Golden Gate Bridge Suicides

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aThousandYearsWide said:
Threads I could find from a quick Websleuths search.

Unidentified


Missing
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YaYa_521 said:
CA - CA - Erica Maskaleris, 31, Oakland, 7 March 2013
Deceased/Not Found - CA - Allison "Alliy" Bayliss, 15, San Ramon, 23 May 2011
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CA - CA - Marin Co., WhtMale UP11920, 40-50, in bay near GG Bridge, May'94
CA - Fremont, Ca Blk Fem 18-30 UP13585 Floating in the S.F. Bay, yellow timex watch Mar 80
CA - CA - San Francisco, Human foot washed ashore at Ocean Beach, Sep'13 (someone commented in thread asking whether this could have washed up from a GG jumper)
 
upload_2020-8-3_13-40-51.png

BYTHER, Robert John - Coast Guardsman jumps from bridge, 4 Dec 1980

gg801205.jpg
 
aThousandYearsWide said:
From the Doe Network:

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aThousandYearsWide said:
Missing on the Doe Network:

Males:

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aThousandYearsWide said:
From Doe Network, more possible missing persons:

Males:
  • http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/3624dmca.html- Dec 23, 1972- Charles Howard Bolter- 69 years old- car was found abandoned in Waterford 2 hours away from the bridge. Was upset over loss of money
  • http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1290dmaz.html- Nov 09, 1983- Paul Alan Vogen- 29 years old- His car was found at Sky Harbor Airport and he allegedly bought a ticket from Phoenix to San Francisco, CA. Paul had previously expressed a desire to commit suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge
  • http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/4927dmca.html- Dec 23, 1983- Charles Frederick Shelley- 42 years old- missing from Sacramento which is a litte under a 2 hour drive from the bridge. Went missing after finding out his mother had died
  • http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/552dmca.html- Oct 24, 1984- Frank Azpeitia- 27 years old- last seen in San Francisco and his casefile says he was suicidal at the time of his disappearance
  • http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/843dmca.html- Oct 07, 1987- Jonathan Lewis Ginsburg- 32 years old- missing from Albany which is under 30 minutes away from the Golden State Bridge. Was upset over a breakup at his time of disappearance
  • http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/577dmca.html- Sept 26, 1990- Brenton J. Garmire- 43 years old- his vehicle was found on October 6 on Folsom and Eighth street (a 20 min car ride, under an hour bus ride, or under 2 hour walk from the Golden Gate Bridge)
  • http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/640dmca.html- Jan 23, 1993- William Thomas McKay- 53 years old- car abandoned at Vista Point(other side of Golden Gate bridge) in Marin County. Inside the car was a note indicating suicide
  • http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1293dmca.html- Jan 24, 1995- Robin Reed- 15 years old- Authorities believe he committed suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. He left behind a note saying he felt unwanted

Females:
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Bit of hope said:
A possible match.

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/552dmca.html- Oct 24, 1984- Frank Azpeitia- 27 years old- last seen in San Francisco and his casefile says he was suicidal at the time of his disappearance
5'8, mustache, listed as Hispanic, black hair, brown eyes.
Dentals: Not Available
Fingerprints: Not Available
DNA: Not Available

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) Caucasian male, Loud splash heard by fisher near South Tower of the GG Bridge, November 30, 1984, 18 - 35 yrs
UID 5'11, mustache, listed as white, brown hair, brown eyes.
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The Doe Network links in the quoted messages didn't work so here's a listing in chronological order separated by sex.

