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

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I check this thread once in awhile for updates, hoping Syd has contacted her family, at least. I can’t help but lean toward self harm, maybe because I can’t imagine not letting her parents know she’s ok, just needs some time away, etc. Doesn’t mean that doesn’t happen, sometimes people just make a clean break and go. I pray that’s the case versus the alternative.
 
There's some interesting information I found. On the Find Sydney West official Facebook page, in a response to an older question to the page (in October) they said Sydney had been shopping in the city the day before she disappeared (9/29).
 
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I just found this page. I've been reading most of the posts and social media over the past few days. From what it sounds like she was living a very good life, with all of her travel and loving family. Berkeley is a very competitive school, maybe when she got there and her dreams of the school did not meet reality. Especially with all of the covid restrictions, her ideal college life was not living up to what she imagined. It is not cheap to go there for an out of state student. Maybe she just decided to go out and disappear into the city instead of telling her parents, thinking they might be disappointed in her. If she was planning to jump, I would not think she would wear headphones, but if you were in that state, no one knows what is going through your mind. Hopefully her accounts were analyzed to see if her spending habits had changed, like getting cash back at places. Had she gotten into drugs at all? Opioid overuse can happen very easily the way drugs are over prescribed. I saw she had suffered a concussion and wondered if that could have happened. I have been in the hospital with a family member, signs everywhere saying they don't like to prescribe opioids, etc, right before they inject fentanol, morphine, etc and then sent them home with lots of pills. This happened on multiple occasions, so that is why I mention it. Addiction can happen to anyone, I am in no way judging. It just could be a reason why she is missing, could be on the streets. Does anyone know how she got to the area, was it close to where she was staying? Did she uber a ride there maybe? I know someone said uber is not safe, but I have taken it many times and never had any issues. Hopefully she will be found alive and unharmed.
 
swedeheart said:
It's possible this was previously posted, but I'll post anyway. Nancy seems to re-post old podcasts all the time, and it's always hard to tell if they are new or old ones.

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Oh wow. This makes me wonder more things. What was the state of the hotel room? How long was the room booked for? Why did she take a backpack if her intention was exercising and what was in it? Did she leave any journal/writings behind? How did the Uber driver describe her mood? Did she make any appointments/reservations (or plans with friends) for the rest of her day/time in the city that she just didn't show up for? Was there any other camera footage of her captured that morning (at hotel or park) and can it be shared with public? Footage like that could jog memories for people. You never know.
 
owleye said:
Oh wow. This makes me wonder more things. What was the state of the hotel room? How long was the room booked for? Why did she take a backpack if her intention was exercising and what was in it? Did she leave any journal/writings behind? How did the Uber driver describe her mood? Did she make any appointments/reservations (or plans with friends) for the rest of her day/time in the city that she just didn't show up for? Was there any other camera footage of her captured that morning (at hotel or park) and can it be shared with public? Footage like that could jog memories for people. You never know.
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I agree. I also found it strange that in the past the family said she had moved to SF to live with her friends after withdrawing but their investigator said in the interview that she stayed in a hotel the night before she disappeared and was visiting SF for a few days instead? And apparently was living with relatives or couch surfing with friends in Pleasanton before then? I remember on the Find Sydney West page in response to another old comment they said she was only in SF for two days before disappearing and stayed in Livermore (which is next to Pleasanton) with family friends before then. I also wonder why she didn't move back to North Carolina after withdrawing (unless if she was trying to get the in state tuition back)? So many questions, I wonder which is the truth.
 
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I respect the family has requested privacy for themselves and their daughter - I'm sure there's a reason they don't want to share information. Maybe the purpose of this Nancy Grace interview was to vent frustration with the police investigation.
 
Good find on the Nancy Grace podcast! I feel like we are all NG. Where is Syd??? The new information is very interesting and all I can think is that the family really doesn't want anything out there that might tarnish her image. It seemed like the PI was so hesitant to release any information except when NG really pressed him for it. The phone last pinging at the beginning of the bridge is concerning. Sounds like with the fog and early morning hour it is possible to that Syd jumped without anyone seeing her, but still pretty crazy. Either way, her phone must have gone over the bridge or been turned off, right?

JMO.
 
Mamabear2525 said:
all I can think is that the family really doesn't want anything out there that might tarnish her image.
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I think you're right, that the family doesn't want to tarnish her image, but I also think the family doesn't want to release/confirm any existing information that leads to the conclusion she had jumped/fell off the bridge, because if they did, it's likely people would stop looking and distributing flyers.
 
