 1: I was speaking to the other receptionist earlier. I'm at Jacoby.
Speaker 1: She there to ROSSI whatever her name is, Corosi Terick
Speaker 1: uh andandah. I don't know when she that right now?
Speaker 1: All right, um, so here's my problem. Um, you know
Speaker 1: we're at Jacoby Level one traumas the hyper ballot burn
Speaker 1: center I cleaned out the offer is you know any
Speaker 1: possible patients I asked for diversions or anything else. They're
Speaker 1: rolling in here with bullshit. I think it's a big mistake. Correct,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying? So I would like to
Speaker 1: well all that for those right now it's it's open.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what. When Captain to Open gets a chance,
Speaker 1: let me give you a phone number and haven't called me. Okay, Hi, guys,
Speaker 1: cap Gay Lombardi to Telloby. Now you doing it to
Speaker 1: bring up the date. I empty the whole we are,
Speaker 1: we're trying to empty out the burn unit. Um. I
Speaker 1: just asking if you don't send us any bullshit in
Speaker 1: the meantime, we can help you with whatever you need. Okay,
Speaker 1: all right, we'll sharing bankside. Man in Manhattan, actor Juan Figaroa,
Speaker 1: is frantically trying to evacuate his family. So I grabbed
Speaker 1: my grandson and my daughter and I took him towards
Speaker 1: the water. And I happened to as I'm walking hearing
Speaker 1: my daughter saying, my older daughter who's against the fence
Speaker 1: of course the building, saying I'm gonna die here, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna die here. And luckily we were able to get
Speaker 1: her to the water. And then I went back to
Speaker 1: the building and started evacuating the entire building. So you
Speaker 1: did you how did you guys evacuate the building? Did
Speaker 1: you go door to door? What did you do? Exactly?
Speaker 1: Door to door? We went from the top all the
Speaker 1: way down, door to door. Um. There was another gentleman, actually,
Speaker 1: would U say as well? His name was Julio Esteves.
Speaker 1: So it was Julio Estevees, Felix Sagon and Krol and
Speaker 1: myself and we just started knocking on people's door, just
Speaker 1: trying to rush people out of the building. Terrorists hijack United.
Speaker 1: They just hit the Pentagon in Washington. Yeah, and and
Speaker 1: and they just had a fire in one of the
Speaker 1: more at Washington. American seventy seven crashes into the Pentagon.
Speaker 1: Look at that. Look at that that build that's coming down.
Speaker 1: The South tower collapses. Oh. A man named Brandon Marcus
Speaker 1: captures this footage pause Google it Brandon Marcus video as
Speaker 1: the tower falls. Look at the bottom left corner. That's
Speaker 1: Rector Place, Ron and Snayhouse building Hotly Ship that was
Speaker 1: oh ship. Juan Figaroa, the resident manager, is in the
Speaker 1: lobby Ofctor. It was so loud, but it was like
Speaker 1: like an extremely loud clap and just it just kept
Speaker 1: on happy right like just something like like you know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of weird. I don't know how to explain it,
Speaker 1: um but it was very it loud and just going
Speaker 1: do like something just kept on pulling down. Eighteen seconds
Speaker 1: after the tower starts to collapse, a massive cloud of
Speaker 1: pulverized concrete steel, office furniture paper, and people reaches and
Speaker 1: consumes to rector plays one in the lobby panics. His coworker,
Speaker 1: Julio Estevez, is still stuck on the roof. And then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, I see the rush of the smoke,
Speaker 1: of of the breech, just rushing into the lobby where
Speaker 1: you couldn't see barely anymore. You know, it's just I
Speaker 1: got really dark too fast and and too quickly. And
Speaker 1: uh and then the guy that was up on the
Speaker 1: roof just ran down the stars and he ran out
Speaker 1: the building. Yeah, it's just screaming on the radio for
Speaker 1: thirteen because the building't just collapsed on them? Are you
Speaker 1: hitting me now? Now? Whole builder's guns all right? Really,
Speaker 1: you don't know what it's like the pass. I can
Speaker 1: only imagine the whole fucking city full of smoke right
Speaker 1: now from holy ship is this thing full night? And
Speaker 1: it's all right through the middle down the whole silting collapse.
