CA CA - Sydney “Syd” West, 19, University of CA student, San Francisco, 30 Sept 2020

[insearchoflight]

Two possibilities seem most likely to me and sadly both are tragic.

self harm or some type of meetup (like Mackenzie lueck case)

 

[ocsalumni]

Here is the Facebook page that has been set up. I think a friend of the family set it up. I don't know why it sent to the Special Victims Unit earlier than 30 days.

The last internet postings I see from Sydney occurred about a week and a half before her disappearance on this Poshmark discussion where she was asking about this particular item.
Accessories | Wonder Woman Costume | Poshmark

and here is the Facebook page called Find Sydney West with a flyer attached... Find Sydney West

That poshmark conversation is interesting, it definitely could be used to argue that she was planning on being around, somewhere, for Halloween. I know that with mental health things can change in an instant, but with no obvious warning signs of suicidality (something gen Z tends to be open about, or at the very least make self deprecating jokes about their depression on social media) and this, I really don't think she went to the bridge to jump like some people have speculated.

 

[SteveP]

That poshmark conversation is interesting, it definitely could be used to argue that she was planning on being around, somewhere, for Halloween. I know that with mental health things can change in an instant, but with no obvious warning signs of suicidality (something gen Z tends to be open about, or at the very least make self deprecating jokes about their depression on social media) and this, I really don't think she went to the bridge to jump like some people have speculated.

Yes, you might surmise that she intended to be somewhere for Halloween, but another thought that may be as valid is that perhaps she had developed an interest in cosplay, or was looking to role play for someone, though I really don't believe this will prove to have any connection to her disappearance. JMO

 

[ocsalumni]

Yes, you might surmise that she intended to be somewhere for Halloween, but another thought that may be as valid is that she had developed an interest in cosplay, or was looking to role play for someone. JMO

Very true. At the moment I'm looking through a NSFW website that I will not mention the name of to see if she had an ad posted in the area.

 

[Lilibet]

I see this information, explaining that missing person cases are investigated by the SIT teams at the district stations for 30 days, and then transferred to Missing Persons Unit of SVU, but I have not seen anything that suggests that SW's disappearance has been handed over to SVU. Am I missing something?

These articles posted earlier, and maybe others, mentions that Syd’s case was turned over to SVU.

Parents of former UC Berkeley student missing from San Francisco make plea to find her

PressReader.com - Your favorite newspapers and magazines.

 

[SteveP]

This article, and maybe others, mentions that Syd’s case was turned over to SVU.

PressReader.com - Your favorite newspapers and magazines.

Gotcha! Thank you!

 

[technicallymissing]

I just went and took a look at her following on Instagram, the most recent accounts she followed were 1 public and 1 private account. I don't think I'm allowed to say the names of them per WS rules.

The public account she followed has no photos posted, and they do not follow her. They have a couple dozen followers and people that they follow.

You used to be able to use the app to check someone's newest followings, but they arrange it randomly now. From what I've been able to figure out, they prioritize mutual followings (if you and the person follow the same account, it will be at the top), then possibly follower count? But sometimes it'll just be a random assortment, it's weird. If you check on the web however, it will show you their following from newest to oldest.

So... one account is private, which makes sense why she'd only start following them after going missing, but the other account is public... which means there should be no delay. The only possibility of it not being done recently is if that account was private, Syd requested to follow, and then they recently went public, automatically accepting follower requests and being shown as a public profile.

Beat me to it, ocsalumni! I will admit I was browsing Insta while at work earlier, lol. FWIW one of my coworkers (who is more familiar with Instagram than I am) said it's not uncommon at all for it to glitch when it comes to who's following who... so it could be that, or that account was recently private, like you said. The name on the account is apparently also the name of a billionaire so nothing much comes up when I search it. I don't know if it's of any importance anyway; that account's most recently followed accounts are student groups so it's likely just another student/friend... just weird about the timing of the follow from Syd.

 

[technicallymissing]

Has anyone considered/looked into the sugar baby/sugar daddy route? Based on the NSFW reddit post?

I was super into the Kenzie Lueck case when it happened, something similar with the Instagram following amount happened with her, so my memory of her case was triggered. I wonder if detectives have considered that possibility? Syd also said that her parents weren't going to be helping her much financially on Reddit... idk. Just complete speculation, MOO. I do not want to get banned (there was a LOT of temporary banning with KL's thread) so mods please remove this or I will remove it if it is breaking rules.

That's scary to think about the Instagram-being-funky similarity.