I'm new here, I've been following the SW case for a while now and I came across this: <modsnip> .

I do have a list of different aliases SW has used, and a list of links to websites that she has had her accounts signed on yet none of them show any activity or indicate where SW is so I won't drop them here for privacy sake'.

I watched the NG interview where she interviews PI Scott Dudek and others and it says her phone wasn't recovered. She had an Iphone with her which has "find my iphone" amongst that they could of tracked the imei, imsi and geolocation (Which I am sure they did), Scott mentioned she had a tracking app yet I couldn't tell what he was saying it was called? Yet that showed no activity either.

What we know is Sydney suffers with depression, she went missing and she's quite smart. Her phone is still in Crissy Field by the sounds of things and she was dropped off at Crissy Field by an uber, Scott clarified that she was seen on the GG Bridge via video evidence. Lets say she did runaway, where would she go? we know she's not with friends or even her bff as they've all been asking for her to come back as they miss her.

Let's think like a missing person, if we were to runaway we'd take things with us she took her bose headphones, her phone and an article said she took a black backpack? You've got all your essentials, toiletries, and however much money while wearing sports clothes. You're not gonna stay out in the cold in the clothes that SW was wearing you'd find a place where it's reasonably warm, you can use public restrooms, public libraries, churches, you can even go to large stores for those free snacks. I'm gonna look for places near the coastline as well, I deduce that she lives near the water as her updated pfp on Facebook shows her in a house with a bikini on, it seems she was facing the window as of how the lighting shines on her face and it looks to be day time when she took that picture, other than that on her Instagram account in the highlights one of her favourite places is near water and she seems to be around water a lot in a lot of her pictures.

If I do happen to find anything important or of use then I will be sure to post it here and if I made a critical mistake in my essay than please do correct me as we need all the facts not misinformation if we're going to find her and I do believe we will find her.
 
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scriabina said:
Thanks for your thoughts on the case! One thing worth pointing out is that profile you point out doesn't appear to be the missing Syd West. I see some physical similarities but to me they still look discernibly different. Furthermore, this girl posted in 2018 about being in a sorority in Florida when Syd would've been a sophomore in high school in a different state.
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<modsnip>

I have noticed people mentioning a restroom or something near the golden gate bridge yet I'm not sure of the relevance of that info yet the evidence is that she called an Uber with her phone (Idk how she paid for the Uber, either phone or cash as there has been no activity from her bank according to the #FindSydneyWest fliers), so she got dropped off via Uber at Crissy Field then she was last seen on video footage on the golden gate bridge.

<modsnip>

If they manage to recover her phone they can see what she was doing on it before she left it at Crissy Field, if she messaged anyone via text message or using her mobile data then cellular towers should be able to provide that information. Whether she's using AT&T or another cellular provider that's what the parents may know so if they know what she was doing before she left then it will be easier to get an idea of what her intentions are whether she decided to jump or whether she decided to go on a travel. So assuming she took her backpack then why leave your phone at Crissy field and not anything else? In the essay that was on her medium.com account she did talk about voices and she did self soothe during that essay by telling herself it's just a voice and in the interview of her on youtube she spoke about how she's happier for being nicer to herself.

As we go down the rabbit hole we find that there's another essay on her medium.com account which shows us her speaking in-depth about what it's like to be sexually assaulted. We also see that on her reddit account she says this on a post "That is so true. I used to tell people “I just don’t like hooking up with people until I really know them” but then guys would start trying to hang out with me so I could “get to know me” so I might feel more inclined to get with them. It made me feel like a checklist, tbh. Not fun." she could of been having a tough time dealing with that.
<modsnip>

There was another essay she had written which in it, it says "Big wins, do not happen overnight. I will have to be quiet for a while until they do." what I'm concerned with, is her use of "quiet" rather than saying she's gonna work hard towards her goal, or that she's going to wait she says "be quiet for a while" and that differs to her use of language in her latest essay (Now Deleted) where she she self motivates herself and she does show that there is fight in her.

