I thought this too.
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CA CA - Sydney “Syd” West, 19, Univ of CA student, San Francisco, 30 Sep 2020 #2
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I thought this too. I read of her being handed opportunities, like the internship at her dad's company, but I never read anything about a history of independent earnings, outside of family/friend contacts. For this reason, she doesn't strike me as "the scrappy type" either, like you said. Living off the grid, so to speak, takes a definite skill set.
Psychedelia
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Just popping in to say that I had a friend who jumped off the GG bridge. She left her bag on the sidewalk. (There were witnesses and her body was found by the Coast Guard.) I know my friend wanted people to know, to not just disappear.
I’ve heard about others doing this as well. I fear this girl jumped.
I’ve heard about others doing this as well. I fear this girl jumped.
I’m so sorry for you and your friend. I don’t know your experience, but sometimes the absolute *best* people are driven to that unthinkable release--Madison Holleran, Sydney--they ultimately thought they would disappoint someone by living, and death was more palatable than the immediacy of perceived “failure”. They cared about other people and felt everything deeply. Sydney cried the day she was accepted to Berkeley, knowing that it wasn’t within her family’s plan for her (source: Sydney’s Reddit account).
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Does anyone know why all the facts (previously reported in MSM) about Sydney's depression and emotional/mental struggles when she went to the bridge that early morning have been erased from the current story? The family now reports she dropped out of Berkeley due to her July concussion, which was never a part of the story they reported in the beginning (it was depression and emotional difficulties adjusting in the beginning). And now they describe the conversation the dad had with Sydney the night before she disappeared as "lengthy", instead of "emotional and lengthy"? The website frames the story so differently now. And they still say the most important thing is to get the word out to the public, but they refuse to do interviews claiming privacy needs and scrubbed Sydney's social media posts, also citing privacy needs. I just feel like something wrong is happening, like public perception is being manipulated to fit a certain narrative, and while I understand having favored opinions/theories, and keeping some things private, I don't understand hiding so many pertinent facts. But maybe it's no big deal, I don't know. It just doesn't seem right and could affect public trust.
Vacajoe
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IMO, if Sydney chose to disappear, then we should respect that choice. If her parents choose to put forth an altered narrative of the situation instead of simply presenting the facts (no matter how difficult they are), then they are choosing a positive public perception rather than finding their daughter. At this point, I am choosing to no longer sleuth this case. Best wishes to all.
It has been emotionally draining to keep sleuthing this case due to the parents’ behavior (wiping social media, lying about what Sydney posted, threatening to “report” people who ask questions, and shutting down discussion groups). I think the outcome is sad and rather obvious. She walked onto the bridge and never walked off. She was depressed well before the concussion, as evidenced by posts and poetry that her parents have since deleted.
Yes. It's been a year of watching this happen and it's only getting worse. The family is the only information source and is withholding information so... there's nothing left to sleuth. There is a reason the police are no longer actively involved and I guess we can figure out why at this point.
In my opinion, parents have always wanted to hide that Sydney felt depressed by so much pressure. From the beginning they do not accept comments about mental illness, depression or suicide. But from Sydney we know that it wasn't a perfect family.
amethystcrystal
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I felt like this about some of the recent posts about Sydney still being missing when the classes for Cal started last week. For example the line, "Instead Sydney is not starting at Cal," and then comparing it with how many miles the dad is biking or how the sister is starting middle school classes instead. I might just be reading too much into it though.
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Oh, please. Sydney did not want to start classes at Cal. At this point, they should just leave her alone, dead or alive. If she's dead, there's nothing they can do anymore and if she's alive, the chances of her not wanting to be found are pretty high. She dropped out of Cal and didn't go home, she didn't seek comfort in her parents. And that's all I need to know, they should just leave her alone and stop feeding on her to make themselves look better. Sorry if this comes off as cruel but this is the way I see things when it comes to this case. Poor Sydney.
