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

[SimplyCass]

A general question: has it been stated how Syd was living between withdrawing from school and when she disappeared?

She was couchsurfing with an uncle in Pleasanton and occasionally staying in hotel rooms in San Francisco? Pleasanton is 40 miles east of SF. Is there an easy way to travel between those two locations?

Did she have a car? I'm skeptical she did since she took an Uber to the GGB.

Also, jeez, that third criteria for UC in-state tuition seems absolutely insurmountable for most young adults. I have a friend who was living in KY when she graduated high school. She attended a CSU but had in-state tuition after one year, which she qualified for - seems it was because her father was living in California.

 

[MLLS]

A general question: has it been stated how Syd was living between withdrawing from school and when she disappeared?

She was couchsurfing with an uncle in Pleasanton and occasionally staying in hotel rooms in San Francisco? Pleasanton is 40 miles east of SF. Is there an easy way to travel between those two locations?

Did she have a car? I'm skeptical she did since she took an Uber to the GGB.

Also, jeez, that third criteria for UC in-state tuition seems absolutely insurmountable for most young adults. I have a friend who was living in KY when she graduated high school. She attended a CSU but had in-state tuition after one year, which she qualified for - seems it was because her father was living in California.

to answer your question regarding easy travel between Pleasanton and SF. Yes, via BART, Bay Area Rapid Transit.

 

[ElizabethAnne]

A general question: has it been stated how Syd was living between withdrawing from school and when she disappeared?

She was couchsurfing with an uncle in Pleasanton and occasionally staying in hotel rooms in San Francisco? Pleasanton is 40 miles east of SF. Is there an easy way to travel between those two locations?

Did she have a car? I'm skeptical she did since she took an Uber to the GGB.

Also, jeez, that third criteria for UC in-state tuition seems absolutely insurmountable for most young adults. I have a friend who was living in KY when she graduated high school. She attended a CSU but had in-state tuition after one year, which she qualified for - seems it was because her father was living in California.

I'm not aware the uncle lives in Pleasanton. I thought he lived in Pacifica which is on the coast. The mother said on Facebook Sydney was living with family friends in Livermore. The PI said she was couch surfing in Pleasanton, but I'm not sure if this is correct. I'm not aware of anyone who has stepped forward and confirmed this. Also, if she was actually couch surfing in Pleasanton, I would have thought the Pleasanton police department would be the lead investigator agency in the missing persons case. Or if she was living in Livermore, I would thought the Livermore police department would be the lead agency. Since I have not heard that the Pleasanton or Livermore police have been involved, perhaps she did not stay in Livermore or Pleasanton at all. If she had been in Livermore or Pleasanton and had taken BART from Pleasanton to SF the day before she disappeared, you would think that they would have released a photo from BART to the media like they did when Allison Bayliss was missing.

I don't think she had a car. And yes, there are many hurdles to become classified as in-state tuition. The bill for out-of-state for one semester would have been due the Friday before instruction began with a tuition, room and board and fees bill due of about $35,000 for out-of-state Cost | UC Berkeley | University of California, Berkeley and Registration | Office of the Registrar Furthermore, if at least 20% of the semester bill was not paid in an installment payment by August 21, 2020 for Fall 2020, according to the Berkeley website, the student is automatically dropped from courses. 20% would have been about $7,000.

The out of state fee is called the Nonresident Supplemental Tuition.

Also if there are Registration Holds, that is a problem. Those are discussed here Registration & Enrollment - Cal Student Central If there were any holds, they would need to be cleared before a student could take the courses. According to the link above, holds include those issued for not making payments, for not giving required documents to Berkeley such as to Admissions---failure to provide requested documentation to offices such as Admissions---as well as not declaring a major.