 

[ocsalumni]

That's scary to think about the Instagram-being-funky similarity.

I know I just finished doing my deep dive on 2 popular SD sites and was not able to find her as someone in the Bay Area/SF/Berkeley. There were 2 users that seemed like they could be her but there were some details that were spotty, so I highly doubt they belong to her.

 

[ocsalumni]

Through her Reddit post history, I was able to find a Discord server that she was part of relating to college apps and decisions. The moderator on there is granting me access to all of the channels so that I can read through what she shared on there, because everything is private. I'll update if there's anything notable

Update: There are 1,017 messages from her, and I intend to read all of them

 

[ElementalLaura]

Great sleuthing! When was the most recent post?

 

[ocsalumni]

Great sleuthing! When was the most recent post?

Thank you. All of her posts were from March and the last one was in April. It seems like the discord kind of slowed down a bit after people started getting their acceptances

 

[distracted]

Has anyone considered/looked into the sugar baby/sugar daddy route? Based on the NSFW reddit post?

I was super into the Kenzie Lueck case when it happened, something similar with the Instagram following amount happened with her, so my memory of her case was triggered. I wonder if detectives have considered that possibility? Syd also said that her parents weren't going to be helping her much financially on Reddit... idk. Just complete speculation, MOO. I do not want to get banned (there was a LOT of temporary banning with KL's thread) so mods please remove this or I will remove it if it is breaking rules.

I've thought about Kenzie since hearing about Sydney missing, which is why I want to know how she got to the area around Crissy Field. If she did head out in the late hours of Sept. 29 into the early morning hours of Sept. 30, she most likely would have picked up an Uber or Lyft.

I can't shake the similarities. That said, I'm admittedly still shaken from what happened to Kenzie.

 

[SouthAussie]

I took a big Google walk around Crissy Field. There is really no CCTV on those buildings along Mason Street or Marine Drive. Various lighting on the buildings, but no CCTV that I could see. (Google image Nov 2013, things could have changed a bit.)

From my observation, Crissy Field is a popular place for walkers/joggers (a big group of picnic-ers too) and while it has spectacular views of the bridge, it is still quite a way away from getting up onto the bridge if a person is on foot.
I did notice several emergency call phone boxes, solar powered, along the foreshore walkway.

There are a couple of seemingly popular little piers along Crissy Field. Possible Syd was seen by an early morning fisherperson? During the daytime there are quite a few people fishing.

It doesn't seem probable that Syd had moved out of dorms and taken up residency in the adjacent marina district there. Possible, but the housing there looks quite expensive. So, as others have mentioned, it would seem that Syd had some other mode of transport to get there.

خرائط ‪Google‬‏‏

 

[ElizabethAnne]

<modsnip: Quoted post was removed>

Hello, I found the soundcloud a few days ago and it is still up when I view it. sydney kaitlyn works for me but some of the songs seem to have perhaps her sister singing. I was not able to find anything under the sydspiration.com link that is listed as the website under soundcloud however. The link for the soundcloud is sydney kaitlyn and it looks as like there is a photo of the Golden Gate Bridge there.

I think she has at least 3 instagrams - one public, one private and one deleted.

 

[SouthAussie]

I also looked up the sunrise time for 30th September - just to see if it was an early sunrise. Sunrise was at 7:04am on that morning. So Syd was definitely there when it was still very dark, but somewhat lit by various lighting, I would think.

Although, there would have been a decent degree of moonlight, if it was not cloudy, as the moon reached full moon the next night (1st October).

Sunrise and sunset times in San Francisco, September 2020
Moon Phases 2020 – Lunar Calendar for San Francisco, California, USA

 

[distracted]

I took a big Google walk around Crissy Field. There is really no CCTV on those buildings along Mason Street or Marine Drive. Various lighting on the buildings, but no CCTV that I could see. (Google image Nov 2013, things could have changed a bit.)

From my observation, Crissy Field is a popular place for walkers/joggers (a big group of picnic-ers too) and while it has spectacular views of the bridge, it is still quite a way away from getting up onto the bridge if a person is on foot.
I did notice several emergency call phone boxes, solar powered, along the foreshore walkway.

There are a couple of seemingly popular little piers along Crissy Field. Possible Syd was seen by an early morning fisherperson? During the daytime there are quite a few people fishing.
It doesn't seem probable that Syd had moved out of dorms and taken up residency in the adjacent marina district there. Possible, but the housing there looks quite expensive. So, as others have mentioned, it would seem that Syd had some other mode of transport to get there.