Speaker 1: Look at a brown laterate one of the towers just collapsed.
Speaker 1: Everyone's gotta be inside. Yes, we got leave. See that
Speaker 1: transition later and one of the towers collapse. He's got
Speaker 1: to be either incided. There's gonna be powers of people
Speaker 1: in coal Town. One of the how do one of
Speaker 1: the towers just came down the top of everybody? I
Speaker 1: mean that anyway, So I stuck the church on the
Speaker 1: medical affairs, uh on the towers on the towers just collapsed,
Speaker 1: and I know I can't tell what the extent of
Speaker 1: the damages, but there is a complete white out from
Speaker 1: the dusk through the tower. Okay, Uh, we have to
Speaker 1: have pancial and I used stressed stantial having more and
Speaker 1: most of our resources at the scene play um, and
Speaker 1: we have to talk commando. Thank you out of that
Speaker 1: and Guvin who was hey Doland Charson loses Alan charleson? Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: and we just lost part of the towers, yes, last yes,
Speaker 1: and now we have a complete white out. Yes, we
Speaker 1: have an evential for having voice a significant amount of
Speaker 1: our resources. Right, I am not able to raise anybody
Speaker 1: who's in command at this point. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you can. It's all fragmented because of this. So that's
Speaker 1: about all the information I have for your right, Uh sloy,
Speaker 1: If you can't raise anybody, where are you hold on
Speaker 1: the where is the player? Yeah? I'm on a restaurant
Speaker 1: in Coltman Broadway. It was so bad I could not
Speaker 1: even see the building. Understood, understood, all right, all right, Uh,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start heading back down there, already done to
Speaker 1: see what I can do. All right, all right. In
Speaker 1: the Bronx, Ron Lieberman watched his catastrophe unfold on live TV.
Speaker 1: When the billains came down, everyone was just you know,
Speaker 1: people were crying but still trying to work, and it
Speaker 1: was a very very emotional time, I think, obviously for
Speaker 1: everyone that call back again about ten o'clock in the morning,
Speaker 1: still just the message when she was on, and then
Speaker 1: after that the phones went dead. Ron can't find snay
Speaker 1: Hawk ten oh three United nine crashes into a field
Speaker 1: near shainks Full, Pennsylvania. Fucking bad. This is really bad.
Speaker 1: Which it's so it's terrible, terrible. You gotta go fucking crazy.
Speaker 1: You know that you ain't gotta go suck up the jerk.
Speaker 1: Well I know it is, okay, goodbye Wow. At Rector,
Speaker 1: a police officer choking on dust calls okay eight one
Speaker 1: to hi. This is see one four seven off in
Speaker 1: Manhattan at two to five rector place in Manhattan, right, yes,
Speaker 1: two to five rector. Yes, as an R E C
Speaker 1: T O R. That's correct, Rector plate. The call up
Speaker 1: hung up. Yes, what they tell you. It's a police officer.
Speaker 1: He's on the first floor. He has the faculty breathing
Speaker 1: n on age. I know the North Tower collapses. My
Speaker 1: heart is in my groves. Is the worst thing I've
Speaker 1: ever seen. I get a life, a man at all.
Speaker 1: I want to kill him. A job in the World
Speaker 1: Trade Center is no longer floors. Okay. I can not
Speaker 1: believe both of them. They both have Then it came
Speaker 1: down on firefight. I know that, I know that I
Speaker 1: had been the job. Ron Lieberman worries that snayhow was
Speaker 1: in their apartment when the towers fell. I was frightened
Speaker 1: from my wife because I couldn't get in touch with her.
Speaker 1: I was sad what happened, devastated by the whole situation.
Speaker 1: You know, there's so many emotions. Everyone isn't shock and
Speaker 1: where's my wife? I don't know. The crush of severely
Speaker 1: injured patients never materializes at Jacoby or any other hospital.