Early on, UC Berkeley issued a press release a few months after the pandemic began that stated they would not reduce tuition or fees if instruction would go from in person to remote for the 20-21 school year. UC Berkeley Won’t Discount Fall Tuition Even If Classes Remain Virtual

As far as I know, the parents have never disclosed if they did or did not pay the Fall 2020 tuition and fees in accordance with the UC Berkeley deadlines. We do know Sydney was selling some of her clothes to raise money on internet sites where she referred to doing this to raise money for college. Here is one Syd's Closet where she says "It's for the college fund." Also in reddit she said one of her parents did not want to pay OOS tuition which I assume is an abbreviation for "out of state."

The parents have said on Find Sydney West that Sydney had a debit card, but there is no mention of a credit card. I doubt Sydney would have been able to put any tuition and fees on a credit card because it appears she did not have one.

 

[ElizabethAnne]

Are people speculating that she never enrolled? She had a roommate for a few days (I’ve talked to ppl at Berkeley), so she was there - but I have no idea what led her to suddenly drop out. I’m not sure anyone knows. I’m not even sure that classes had started yet, so the official line that she dropped out due to difficulties in remote learning is hard to believe. She had been learning remotely all summer and would have been “on notice” of that issue and not surprised by it. Not surprised enough to drop out, anyway.

At least the official line from Find Sydney West is that she was injured while jumping from a boathouse roof on July 4th with a concussion. She was having difficulty with online learning. I agree that the official line that she dropped out due to difficulties in remote learning is hard to believe.

UC Berkeley goes out of its way to help students with permanent conditions or temporary disabilities that affect their learning. She could have probably very easily gotten on a 504 plan to address any learning issue related to concussion affects including accommodations, alternative media, etc.

According to the Berkeley web site Temporary Conditions | Disabled Students' Program , if a student has a concussion that is affecting them, they need to provide official medical documentation as part of to the Disabled Students' Program (DSP). Concussions are even specifically discussed on the UC Berkeley site with "Students with recently acquired injuries, such as broken limbs or concussions." I have some experience with this because I had one of these exact temporary conditions in college.

To receive accommodations such as extra time on assignments as well as other accommodations to address any of these difficulties she may have been happening, sometime between July 4 and the beginning of Fall classes, she would have needed to submit official documentation from a medical professional explaining the injury and its impacts to UC Berkeley according to these procedures Documentation for DSP | Disabled Students' Program There is a FAQ concerning permanent and temporary conditions on the UC Berkeley website and it seems to me they would have gone out of their way at the university as most universities do to address issues such as these. However, they must receive official documentation from professionals to confirm that a student has a permanent or temporary disability and not just take a student's word that they have a disability or disabling condition.

 

[ElizabethAnne]

If Sydney provided medical documentation to UC Berkeley saying she had a concussion, I think given the recent bad press concerning concussions, UC Berkeley, and a recent lawsuit, UC Berkeley would have bent over backwards to accommodate her situation if indeed she suffered a summer concussion injury that was affecting her academically.

The reason is this ---- UC Berkeley, the regents, and coaches were sued in October 2019 in Alameda County Superior Court due to a student (Melissa Martin) who was on the Stunt and Cheerleading team getting concussions at the university repeatedly. She filed a lawsuit because the university failed to work with her and in turn she was repeatedly injured. Her allegations include that she was repeatedly bullied in participating in athletic events and practices and eventually had to withdraw from the university for medical reasons and took a year long medical leave of absence. This case has been in the press locally, nationally and internationally. The lawsuit is here at the bottom of this web link:
Melissa Martin’s Lawsuit Highlights Neglect Larger Than Cal

If you Google melissa martin uc berkeley , you can see this concussion issue at Berkeley has been widely covered on television and and a wide range of newspapers and publications. Good Morning America even covered it nationally - Former cheerleader suing UC Berkeley for ignoring concussions speaks out: 'I felt voiceless' For example, here is the article from The Guardian Former UC Berkeley cheerleader says coaches ignored concussions in lawsuit

 

[lowes123]

I wonder if she had a credit card, cash app, something like that. Her mom said that she did not, but she was not aware of the burner cell either. I know there had been no activity on the debit card. Had she used the debit card to pay for the hotel? I know it is recommended to not use that for your hotel stay, as they can put a hold charge up to 3 times what your bill would be. If she was using the burner to not get tracked, she could have been using a separate card. I saw that she had been selling things on poshmark to get money for college, hopefully someone has checked to see which account the money was being deposited in.