خرائط ‪Google‬‏‏

I did some looking around, too. It looks like from photos on Trip Advisor, that you can walk right up to the water and follow a trail to the base of the GG Bridge. It's a beautiful place and a popular tourist attraction.

The water has a strong rip tide and has a steep drop in some places that isn't visible to the eye. If she had gone swimming one would think they would have found her by now but maybe not due to the rip tide.

As of October 2, Crissy Field was open. It's unclear if it was closed due to COVID up to that point or not. The comments from visitors on Trip Advisor abruptly stop in February 2020.

Crissy Field is open daily from 7:58am to 7pm.

I read about her disappearance on her mom's and dad's FB pages, but I don't remember what the rules are here for FB posts of family members. There are quite a few "missing" pages for her as well. Maybe someone could remind me what the rules are, please. TIA!

 

[Lusitana]

I just went and took a look at her following on Instagram, the most recent accounts she followed were 1 public and 1 private account. I don't think I'm allowed to say the names of them per WS rules.

The public account she followed has no photos posted, and they do not follow her. They have a couple dozen followers and people that they follow.

You used to be able to use the app to check someone's newest followings, but they arrange it randomly now. From what I've been able to figure out, they prioritize mutual followings (if you and the person follow the same account, it will be at the top), then possibly follower count? But sometimes it'll just be a random assortment, it's weird. If you check on the web however, it will show you their following from newest to oldest.

So... one account is private, which makes sense why she'd only start following them after going missing, but the other account is public... which means there should be no delay. The only possibility of it not being done recently is if that account was private, Syd requested to follow, and then they recently went public, automatically accepting follower requests and being shown as a public profile.

I don't really think she has been using her social media, that account that is now public, might have been private in the past. If she sent a follow request to that account when it was still private, and then the owner of that account turned it public just now, it explains a lot. When you have a private account and have pending follow requests, if you make your account public, all of those requests get automatically accepted.

Has anyone considered/looked into the sugar baby/sugar daddy route? Based on the NSFW reddit post?

I was super into the Kenzie Lueck case when it happened, something similar with the Instagram following amount happened with her, so my memory of her case was triggered. I wonder if detectives have considered that possibility? Syd also said that her parents weren't going to be helping her much financially on Reddit... idk. Just complete speculation, MOO. I do not want to get banned (there was a LOT of temporary banning with KL's thread) so mods please remove this or I will remove it if it is breaking rules.

Sydney doesn't strike me as the kind of person to actually meet up in person with a sugar daddy. One thing is sending stuff on snapchat and texting, a whole different thing is actually meeting up with someone in real life. Considering her take on sex and her being more inclined to having a real connection with someone in order to get intimate, I don't really see her going for a meet up. I'm really not getting that vibe from her, but who knows? Maybe things changed and she did meet someone.

 

[summerinsanfrancisco]

It doesn't seem probable that Syd had moved out of dorms and taken up residency in the adjacent marina district there. Possible, but the housing there looks quite expensive. So, as others have mentioned, it would seem that Syd had some other mode of transport to get there.

The Marina district is actually known as being kind of fratty because a lot of younger, bro-y type of people live there! I wouldn't be surprised if she had friends (or friends of friends) who lived there.

 

[Birdie1212]

MOO is this. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She has a history and her own emotional backdrop, but she simply found herself in the gaze of a predator who also was in the area. There are public restrooms on the trail between Chrissy Field and the building structures at the base of the bridge. Perhaps she went to a restroom at that late/early hour while the park was relatively dark and empty of the normal traffic. At the odd hour she happened to be in the CF area, it’s weird that she didn’t seem to be with anyone who had a story about being with her and then not being with her. Why was she alone there? Was she out or at a gathering? Did someone put something in her drink? Was she only identified at CF because it was the last location her phone showed? Perhaps she was in transit and not really hanging out at CF. Because no roommate or friend has a story about the disappearance, LE is probably basing location on technology (her iPhone locator) or credit card usage. Technology is only as good as its functionality. So, somehow they know she was in or passing through the area the last time her phone registered its locale (or a credit card was used). If a bus goes that route at those hours they can track the buses. Uber and Lyft have records of drivers in the area. Stoplights May have photos as well. There are cameras on various buildings. Hopefully LE is piecing it all together. I hope and assume so. I tend to think she is in a waterfront area around the piers or parks, but, given that she could have been in transit and only passing CF, she could be anywhere. I worry about predators near the bridge or possible use of a date rape drug and the transport of her body elsewhere.