CA CA - Sydney “Syd” West, 19, Univ of CA student, San Francisco, 30 Sep 2020 #2

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Curious_in_NC said:
Maybe you meant a 7 minute walk? Sausalito is not very far from the GGB, but I've only ever biked to it.
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We’ll split the difference. Google says it’s a 1 hour walk and just over 3 miles.

But it’s not 7 minutes (it’s 7-10 minutes in a *car*). It’s 19 minutes by bike. And that’s for good cyclists, I’ve seen many a cyclist have to walk their bike up that one hill, ha (especially families with small kids).

I’m measuring to Sausalito’s main “downtown.” Where people put their bikes on the ferry to go back to SF.

It’s uphill at first (elevation gain is about 260 feet).

I was probably thinking round trip. It’s been a long time since I’ve done it. But I’ve driven it recently and the roadside is still shared by bikes and pedestrians, I found it quite stimulating to contend with the traffic of both cars and bikes. I know it it took me more than an hour (now I see that I missed a particular shortcut).
 
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10ofRods said:
We’ll split the difference. Google says it’s a 1 hour walk and just over 3 miles.

But it’s not 7 minutes (it’s 7-10 minutes in a *car*). It’s 19 minutes by bike. And that’s for good cyclists, I’ve seen many a cyclist have to walk their bike up that one hill, ha (especially families with small kids).

I’m measuring to Sausalito’s main “downtown.” Where people put their bikes on the ferry to go back to SF.

It’s uphill at first (elevation gain is about 260 feet).

I was probably thinking round trip. It’s been a long time since I’ve done it. But I’ve driven it recently and the roadside is still shared by bikes and pedestrians, I found it quite stimulating to contend with the traffic of both cars and bikes. I know it it took me more than an hour (now I see that I missed a particular shortcut).
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Trip Advisor discusses the perils of walking from the Bridge to Sausalito. I don’t see how it could take more than an hour by car, if I understand you correctly, from the Bridge to downtown Sausalito. We used to go there all the time when I was a kid...and I know I would have whined if it had been that long! :D

Golden Gate bridge to Sausalito - San Francisco Forum - Tripadvisor
 
SouthAussie said:
"More recently, West enjoyed singing and playing the piano for open mic nights around San Francisco."

Did we know this? If so, I have missed it. To me, this strengthens the case for other possibilities.

The opportunity of making friends who are not known to others being one of them.
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It was news to me that she played piano and sang for open mic nights in SF. I wonder if this has just now come to light.
 
SouthAussie said:
"More recently, West enjoyed singing and playing the piano for open mic nights around San Francisco."

Did we know this? If so, I have missed it. To me, this strengthens the case for other possibilities.

The opportunity of making friends who are not known to others being one of them.
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It's the first time I heard of this, although her musical abilities have been referred to before.

However, a quick look at where open mic nights are being held now in SF suggests most are either on hold due to COVID, or are virtual events. A select few seem to be held at either outdoor or non-nightclub settings. It's not clear how many would have been active before September due to SF's public event restrictions. Maybe someone from SF can elaborate.

San Francisco, CA Open Mic Events | Eventbrite
Music Open Mic's In the San Francisco Bay Area
 
SouthAussie said:
"More recently, West enjoyed singing and playing the piano for open mic nights around San Francisco."

Did we know this? If so, I have missed it. To me, this strengthens the case for other possibilities.

The opportunity of making friends who are not known to others being one of them.
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I knew she had done some in North Carolina, but had no idea that she had been attending some in SF.
 
Lilibet said:
Trip Advisor discusses the perils of walking from the Bridge to Sausalito. I don’t see how it could take more than an hour by car, if I understand you correctly, from the Bridge to downtown Sausalito. We used to go there all the time when I was a kid...and I know I would have whined if it had been that long! :D

Golden Gate bridge to Sausalito - San Francisco Forum - Tripadvisor
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From the SF Bridge Plaza to downtown Sausalito is probably about half an hour.

But as far as we know she wasn't in a car. From the Crissy Field area to Sausalito, walking, is 2 hours at a normal pace, obviously she could have jogged or run.

I see no scenarios in which SW could have been seen walking on the bridge and also been in a car. I'm speaking only of scenarios in which she exited the bridge away (to the north) from SF.

It's that section to the north of the bridge where you have to walk in a bike lane (with whizzing bicyclists) on what is basically a freeway exit type of road toward Sausalito (it gets better though, after a little less than a mile).

By car from Crissy Field to Sausalito is only 13 minutes in good traffic!

Again, I'm trying to address how long it would haven taken Syd to walk to Sausalito (if that was the reason for being on the bridge). I have heard nothing about Sausalito businesses being asked for video footage, which is a shame if in fact she did walk across the bridge.

If she did walk it, I doubt she knew Madeleine's advice from TA (about the catwalk) and while it is probably fairly safe on that route, I personally have felt unsafe at Baker Beach, both in the morning and in the late afternoon. That's my main worry about Syd - is that she ran into a bad actor, which still seems possible to me. Distraught/distracted young women are at risk, IMO.
 
10ofRods said:
From the SF Bridge Plaza to downtown Sausalito is probably about half an hour.

But as far as we know she wasn't in a car. From the Crissy Field area to Sausalito, walking, is 2 hours at a normal pace, obviously she could have jogged or run.

I see no scenarios in which SW could have been seen walking on the bridge and also been in a car. I'm speaking only of scenarios in which she exited the bridge away (to the north) from SF.