 

[ElizabethAnne]

I wonder if she had a credit card, cash app, something like that. Her mom said that she did not, but she was not aware of the burner cell either. I know there had been no activity on the debit card. Had she used the debit card to pay for the hotel? I know it is recommended to not use that for your hotel stay, as they can put a hold charge up to 3 times what your bill would be. If she was using the burner to not get tracked, she could have been using a separate card. I saw that she had been selling things on poshmark to get money for college, hopefully someone has checked to see which account the money was being deposited in.

There is not a lot of information. Adults can apply for credit cards and she was 19 when she was disappeared, but the parents have said they are not aware of her having a credit card. Also when students withdraw from college, some colleges give the money paid by the parents back to the student as a refund even if the parents paid the bill. This can be a relatively small amount of money if the parents are paying in installments or a substantial amount of money if the semester bill was paid in full depending upon the cost of the college.

For student refunds, it is implied that Berkeley can 'direct deposit' refunds into a bank account specified by the student - see Refunds After Withdrawal | Office of the Registrar and Financial Aid Payments and Refunds - Financial Aid & Scholarships or an actual check can be issued. No one has said whether the tuition and fees were paid for the Fall 2020 semester, whether Sydney cancelled (before instruction began) or withdrew (after instruction began), whether there was a refund issued by Berkeley and if so, who the recipient was and whether the recipient is the student or parents (if tuition and fees had been paid) and what bank account (if EFT) or who was listed on the check (for non EFT) for any refund amount. If the tuition/fees had been paid by credit card, then the cancellation/withdrawal prorated amount would have been just reversed on the credit card. But no one knows other than the parents and UC Berkeley and possibly the police or private investigator because as far as I can tell, no information has been released.

 

[lowes123]

Until there is proof that she is no longer with us, I will keep looking to see what I can find. I am no where near the area, so I am just looking online and hope that maybe I can help to find something to get her home. I became aware of her poshmark account today while digging online. There are several pictures of her selling her bras, but instead of just a picture of the bra, it shows her wearing the bra. For her own private social media page, wearing a bathing suit would not be a big thing, but posting the pictures on a very public place, it was a red flag to me. It could be that she is extremely naive or maybe she was using the site for other reasons. Maybe someone saw the pictures and she agreed to meet up with them at Chrissy Field. It shows that she commented on April 20, not sure if it was her parents accessing the account or her.
As far as her college, she would have had to at least made one payment for the semester to attend classes and live in the dorm. If she withdrew, the payment would/ should have gone back to the account that had paid the original bill.
I truly hope that she is found alive.

 

[ElizabethAnne]

Until there is proof that she is no longer with us, I will keep looking to see what I can find. I am no where near the area, so I am just looking online and hope that maybe I can help to find something to get her home. I became aware of her poshmark account today while digging online. There are several pictures of her selling her bras, but instead of just a picture of the bra, it shows her wearing the bra. For her own private social media page, wearing a bathing suit would not be a big thing, but posting the pictures on a very public place, it was a red flag to me. It could be that she is extremely naive or maybe she was using the site for other reasons. Maybe someone saw the pictures and she agreed to meet up with them at Chrissy Field. It shows that she commented on April 20, not sure if it was her parents accessing the account or her.
As far as her college, she would have had to at least made one payment for the semester to attend classes and live in the dorm. If she withdrew, the payment would/ should have gone back to the account that had paid the original bill.
I truly hope that she is found alive.

