A New York doctor missing since the September 11 terror attacks was restored to the city’s official death toll yesterday after her family endured years of speculation that her disappearance was linked instead to her sex life.

The New York medical examiner’s office declared that Sneha Anne Philip was the 2,751st person killed at the World Trade Centre, reversing an earlier court ruling that her “personal and professional” problems might have led to her disappearance rather than the attack on the twin towers.

Dr Philip, 31, whose remains were never found, had been on the official death toll list before. It was removed in 2004 after a Manhattan judge, citing her problems with alcohol and an erratic personal life, said that there was no definitive proof she was in the vicinity of the World Trade Centre on the morning of September 11, 2001. She was last seen on the night of September 10 on a security camera, shopping for shoes and lingerie opposite the twin towers.

When her name was removed from the list of victims in 2004, her husband and family fought the decision in court. In June 2006, however, a judge ruled against them, after Dr Philip’s court-appointed guardian wrote that she “frequented bars” and “spent the night with strangers”. Her husband said that she would often stay out all night. The ruling fuelled speculation that her private life might have led her to be murdered on the night before the terror attacks.

Her family believe that the Indian-born doctor attended a party held by the city’s South Asian community in a trade centre hotel the night before the terror attacks. On January 31 the state Supreme Court’s appellate division ruled that she died at the trade centre and asked her name to be returned to the list of victims. “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,” the court wrote. The medical examiner’s ruling yesterday amended her death certificate to show that she died as a result of the attacks.

Her father, Philip K Philip, said that the family would attend this year’s anniversary to hear his daughter’s name read from the list of dead, as it was the first two years. “We waited and everything came out right,” he said. “Sadness is there all the time, but we are happy they recognised Sneha was a victim of 9/11.”

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