It's that section to the north of the bridge where you have to walk in a bike lane (with whizzing bicyclists) on what is basically a freeway exit type of road toward Sausalito (it gets better though, after a little less than a mile).

By car from Crissy Field to Sausalito is only 13 minutes in good traffic!

Again, I'm trying to address how long it would haven taken Syd to walk to Sausalito (if that was the reason for being on the bridge). I have heard nothing about Sausalito businesses being asked for video footage, which is a shame if in fact she did walk across the bridge.

If she did walk it, I doubt she knew Madeleine's advice from TA (about the catwalk) and while it is probably fairly safe on that route, I personally have felt unsafe at Baker Beach, both in the morning and in the late afternoon. That's my main worry about Syd - is that she ran into a bad actor, which still seems possible to me. Distraught/distracted young women are at risk, IMO.
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My biggest concern is that she had apparently ditched her backpack by the time she was last seen on the bridge, and was not seen leaving. The police even said they did not suspect foul play.
 
NSamuelle said:
My biggest concern is that she had apparently ditched her backpack by the time she was last seen on the bridge, and was not seen leaving. The police even said they did not suspect foul play.
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Right. If she were headed across to Sausalito or somewhere else, wouldn’t she want her backpack? If she wanted to ditch her phone to avoid being tracked, I’d think she’d toss just the phone. Presumably she’d want the backpack full of clothes, money, untraceable burner phone, etc.
 
elisimo said:
Right. If she were headed across to Sausalito or somewhere else, wouldn’t she want her backpack? If she wanted to ditch her phone to avoid being tracked, I’d think she’d toss just the phone. Presumably she’d want the backpack full of clothes, money, untraceable burner phone, etc.
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Do we know for sure that all those things were in her backpack?
 
elisimo said:
Right. If she were headed across to Sausalito or somewhere else, wouldn’t she want her backpack? If she wanted to ditch her phone to avoid being tracked, I’d think she’d toss just the phone. Presumably she’d want the backpack full of clothes, money, untraceable burner phone, etc.
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The only alternative I can think of is if she wanted to confuse surveillance and layered the extra clothes on and put the other items in her pockets (burner phone, wallet/money, etc). But idk (just a theory), it's all very sad. :/
 
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elisimo said:
Right. If she were headed across to Sausalito or somewhere else, wouldn’t she want her backpack? If she wanted to ditch her phone to avoid being tracked, I’d think she’d toss just the phone. Presumably she’d want the backpack full of clothes, money, untraceable burner phone, etc.
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If she were living rough in the nearby area, she might have had a place to hide her backpack. I feel like I'm grasping at straws here, but the Presidio would have many such areas where a pack would be (relatively) safe for a few hours. Still doesn't explain why she was on the bridge.

I know LE doesn't suspect foul play, but I don't know how exactly they could rule it out, as if she was walking around on and over GGB and northward, someone could have offered her a ride. That could end up being a bad thing.

My real concern is the degree and type of her depression. There are so many different ways that depression can present. A story in which Syd is mentally active and organized well enough to basically run away and try and start a new life is very different than a story in which Syd is severely depressed and barely able to function. The mere fact that she did change clothes makes me a bit more optimistic, but the whole story has elements of impulsivity that are alarming.

It's possible she went back to where ever her backpack was, and went from there. Hitchhiking in CA is still easy for a young woman, but of course, dangerous. If she was trying to fool her family, then perhaps her true trajectory was southward (warmer, she knew people through volleyball, could have headed to Isla Vista, etc)

I realize I'm really reaching here. I just wish there could be a wider distribution of missing persons posters, etc.
 
Not sure if anyone is imagining a car being able to pull up slowly alongside SW while she was walking on the bridge, or her leaving the bridge that way, but there's an approx 4ft high handrail made of steel and cables that separates the roadway from the walkway. The walkway has only a few entry gaps, used by law enforcement to intervene in potential suicide incidents.

IMO, this would make the likelihood of someone either jumping out of a vehicle driving on the GGB and grabbing her while she was walking alongside on the footpath, or her quickly jumping into an awaiting vehicle from the footpath, extremely unlikely. There would be a fair amount of clamoring over tall rails to leave the bridge via the roadway, and an awaiting car idling far longer than possible with other traffic present, that it would be less likely to remain unseen, or could have potentially caused an accident in heavy fog.
 
JMapes said:
Not sure if anyone is imagining a car being able to pull up slowly alongside SW while she was walking on the bridge, or her leaving the bridge that way, but there's an approx 4ft high handrail made of steel and cables that separates the roadway from the walkway. The walkway has only a few entry gaps, used by law enforcement to intervene in potential suicide incidents.

IMO, this would make the likelihood of someone either jumping out of a vehicle driving on the GGB and grabbing her while she was walking alongside on the footpath, or her quickly jumping into an awaiting vehicle from the footpath, extremely unlikely. There would be a fair amount of clamoring over tall rails to leave the bridge via the roadway, and an awaiting car idling far longer than possible with other traffic present, that it would be less likely to remain unseen, or could have potentially caused an accident in heavy fog.
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Yeah, I agree that didn't happen. Would have been highly noticeable to traffic oncoming in the other lane during morning commute hours. Even during COVID.

However, if she was past the bridge and heading toward Sausalito, she would be vulnerable. But an early morning kidnapping? Why would she go to Sausalito without her backpack? I find that scenario implausible.

If she left the bridge, she likely went back to SF. If she wanted to hitchhike, she'd do that in SF, too. IMO.
 
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