From all the things I've read commented by her on reddit and on medium.com and after watching a lot of youtube videos on the situation it feels to me she felt locked, she could of felt like she couldn't tell her parents how she felt <modsnip: No MSM to confirm info stated as fact> yet it's evident that she does love her family. With her behaviour, her being prepared when she left at 6:45 am on September 30th 2020, her being in sports clothes and doing the same routine thing appears to me that she goes on jogs/runs or whatever to feel any sense of freedom, the water making waves, the birds chirping, the wind brushing against your hair and to take headphones with her she could of gone to sit down and chill for a bit at Crissy field (I looked up Bose Headphones and they're not the type of headphones you wear while running, that's another thing what headphones were they the big headphones or earbuds? If they were earbuds then yeah she could of been running while listening to music and lost her phone on the way) then progress towards the golden gate bridge maybe have a look around, go to any shops nearby if there are any I am not sure then gone onto the golden gate bridge and from there there's 2 different options she either jumped or she carried on running and I am gonna have hope and say she carried on running.

What I can not wrap my head around though is, where is she staying if she carried on running as she wouldn't have her phone on her as it showed last at Crissy field because even if she had cash on her that wouldn't be enough to pay for a house, bills, etc which then leads back to is she living with anyone? And then that leads me back to all her friends saying they miss her and want her to come back and the only sense I can make of that is that one of her friends is lying. Humans can walk a mile for every 15-20 minutes, she seemed to be heading north, and so the only thing I can do in hope of finding her is look for coastline places where she could be living, hotels, in a 5 mile or more radius, etc. Unless she's gotten plenty of money from someone or her bank account then I don't see her getting on a boat or plane and so it would be most probable that she is still in that region, an idea that popped to mind would be the use of a trail dog, if an area can be narrowed down enough to where Syd may currently be then would it be worth having a trail dog sniff out her scent?
 
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<modsnip>
I don't believe she committed suicide either yet I don't think she committed because of how she has fight in her, how she self motivates, how she knows it's just a voice in her head, and her behaviour doesn't line up with a suicidal profile.

Here's the link to the interview;
at 1:35 she says "It helped me to learn how to live life with more enjoyment". then at 1:42 SW says: "I do things out of passion rather than the fear of failure". I feel like she's out there trying to find out her place in the world; She's adventurous, artistic, loves water, is an earth lover, has strong political views, she's prepared, organised, she procrastinates at times, it's evident that she constantly feels judged from the comment on reddit about feeling like a check list, to the medium post about her voice telling her to go back and change this and that so it's perfect then she pushes through that, I think there's more to the words in the essay she had written then what meets the eye.

Every single decision is like a roll of a dice but with more sides, every emotion, every thought, every sight, every fight or flight contributes to decision making whether that be to go down this path, that path, to go into a store, to not go into a store, to research, to adventure, to explore, etc.

I was researching the area of Crissy field and if she traveled from Crissy field to the golden gate bridge she would of gone as followed; Crissy Field Ave to Battery E Trail to the Coastal Trail then onto the bridge. Assuming she had crossed over the bridge she could of gone towards Miwok Trail Trailhead, Wolfback Ridge Road, Alexander Ave or East Road all of those apart from Miwok Trail lead towards Sausalito I'm doubting she went towards Miwok Trail so if she went towards Sausalito what would be her next stop? That's my question right now, every single step can be broken down so rather than A to B you get all these checkpoints inbetween, so what I will be looking for are bus stops, places to sit down like picnic benches, parks, public buildings like a library, a church, anywhere you can have a break.

It would be worth having missing posters and news channel coverage in Sausalito, according to the 2010 census Sausalito's population was 7,061. Yet who's to say she stopped in Sausalito, she's quite a sporty person so she could of travelled quite a bit further than there. I'm gonna stick by my guts that are telling me that she's travelling along the coastline. Hopefully she gets found and hopefully she makes the decision to go back home to her family
 
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The one thing that stuck out to me in the NG interview, is that the PI was claiming that Syd's actions were "within her normal routine". I don't see how that is possible. There was a pandemic going on. CA was on a lockdown. But still, he said "couch surfing between family and friends" and booking hotel rooms all alone in the city were "normal" behavior"? Getting up in the dark and going to the GG bridge before sunrise is "normal" - when you don't have a job and you aren't in school, so you don't need to be somewhere by 9 am? It's not normal, as usual, behavior. Not under these circumstances. San Francisco was hit very hard by covid at that time. It doesn't make sense to me. Under the circumstances of a global pandemic, her behavior seems highly unusual - her living situation seems highly unusual as well. And I wondered why the PI didn't acknowledge that, and instead tried to sell it as "normal - nothing to see here".



I
 
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