Speaker 1: Around three PM, Ron hops into an ambulance and heads
Speaker 1: into Lower Manhattan. At the same time, Juan figaroa, the
Speaker 1: resident manager at Rector finally evacuates. He catches a boat
Speaker 1: to New Jersey. Between three and four, Ron calls snay
Speaker 1: has mom a zoo. She hasn't heard from snay haa.
Speaker 1: No one has seven. World Trade at seven story office
Speaker 1: building collapses. Manhattan is chaos and gridlock. Ron's journey south
Speaker 1: from the Bronx only fifteen miles takes five to six hours.
Speaker 1: Early evening. Somewhere north of the World Trade Center, Ron
Speaker 1: jumps out of the ambulance. He walks the rest of
Speaker 1: the way to Rector Place in scrubs. He slips through
Speaker 1: barricades and walks into carnage. The scene down there, it
Speaker 1: was just chaos. There was this one of the most
Speaker 1: scariest sites of was seen in my life. As I
Speaker 1: started approaching my apartment building, I started seeing trucks blown up,
Speaker 1: fire engines turned upside down, pieces of the building order
Speaker 1: what looked like the building on the ground. Also seven
Speaker 1: eleven sunset, thirty good evening. Today, our fellow citizens, our
Speaker 1: way of life, our very freedom came under attack in
Speaker 1: a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts. President George W.
Speaker 1: Bush addresses the nation. As he speaks, Ron Lieberman walks
Speaker 1: south even though I walk through the valley of the
Speaker 1: shadow of Death, I fear no evil, for you are
Speaker 1: with me. Past smoldering steel and a frenetic search for survivors.
Speaker 1: Between nine and ten, Ron arrives at Rector Place. The
Speaker 1: back door is chained shut, the power is out, the
Speaker 1: bill thing has been evacuated, but at least one tenant
Speaker 1: remains inside. Ron flashes a light to that person, calls
Speaker 1: up to them and asked them to check his ensnay
Speaker 1: has apartment to see if Snaya is there. She isn't.
Speaker 1: Next time on Missing one eleven, and then I saw
Speaker 1: her name, and then I put it together. Wait a minute, this,
Speaker 1: I think this has to be her. I mean it
Speaker 1: looks like her. I think it looks like it looks
Speaker 1: like what I remember. It looks like the person I
Speaker 1: remember homework one. Did you live at Rector Place one eleven?
Speaker 1: We'd love to hear from you. In particular, we want
Speaker 1: to speak to a tenant named Evan who reportedly filmed
Speaker 1: the attacks from the roof two. Do you, or does
Speaker 1: anyone you know, have unpublished photos or video taken in
Speaker 1: Lower Manhattan one eleven. If so, you can reach us
Speaker 1: by phone at one eight three three new Tips that's
Speaker 1: one eight three three six, three nine eight four seven
Speaker 1: seven again one eight three, three, six, three nine eight
Speaker 1: four seven seven, or you can reach us via email
Speaker 1: at tips at iHeart media dot com. That's Tips t
Speaker 1: I p s at iHeart media dot com. Ben Bowen
Speaker 1: is our executive producer. Paul Deckett is our supervising producer,
Speaker 1: Chris Brown is our assistant producer, Seth Nicholas Johnson is
Speaker 1: our producer. Sam T. Garden is our research assistant, and
Speaker 1: I'm your host and executive producer, John Waalsack. Cover art
Speaker 1: by Pam Peacock. Special thanks to Tamika Campbell at iHeart
Speaker 1: and the Christoph Zappery in New Orleans. Also thank you
Speaker 1: to one Figaroa and ASoP Rock. Original theme music by
Speaker 1: ASoP Rock. Check out Asop's website at ASoP rock dot com.
Speaker 1: Archival audio from Unsolved Mysteries provided by Cosgrove Mirror Productions.
Speaker 1: Additional footage captured by Luke Kushen and Brandon Marcus. You
Speaker 1: can find me on Twitter at at John wallzac j
Speaker 1: O n W A l c z a K. If
Speaker 1: you like this show, check out our first season Missing
Speaker 1: in Alaska. About the nineteen seventy two. Disappearance of two
Speaker 1: congressmen missing on nine eleven is a co production of
Speaker 1: iHeart Media and Greenfork Media.