Some of these websites for comments don't show the actual year of the comment. The one comment regarding the Wonder Woman costume was made in mid-September, but it is hard to say if it was 2020 or 2019 for sure. Maybe the April comment is 2021 or perhaps past years. As for the photos of her wearing some of these items she was selling, it would be concerning for many parents. And I agree it raises a lot of red flags...lack of impulse control, lack of seeing potential consequences of actions, lack of any sense of potential dangerous consequences, etc.

It is hard to say who the payment for withdrawal and refunds goes to. There are several vendors on the market in the college financials market and the software can be configured multiple ways for undergraduate and graduate students depending upon the type of payment that was made in the first place. Some colleges use Nelnet in the complex array of student financial systems used.

For out of state students, some parents I have known who have agreed to have their children attend out-of-state schools require their children to take out of a student loan for the difference between what they would have paid in in-state tuition vs the out-of-state tuition. No one knows but possibly Sydney was required to get a student loan for the difference between in-state UNC Chapel Hill tuition (about $9,000 per year) vs out-of-state UC Berkeley tuition and fees (about $70,000 per year). In several reddit threads she said one of her parents would not pay OOS tuition. Also she stated that one of her parents was wanting her to like UNC Chapel Hill better. Also remember that her parents, as she states in the reddit threads, had just paid out $15,000 for a college applications consultant. $15,000 is a considerable amount of money. Just a guess, but perhaps as a condition of allowing her to go out of state, she may have been required to take out student loans. No one knows what types of stress she may have been under.

It would not in my opinion have been an unreasonable request for her parents to ask her to take out student loans. After all, she has a younger sibling. Most parents unless they are independently wealthy cannot afford to shell out $300,000 and more to the eldest child for a 4 year degree particularly when there are younger siblings that they have to think about. Also in turning down UMass Amherst who offered her a $64K scholarship over 4 years, she in insisting that she attend UC Berkeley put a tremendous financial burden on her two parents and quite possibly her extended family.

In situations with younger siblings, I have seen where parents have put the first born through college, advanced degrees/law/med school and there are absolutely no funds left for younger siblings, who then have no chance of getting any higher education whatsoever. This can lead to all out parental estrangement, sibling estrangement, and basically tear an entire family apart.

 

[cujenn81]

Some of these websites for comments don't show the actual year of the comment. The one comment regarding the Wonder Woman costume was made in mid-September, but it is hard to say if it was 2020 or 2019 for sure. Maybe the April comment is 2021 or perhaps past years. As for the photos of her wearing some of these items she was selling, it would be concerning for many parents. And I agree it raises a lot of red flags...lack of impulse control, lack of seeing potential consequences of actions, lack of any sense of potential dangerous consequences, etc.

It is hard to say who the payment for withdrawal and refunds goes to. There are several vendors on the market in the college financials market and the software can be configured multiple ways for undergraduate and graduate students depending upon the type of payment that was made in the first place. Some colleges use Nelnet in the complex array of student financial systems used.

For out of state students, some parents I have known who have agreed to have their children attend out-of-state schools require their children to take out of a student loan for the difference between what they would have paid in in-state tuition vs the out-of-state tuition. No one knows but possibly Sydney was required to get a student loan for the difference between in-state UNC Chapel Hill tuition (about $9,000 per year) vs out-of-state UC Berkeley tuition and fees (about $70,000 per year). In several reddit threads she said one of her parents would not pay OOS tuition. Also she stated that one of her parents was wanting her to like UNC Chapel Hill better. Also remember that her parents, as she states in the reddit threads, had just paid out $15,000 for a college applications consultant. $15,000 is a considerable amount of money. Just a guess, but perhaps as a condition of allowing her to go out of state, she may have been required to take out student loans. No one knows what types of stress she may have been under.