Doe Network:

Missing Males:
  • 843DMCA - Jonathan Lewis Ginsburg - Oct 07, 1987- Jonathan Lewis Ginsburg- 32 years old- missing from Albany which is under 30 minutes away from the Golden State Bridge. Was upset over a breakup at his time of disappearance
  • http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/577dmca.html - Sep 26, 1990- Brenton J. Garmire- 43 years old- his vehicle was found on October 6 on Folsom and Eighth street (a 20 min car ride, under an hour bus ride, or under 2 hour walk from the Golden Gate Bridge)
Missing Females:
Unidentified Males:
  • 1352UMCA - Aug 25, 2007-Male- 40-57 YO
Unidentified Females:
 
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Bit of hope said:
640x0.jpg

I hope this is going to prevent more suicides, but let's be sadly honest, wouldn't somebody who is determined to end his/her own live do it in a different kind of way instead?
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That's very likely and I think that was one of the points made by people who were opposed to the idea of the net barrier. I forget the estimated cost (ETA - $221 mil) but some were pointing out that they thought the money would be better spent on mental health/suicide counseling and programming. It's a tough call to make.
ETA - This 04/2020 article goes into detail about the cost and construction.
Golden Gate Bridge suicide barrier work continues during coronavirus pandemic
 
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I can't seem to find a reference date showing when this map was created. The page link looks like it has a 2006/05 date in it. The data comes from "Chronicle research". If accurate, it's an eye-opening visual showing from which points on the bridge people have jumped.

http://davidsasaki.name/2006/05/golden-gate-bridge-suicide-map-2/
mn_suicide30_loc_tt.gif
 
ChatteringBirds said:
Can someone smarter than me explain whether they could search the bay areas using modern technology to try to find some of these people? Or is it just too deep and vast? Or is the biggest issue that
many end up out to the gulf, so it would likely be unsuccessful?
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Good question. The bay is not deep, usually only a few meters, the deepest under the Golden Gate Bridge: 113 meter.

In the Netherlands we have specially trained search dogs from SIGNI. I'm sure USA have those kind of search dogs to. This is what the say about searching in water.

Vermissing te water | Stichting SIGNI zoekhonden (search dogs/missing in water)
Signi search dogs are most often called in when a person (possibly) has drowned in a certain area, the location of which is unknown or when the place of drowning is doubted. The dogs look for human scents from the boat or from the waterfront, which suit a drowned person. After working out the scent, the dogs point to the location of the drowned victim, on the surface of the water, above the drowned person. In this way, the victim can be recovered in a more targeted manner. For the dogs there are no restrictions with regard to the depth of the water, the temperature of the water and the type of water (sea, river, canal, etc.). There are also hardly any restrictions with regard to the time of drowning (hours / months / years).

They also use sonar and underwater camera's. I've send them a PM asking if dogs could be used in the San Francisco Bay, looking for human remains considering the depth and tides.

Seen jumpers are mostly recovered, picked up by the Coast Guard. The approx. jumping place is flared from the bridge by officers. I think if you jump unseen during nighttime and or in the fog your body gets lost, drifting of to sea depending on the tide/current. At first the body may come up, after going deep into the water from the jump, and then be floating but it will sink down into the dept eventually. Depending on if the body is in tact and gasses can built up. Eaten on by fish or other marine animals also happens. There are also sharks.

I wonder if it would make a difference on which side of the bridge you jump. The currents in San Francisco Bay are generated by the tides. At several locations in the Bay, currents can be as strong as six knots. The strongest currents occur where the water masses streaming in and out of the bay are funneled through a constriction, like under the Golden Gate Bridge.

upload_2020-8-3_16-38-56.png

upload_2020-8-3_16-39-40.png
 
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YaYa_521 said:
I can't seem to find a reference date showing when this map was created. The page link looks like it has a 2006/05 date in it. The data comes from "Chronicle research". If accurate, it's an eye-opening visual showing from which points on the bridge people have jumped.

http://davidsasaki.name/2006/05/golden-gate-bridge-suicide-map-2/
mn_suicide30_loc_tt.gif
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We have the same thoughts....funny. I came across another picture of this. If I recall right it's from 2006. Maybe I can find the source...it was with green poles and marking every 10'th jumper.
 
Bit of hope said:
I've send them a PM asking if dogs could be used in the San Francisco Bay, looking for human remains considering the depth and tides.
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The answer was; in principle they can smell remains but finding them with divers is hard, because they are covered by sand or the view in the water is insufficient.
 