I don’t think you’re out of line. Sydney said in her infamous Reddit post that she felt like crying the day she was accepted to Berkeley and that her dad was still mad at her for “****ing up” her internship at his company. Berkeley was never a happy thought or place for Sydney judging by her posts and actions once there (dropping out in the first week). I wish they would let her just be Sydney rather than “our daughter that got into Berkeley.”
And they should stop sharing Faith’s business with the world (e.g., sharing that she is nervous about school on the official Find Sydney West page).
thebottomoftherabbithole
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I thought this recent article was interesting. Her father refers to her in the past tense or like this: “is/was”, he described their conversation the night before she went missing as being “sad” and telling her that lord of people loved her. The article emphasizes depression and anxiety. Her mother says they are baffled that no one on the bridge saw anything which leads me to believe that Kim, her mom thinks she jumped because if Sydney somehow didn’t what would there be to see? Sad case. I hope the .1% chance of her being alive is the case and she ran away from people who weren’t good for her, as we know/many of you ha e pointed out, her relationship with her parents was less than perfect to say the least. Bicyclists to ride 100 miles in honor of missing teen with ties to WNY | wgrz.com
distracted
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Thank you for this article. It sounds like a wonderful event to bring awareness to missing children and Sydney, in particular.
There's a quote in the article that is news, to me at least -
"The next morning, September 30, 2020, cameras on the Golden Gate Bridge captured Sydney there, but because of the fog, they lost sight of her."
We've had numerous conversations on this thread about the cameras and the foggy conditions that morning. I think most of us thought that's where she was headed when she was dropped off by her ride-share driver but we couldn't "place" her on the bridge. This quote actually places her on the bridge.
It sounds like the family is slowly coming to grips with their loss, in their own time. I hope they know that their beautiful, kind and talented daughter made an impact on people she never met, all over the world.
thebottomoftherabbithole
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The one thing that I will never understand in this case is the lag time between her being reported missing and being last reported in the CF area and between her being confirmed to last be seen on the GGB.It was late October when her family finally released to the public that she actually was last seen on the bridge. I strongly doubt it took them a month to find that out based on how they figured out she was there in the first place, I think they just did not want people to automatically assume suicide so they tried to stall releasing that bit of info.
thebottomoftherabbithole
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I dont know if anyone else noticed this but August, on the 11 month anniversary nothing was posted on the Find Sydney West page, this is the first anniversary that has not been acknowledged. Any idea what will be released/posted/not posted on the one year mark this month?
Yes. I think, for me, these are the facts that I can't understand why are being withheld:
- What time the Uber driver picked Sydney up that night/morning (time-lines are really basic missing person info)
- What the Uber driver said about Sydney's demeanor (again, basic missing person info)
- Hotel footage of Sydney leaving that day (more basic info)
- The real reason why Syd was in a hotel that night (we just get vague "it's not uncommon..." statements, which seem intended to mislead)
Sydney wrote a beautiful and public poem about her depression that her parents deleted. Then they started going after her Reddit threads and chipping away at anything that cast them in a negative light. I don’t think they had access to her Twitter, because her post about her father smashing her phone with a hammer is still up.
10ofRods
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All of her Reddit posts are still up - it's really hard to get access to someone's reddit account unless you know both the password and the email they used to set it up.
She wrote:
... my parents spent 15k on a counselor and more on apps and i honestly just wanted to go to cc and transfer to cal or something bc i doubt imma get in this time around anyway, and since i moved from ca junior year, i lost my in state tuition and going to cc would be the only way to get it back... im so stressed bruh
if i dont get into my top schools imma be stuck going to some four year i dont want to...
She wrote:
... my parents spent 15k on a counselor and more on apps and i honestly just wanted to go to cc and transfer to cal or something bc i doubt imma get in this time around anyway, and since i moved from ca junior year, i lost my in state tuition and going to cc would be the only way to get it back... im so stressed bruh
if i dont get into my top schools imma be stuck going to some four year i dont want to...