It would not in my opinion have been an unreasonable request for her parents to ask her to take out student loans. After all, she has a younger sibling. Most parents unless they are independently wealthy cannot afford to shell out $300,000 and more to the eldest child for a 4 year degree particularly when there are younger siblings that they have to think about. Also in turning down UMass Amherst who offered her a $64K scholarship over 4 years, she in insisting that she attend UC Berkeley put a tremendous financial burden on her two parents and quite possibly her extended family.

In situations with younger siblings, I have seen where parents have put the first born through college, advanced degrees/law/med school and there are absolutely no funds left for younger siblings, who then have no chance of getting any higher education whatsoever. This can lead to all out parental estrangement, sibling estrangement, and basically tear an entire family apart.

Wow! I’ve been thinking about the fortune it must’ve cost her to just apply to all of the schools she mentioned on Reddit, as the average application fee is around $50 (and I think the more selective schools run closer to $100). If she submitted applications to 20 top tier schools, she likely spent close to $2K on college applications alone (hypothetically speaking, of course). Still, $2,000 is a small drop in the bucket when compared to the $15,000 spent on an admissions consultant.

 

[ElizabethAnne]

Wow! I’ve been thinking about the fortune it must’ve cost her to just apply to all of the schools she mentioned on Reddit, as the average application fee is around $50 (and I think the more selective schools run closer to $100). If she submitted applications to 20 top tier schools, she likely spent close to $2K on college applications alone (hypothetically speaking, of course). Still, $2,000 is a small drop in the bucket when compared to the $15,000 spent on an admissions consultant.

Also if you look at not only the application costs, but the cost to do a campus visit to many of these colleges, that expense could have been huge. She could have visited Chapel Hill or UNC Wilmington with little expense, but the others would have cost considerable travel costs. The locations included various states in the northeast, up and down the west coast in California, and one in the midwest. If she visited just 10 of them for campus visits, at the low end it would have been about $500 per visit (driving, hotel for 2 nights) and the high end it would have been about $1000 per visit (plane ticket(s), rental car, hotel for 2 nights). This would have added $5,000 to $10,000 to the price tag easily and that is assuming she only visited a subset of the schools she applied to. If she visited them all, the costs would have been more. So the $15,000 admissions consultant and the application fees only are a portion of the expenses and don't count the travel expenses for campus visits/tours.

 

[cvaldez1975]

Also, on campus housing is only guaranteed for freshman. In the Bay Area, it costs well over $3,000 a month to rent a 1 BR apt. In some places it is nearly $4,000 a month. San Francisco and the surrounding area have some of the highest rents in the nation. Paying that high tuition in conjunction with massive rent is out of reach for most families. Median 1-Bedroom Rent In San Francisco Soars To Nearly $3,700 A Month

there are much lower rents to be found if you look, but close to campus is prob higher. in general though, the bay area is high.

here is a studio in berkeley for 1800

1222 Shattuck Ave #A, Berkeley, CA 94709 | Zillow

1 bedroom for 1975.

1801 Rose St Apt 5, Berkeley, CA 94703 | Zillow

 

[owleye]

If Sydney had intentionally disappeared, she had to have been planning it for several months to disappear completely like this, without leaving a single physical, financial or digital trace. It would take a lot of planning and hiding of funds. She would also, I imagine, have to be filled with rage and hate toward her family to put them through this agony for so many months. None of this seems likely. An abduction from the GGB doesn't seem likely either. Does anyone know what the family believes happened, or are they exploring every avenue other than self-harm at this time? I haven't seen a theory emerge as the one "most likely" from them on social media.

 

[Protectwomenandgirls]

If Sydney had intentionally disappeared, she had to have been planning it for several months to disappear completely like this, without leaving a single physical, financial or digital trace. It would take a lot of planning and hiding of funds. She would also, I imagine, have to be filled with rage and hate toward her family to put them through this agony for so many months. None of this seems likely. An abduction from the GGB doesn't seem likely either. Does anyone know what the family believes happened, or are they exploring every avenue other than self-harm at this time? I haven't seen a theory emerge as the one "most likely" from them on social media.

