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

[scriabina]

The Medium blog post that people referred to several days ago called Gap Year Blues Pt 1 has disappeared and is no longer on the internet. Who would have removed it?

An alive and well Syd, hopefully?

I suppose a family member may have reached out to Medium and requested they remove the blog due to an active missing persons case. I hope they didn't do that, though: If I were voluntarily missing and then my family went out of their way to remove my online blog posts, I would be LIVID. I would feel like all they cared about was appearances and didn't truly care about me.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

Maybe law enforcement requested it be taken down.

 

[steff13]

Can you imagine if she's gone voluntarily missing? It would be so intimidating to come forward now, after all the effort that's been put forth to find her.

 

[Tealgrove]

I don't think anyone is judging the mom? I apologize if my comment about her "a little hostile-sounding" Facebook post came across as judgmental. I do not think the parents did anything intentionally to harm Syd.

The mom clearly does not want the public to know anything about this case beyond what Syd looks like. IMHO, the family is probably worried that whatever they say may trigger Syd negatively, so they simply aren't revealing anything. I notice the mother is mainly "loving" and "liking" posts on the public Find Syd West page that comment on Syd's beauty and she avoids answering any case-related questions (which I thought sounded "a little hostile" in that one instance - she was probably feeling defensive). I think she is doing this in case Syd is reading the posts so that Syd will see that her mom loves and supports her. This behavior makes me believe the Syd has given the parents strong reason to believe she is voluntarily missing, and that her mental state is delicate such that they are treading very lightly.

RBBM

I think it is extremely difficult for any family to be in the position that Syd's family finds itself. It must be devastating. I can't imagine the fear, the stress etc. etc. I, personally, would need serious meds to get me through.

You know, as young adults, our families (parents) are not privy to what we do on a daily basis. My parents never knew who I dated or what I was up to when I left home. They would have been hard pressed to come up with answers to a lot of questions LE would be posing. Syd's parents may be in the same boat.

Some of us, as younger adults, do things that we regret later and our families would be horrified to find out what we did in our "free time".

I think Syd's family is trying desperately to protect Syd's privacy. Perhaps some things have come to light, and if Syd had left of her own free will, divulging that information to the world could be a tipping point for her mentally. We already know, that she has a tendency to struggle.

Although, knowing everything, Good or Bad, is invaluable in figuring out these kinds of situations, I understand how a parent would move into the "protector" role and try to keep things that are private just that.

Just MOO in a very sad and difficult situation for friends and family.

 

[GordianKnot]

Never is not correct.

Maybe unlikely. But not never. I have worked with a beautiful smart young woman (18) from an upper middle class (more on the upper) that got in with drug dealers and using drugs and then trafficked. Once she was treated for overdose then arrested, it was a fight to beat the traffickers to the jail to get her. They showed up with wads of cash. Thankfully they didn’t get her back. Now she is in a facility that is supposedly secret and safe. I have been able to talk to her once and she is showing improvements. It happens. I am not saying Syd is using drugs, but trafficking happens.

Duly noted!

On the basis of your anecdotal report that you know one upper middle class woman that was trafficked, I'll amend my statement from "never" to "almost never."

Young women from wealthy, intact, well-connected families are almost never the victims of trafficking. (*See linked article in MassGuy's post #470).

The set of circumstances here is pointing toward self-harm or SW being voluntarily missing, although the latter is less likely based on the lack of sightings since she's been reported missing.

It's also possible that SW is the victim of foul play, similar to what happened in the Lueck case.

It would be interesting to know who (or what, if it was video footage) last spotted her "near the Golden Gate bridge." Also, whether she was alone or observed with someone at that time.

I'm wondering if LE has any type of evidence, i.e., witness reports or video surveillance, indicating which direction SW headed, i.e., whether she was last seen moving toward the bridge or in a different direction.

Also, I'm curious about the friends she was staying with in SF.

Are these longtime, trusted friends, or more recent acquaintances?

Since she's not attending school, did SW have a job at the time she went missing?

JMO.

 

[ocsalumni]

The Medium blog post that people referred to several days ago called Gap Year Blues Pt 1 has disappeared and is no longer on the internet. Who would have removed it?

An alive and well Syd, hopefully?

I suppose a family member may have reached out to Medium and requested they remove the blog due to an active missing persons case. I hope they didn't do that, though: If I were voluntarily missing and then my family went out of their way to remove my online blog posts, I would be LIVID. I would feel like all they cared about was appearances and didn't truly care about me.

I looked up the medium blog post using
site:medium.com "sydney west" "gap year blues"
And here's what I got as the error code from Medium....

ERROR
410
The author deleted this Medium story.

 

[ocsalumni]

I was able to find a cached text-only version of the Medium post. I'm pretty sure I'm not allowed to post the screenshot of it, but the whole thing is there. It must have been very recently deleted.

I hope with everything I have that it was Syd that deleted that post, and that her family is trying to figure out the next steps in bringing her home. I still don't have a good feeling about it, but it actually feels like there could be a possibility.

EDIT: Some info about government takedown requests from the medium website:

Government Takedown Requests
If Medium receives a request from a government actor to restrict access to content associated with your account, we will notify you unless we are prohibited by law or believe doing so may endanger others. Where applicable, we will work to limit legally-ordered content restrictions to jurisdictions where we have a good faith belief that we are legally required to restrict the content. Medium submits to the Lumen database government requests to restrict access to content (redacted where appropriate to protect privacy or prevent harm to a person).

We may enforce, or not enforce, these policies at our sole discretion. These policies don’t create a duty or contractual obligation for us to act.

 

[oviedo]

Rhetorical question, so I'll go ahead and answer it:

Never.