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

  • Male, White / Caucasian
  • Date Body Found May 30, 1980, Estimated Year of Death 1980
  • Location Found San Francisco, California
  • Estimated Age Range 20-40 Years
  • Hair color and eye color N/A
  • Height 5' 11"(71 inches), Measured, Weight 140 lbs, Measured
  • All of the head is shaved except for one patch of hair in the occipital region and the upper part of the nape of the neck (Sounds like a Hari Chrisna hairdo or was this fashionable in those years?)
  • Brown down jacket; t-shirt, White socks; brown Nike shoes On the body
  • The upper extremities reveal what appears to be antemortem needle tracks on the left antecubital fossa.
A man spotted the subject floating in the waters of the San Francisco Bay.
 
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Something we need to remember about the Missing Persons who were not witnessed jumping, it is possible they did, but it is also possible that:

1) The missing person staged the scene (vehicle, note, etc.) to go start a new life
2) They are victims and the perp staged the scene. They may be alive or they may be homicide victims. If victims, they may have been placed in the bay or they may be found elsewhere, maybe not even in California.

I know these are unlikely possibilities compared to things simply being what they seem, but especially in cases where little information is available and little attention has been paid to the case, or the only clue is a vehicle sort-of in the area of a bridge, I think we should try to think outside the box when seeking matches. We should also spread the word about little-noticed cases especially if they are more likely victims than people wanting a new life.
MOO.
 
ChatteringBirds said:
Something we need to remember about the Missing Persons who were not witnessed jumping, it is possible they did, but it is also possible that:

1) The missing person staged the scene (vehicle, note, etc.) to go start a new life
2) They are victims and the perp staged the scene. They may be alive or they may be homicide victims. If victims, they may have been placed in the bay or they may be found elsewhere, maybe not even in California.

I know these are unlikely possibilities compared to things simply being what they seem, but especially in cases where little information is available and little attention has been paid to the case, or the only clue is a vehicle sort-of in the area of a bridge, I think we should try to think outside the box when seeking matches. We should also spread the word about little-noticed cases especially if they are more likely victims than people wanting a new life.
MOO.
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I agree with you that we should make some nuances in cases where for instance a person's car was parked nearby or cases where it is much more sure they jumped (seen going on the bridge, but not off, running car parked on the bridge for instance) but even then.....

In this thread you can see much more missing persons/potential/supposed jumpers then there are unidentified persons. We know that most jumpers are found, I forgot the exact percentage. In the above listed persons, there aren't many matches by date. Would this mean that all this supposed jumpers who are still missing were all swept out to sea? I don't believe that, so we should take your comment in consideration.
 
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Bit of hope said:
I agree with you that we should make some nuances in cases where for instance a person's car was parked nearby or cases where it is much more sure they jumped (seen going on the bridge, but not off, running car parked on the bridge for instance) but even then.....

In this thread you can see much more missing persons/potential/supposed jumpers then there are unidentified persons. We know that most jumpers are found, I forgot the exact percentage. In the above listed persons, there aren't many matches by date. Would this mean that all this supposed jumpers who are still missing were all swept out to sea? I don't believe that, so we should take your comment in consideration.
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Anything is possible, but I just hope there weren't cases of people assumed to have jumped so little attention was paid to their case when in fact they needed help or were victims.
But I don't mean to disrail this thread from its purpose either.

I'm glad this thread is here and we can come to it if we find a case to add.
 
Bit of hope said:
Added to Namus 7/31/2020 The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
Male, Asian, 50- 60 years, Date Body Found July 23, 2020, Sausalito, Marin County.
Decedent was witnessed to jump from the Golden Gate Bridge to the bay waters below. A United States Coast Guard vessel recovered the subject and transported him to U.S. Coast Guard Station Golden Gate where he was subsequently pronounced deceased. Somebody made already a thread (you already mentioned this @aThousandYearsWide
CA - CA - Sausalito, Asian male, 50-60, jumped from Golden Gate Bridge, 23 Jul 2020
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I posted a potential match to this John Doe in his WS thread.
 