The family is still not sharing many details. The recent YouTube video, Until They are Found, was endorsed by her mother though. This video speculates that she either jumped/fell off the bridge or was abducted.

IMO Given the lifestyle she was accustomed to, I don't think Sydney would have been able to intentionally disappear without a great deal of financial resources. However, maybe it would have been possible for her to easily cache away thousands of dollars without anyone noticing, given her family's high financial status?

If she had a burner phone, maybe she had a burner bank account too...JMO

 

[ElizabethAnne]

IMO Given the lifestyle she was accustomed to, I don't think Sydney would have been able to intentionally disappear without a great deal of financial resources. However, maybe it would have been possible for her to easily cache away thousands of dollars without anyone noticing, given her family's high financial status?

If she had a burner phone, maybe she had a burner bank account too...JMO

Hypothetically if she withdrew from the university and the refund was somehow put in a bank account that she controlled, that would have been about $30,000 and I would think that sum would have run out by now, seven months later.

Also, the COVID vaccines opened up to 18 through 50 year olds in CA starting around the week of April 15th, but earlier in some counties. Most 18 through 50 year olds that want a vaccine have gotten at least the first shot through mass vaccination centers at coliseums, fairgrounds, etc. throughout the state where you have to show an ID card of some sort to prove you are 18 years old or older. If she was in hiding, you would think she would have at least come out to get a vaccine, and she would have been recognized.

 

[Protectwomenandgirls]

Hypothetically if she withdrew from the university and the refund was somehow put in a bank account that she controlled, that would have been about $30,000 and I would think that sum would have run out by now, seven months later.

Also, the COVID vaccines opened up to 18 through 50 year olds in CA starting around the week of April 15th, but earlier in some counties. Most 18 through 50 year olds that want a vaccine have gotten at least the first shot through mass vaccination centers at coliseums, fairgrounds, etc. throughout the state where you have to show an ID card of some sort to prove you are 18 years old or older. If she was in hiding, you would think she would have at least come out to get a vaccine, and she would have been recognized.

I am really curious about her having access to a potential tuition refund as well. This is a key piece of the puzzle.

She may not have wanted a vaccine.
Also, if she did run away she could be in a different country.
On her social media, she spoke often and very fondly about her time at that yoga retreat in Mexico. IMO

 

[ElizabethAnne]

I am really curious about her having access to a potential tuition refund as well. This is a key piece of the puzzle.

She may not have wanted a vaccine.
Also, if she did run away she could be in a different country.
On her social media, she spoke often and very fondly about her time at that yoga retreat in Mexico. IMO

Because of travel restrictions due to COVID, I don't think she could have traveled very far or had an ID that would have allowed her to get on a commercial airplane. Plus I think I read somewhere her parents have her passport which is required for entry. Mexico International Travel Information

The mother says on Find Sydney West FB she had a debit card, but the FAQ on the Find Sydney West website mentions a credit card so there is a discrepancy. I do wish that the parents would expand on whether the Berkeley fees were paid or not and whether if they were, did they get the refund or did Sydney when she withdrew. And was the refund in the form of an EFT transfer or just a credit on a credit card. And if the parents know what account if any the refund went into and has it been accessed. However, the parents seem to not want to talk about many things about the Berkeley withdrawal so it is one big mystery.

I'm not sure if she had access to it or if the tuition and fees were even paid. From a timing perspective she could have moved into the dorm with only a deposit because the tuition and fees were due the Friday before instruction starts, plus if they were paid by installment only 20% was actually due. I did go on the UC Berkeley web pages to try to figure out the exact steps but many of the pages reference CalCentral which is accessible only to students.