It might be best for us to consider whether we should call in potential matches one-by-one or send a few clusters of cases to Ms. Alexandra Torres at the Marin County Sheriff's Office Coroner Division. I haven't checked all of the GG Bridge UID case profiles but it's likely she'll be the contact for all. She might end up hating us. :p :)
 
Bit of hope said:
View attachment 258134

BYTHER, Robert John - Coast Guardsman jumps from bridge, 4 Dec 1980

gg801205.jpg
Click to expand...
Lethal Beauty / The Allure: Beauty and an easy route to death have long made the Golden Gate Bridge a magnet for suicides
I found this article linked above which lists Robert Byther as a jumper. There is no mention on either the article you clipped or the one I am linking that says whether his remains were ever found. Should we assume they haven't been? Should we make a WS thread for him? Besides his age, we have no specs in terms of his physical features to use for any kind of comparison. Do we simply go off of age and dates?
ETA - I found this article archived in the Wayback Machine. It gives a bit of detail about Byther including that his body hadn't been found up to that date.
snipped
Komplaint Dept. - A Date With Death on the Golden Gate Bridge - VICE
Dec. 3, 1980
One bridge victim who does not appear in The Final Leap is Robert Byther, 27, because his body was unrecovered and his death was never officially recorded as a bridge suicide. Byther, a Navy veteran, had traveled from Virginia to San Francisco with the intent of protesting the election of Ronald Reagan by jumping from the Golden Gate. A short article about his jump appeared in the December 5 edition of the Spokane Spokesman-Review.

On a separate note--There is a graph posted (I can't get it opened to paste here) at the link below that shows the suicides by year up to 2005. It appears 1977 was the most popular year for jumpers. I wonder what was happening then that had so many folks distraught? 1990 seems to have the fewest number of suicide jumpers than any other year after the 1940s. I wonder if that was a record-keeping issue.

Lethal Beauty / The Allure: Beauty and an easy route to death have long made the Golden Gate Bridge a magnet for suicides
 
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YaYa_521 said:
Lethal Beauty / The Allure: Beauty and an easy route to death have long made the Golden Gate Bridge a magnet for suicides
I found this article linked above which lists Robert Byther as a jumper. There is no mention on either the article you clipped or the one I am linking that says whether his remains were ever found. Should we assume they haven't been? Should we make a WS thread for him? Besides his age, we have no specs in terms of his physical features to use for any kind of comparison. Do we simply go off of age and dates?
ETA - I found this article archived in the Wayback Machine. It gives a bit of detail about Byther including that his body hadn't been found up to that date.
snipped
Komplaint Dept. - A Date With Death on the Golden Gate Bridge - VICE
Dec. 3, 1980
One bridge victim who does not appear in The Final Leap is Robert Byther, 27, because his body was unrecovered and his death was never officially recorded as a bridge suicide. Byther, a Navy veteran, had traveled from Virginia to San Francisco with the intent of protesting the election of Ronald Reagan by jumping from the Golden Gate. A short article about his jump appeared in the December 5 edition of the Spokane Spokesman-Review.

On a separate note--There is a graph posted (I can't get it opened to paste here) at the link below that shows the suicides by year up to 2005. It appears 1977 was the most popular year for jumpers. I wonder what was happening then that had so many folks distraught? 1990 seems to have the fewest number of suicide jumpers than any other year after the 1940s. I wonder if that was a record-keeping issue.

Lethal Beauty / The Allure: Beauty and an easy route to death have long made the Golden Gate Bridge a magnet for suicides
Click to expand...

I'm not sure why 1977 counted so many jumpers. Could there have been a lot of men that came home after the Vietnam war (ended 1975) not able to handle live or having PTSS? Just speculation.
 
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