However on reddit it is clear she researched the whole area of getting college acceptance and not attending. She said: "plus if by some miracle you do get in to any of those places, you can just defer a year so you will still be able to go the following year. pm me for more info"

When students go missing in other states like the recent Buffalo State student Saniyya Dennis , sometimes many law enforcement agencies and FBI are brought into the picture and conduct a massive search of records, cameras footage, canine searches, helicopter searches, etc. and then there will be an announcement that they believe it is a suicide from jumping into Niagara Falls like this one --- Missing Buffalo college student from the Bronx believed to have taken own life and DA: Buffalo State college student most likely died by suicide In this case there was an emotional phone call with a boyfriend and then she took a bus to Niagara Falls which was where her cell phone last pinged and canines tracked her scent.

I'm not sure why the parents in this case chose to report the missing persons report for Sydney to the SFPD in the first place that is known to put little to no effort in putting together an investigation.

 

[ElizabethAnne]

If Sydney had intentionally disappeared, she had to have been planning it for several months to disappear completely like this, without leaving a single physical, financial or digital trace. It would take a lot of planning and hiding of funds. She would also, I imagine, have to be filled with rage and hate toward her family to put them through this agony for so many months. None of this seems likely. An abduction from the GGB doesn't seem likely either. Does anyone know what the family believes happened, or are they exploring every avenue other than self-harm at this time? I haven't seen a theory emerge as the one "most likely" from them on social media.

I don't know what the timeline for her disappearance is (when did she withdraw from Berkeley, etc.) or any timeline from her family or law enforcement even though she has been missing for 7 months. Also I don't know what law enforcement agencies are even involved.

However, comparing missing 19-year old college student Saniyya Dennis, a bright honors student majoring in mechanical engineering, from SUNY Buffalo who was just missing for 7 days (not 7 months) that I reference in another post where the DA has concluded it is a situation of suicide, I have far more information Missing Buffalo college student from the Bronx believed to have taken own life about that case, detailed timelines, text messages, phone calls, camera footage on a bus, media on-camera interviews with family members, list of agencies involved in the search, results of a canine search on Goat Island, etc. than has been released about the Sydney West case, where the family provided little to no information. I don't even know what her major was (not sure why that is such a secret). I don't know if canines were brought in once the backpack was found or the day she was missing to try to track her scent on the bridge from the scent on the backpack or other personal items.

I can only guess that they, the family, think she is an adult runaway but I don't know for sure and that law enforcement believes she jumped off the GGB but I don't know for sure. Maybe the family is so adamant she would never jump off the GGB that they refused to cooperate with law enforcement and declined a water search. We will probably never know. I did read the mother's posting that she said the tide was going in or something similar to that during the morning that Sydney was last seen with perhaps the implication that if she would have jumped a body would have been found already, but that "tide was going in" comment seems to not make any sense to me. People who jump off the bridge are typically washed out to the ocean regardless of the tide.

All I know is when students are missing I more typically see a lot more information and details. The Buffalo missing student is the level and type of media coverage and family involvement I typically see when there is a frantic search for a missing student.

For a while whoever is responding to the Find Sydney West posts would not answer and say something like "It's an active investigation." To recent queries about the location of the found backpack the response was "What difference does it make." It seems odd to me that information is not forthcoming.

 

[Vacajoe]

I live 80 miles from where this story is taking place, travel frequently to the SF Bay Area, and even attended Berkeley back in the day. I assure you that this story has zero attention of the larger community. Sydney could be living anywhere and blending in easily. COVID vaccinations required an I.D. but I seriously doubt anyone would recognize her name, especially outside of that immediate area (or she could have used a friend’s ID or even got a shot at a homeless clinic that didn’t require an ID).

I don’t believe she is alive, but she easily could exist in a state our size, let alone the surrounding states.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

I'm not sure why the parents in this case chose to report the missing persons report for Sydney to the SFPD in the first place that is known to put little to no effort in putting together an investigation.

Quote RSBM.
How would they be expected to know this? I imagine if my child went missing in San Francisco, I (or my spouse) would contact law enforcement there and try to go there and work with them on finding my child. Who else would you know to call, if not the local law enforcement?