The set of circumstances here do not support a sex trafficking conclusion.
My main man William of Occam is shaking his head emphatically at that suggestion.

Last seen near a bridge famous for suicides = Self-harm is the most probable outcome.

Second most probable is voluntarily missing.

Third likeliest would be a foul play scenario ala the Lueck case…this case does appear to bear some similarities.

Sex trafficking falls somewhere south of alien abduction on the list of possibilities.

Trafficking is one of the most common rabbit holes people love to chase around here.
In all the mp cases I've followed on WS, I haven't seen a single one that ended up being the result of sex trafficking.

Not. One.

JMO.

same - I was talking with a college student friend who is living at home but has friends in dorms on campus - COVID is really affecting these young adults IMO. The one living at home has a good relationship with the family but has concerns about the friends in the dorms/on campus and their mental well being. The isolation is crippling for some of them. I'm in agreement that 1-3 are the most likely outcomes. sadly.
JMO

 

[Lindsaym]

Yesterday on Reddit in a thread about teenagers missing in the area, someone claiming to be a friend of the family in NC mentioned that major depression was a possible contributing factor here.

I think discussions of human trafficking are way off, regardless. And I think the parents have a flat affect because they’re petrified for their daughter and one way that people handle great fear is just to shut down, emotionally.

 

[SouthAussie]

I looked up the medium blog post using
site:medium.com "sydney west" "gap year blues"
And here's what I got as the error code from Medium....

ERROR
410
The author deleted this Medium story.

Yes, I think it is likely that Syd or someone who knows her well took down the post.
Perhaps it is pretty easy to figure out her password, for access, if you know her well.

If it was law enforcement who managed to have it taken down by the site admin, I imagine it would just be gone. No error code message. Just completely wiped out, as if it never was posted at all.

 

[ocsalumni]

The vigil live stream is available on the Find Sydney West Facebook page now. I am working so I can't watch it, but just a heads up to anyone who wants to/can.

Edit: I skipped to about 20 min in and have watched a few minutes of it. Per Sydney's dad, he says that point of the vigil is to raise the volume about Syd's disappearance. He also says there is an ongoing search, and that investigators are trying to follow up on leads. He says that Syd may be trying to make her way home from the west coast. I don't know if that's just blind hope, or if there's something that makes them think that.

 

[JudgeJoe]

The vigil live stream is available on the Find Sydney West Facebook page now. I am working so I can't watch it, but just a heads up to anyone who wants to/can.

Edit: I skipped to about 20 min in and have watched a few minutes of it. Per Sydney's dad, he says that point of the vigil is to raise the volume about Syd's disappearance. He also says there is an ongoing search, and that investigators are trying to follow up on leads. He says that Syd may be trying to make her way home from the west coast. I don't know if that's just blind hope, or if there's something that makes them think that.

Find Sydney West

Also new IG site run by fam.
Login • Instagram

 

[flower_girl]

It's very odd to me that a story about a missing attractive 19 year old college student does not have more press or more people commenting on it. I feel like these normally blow up like Karlie Guse and Lauren Spierer. Why haven't we heard more from her friends and family?

 

[ocsalumni]

It's very odd to me that a story about a missing attractive 19 year old college student does not have more press or more people commenting on it. I feel like these normally blow up like Karlie Guse and Lauren Spierer. Why haven't we heard more from her friends and family?

Part of me thinks that they thought it was voluntary, and they didn't want to draw too much attention and prevent Syd from coming home or something. That's the only way that I can really make sense of the long amount of silence from friends and family.

 

[flower_girl]

Part of me thinks that they thought it was voluntary, and they didn't want to draw too much attention and prevent Syd from coming home or something. That's the only way that I can really make sense of the long amount of silence from friends and family.

I would agree with that. I hope her friends are just hiding her out somewhere and that's why there's so much silence.

 

[Kaligirl]

Part of me thinks that they thought it was voluntary, and they didn't want to draw too much attention and prevent Syd from coming home or something. That's the only way that I can really make sense of the long amount of silence from friends and family.

Agree and the fact the LE does not seem involved in a meaningful way. Possibly they held the vigil to speak to her and assure her no matter what she is loved and wanted at home. Otherwise, they would have been in SF conducting ground searches for any clues, etc. which would have brought a lot of attention to the case. She does seem to have an amazing life and supportive family. There is no roadmap for being 19 in a pandemic so I really hope she is just taking a break and will reach out soon.

 

[siliconda]

Hi all - I know someone posted saying they couldn't find her in the student database. I go to Cal and was looking through the database of staff/students available to current Cal ID holders. There's no one named Sydney West but there is a Syd West. They have a photo of a dog very similar to Syd's dog as the profile picture so I think it's her. Another username she might be using based off the search might be "swestie" but I haven't found anything related to that yet.

 

[JudgeJoe]

Syd’d vigil was video recorded & can be seen at #FindSydneyWest FB. It lasted a bit over an hour & featured Syd’s songs, memories & messages from friends & fam. I just get the impression they are all lost- understandably so. About 85% ish of the language used was past-tense. As expected, I think they fear the worst but are trying to hope for the best. Up until now, I’ve thought perhaps purposely dropped off-grid. But now I’m thinking water. Truly hope to be wrong.

 

[scriabina]

Syd’d vigil was video recorded & can be seen at #FindSydneyWest FB. It lasted a bit over an hour & featured Syd’s songs, memories & messages from friends & fam. I just get the impression they are all lost- understandably so. About 85% ish of the language used was past-tense. As expected, I think they fear the worst but are trying to hope for the best. Up until now, I’ve thought perhaps purposely dropped off-grid. But now I’m thinking water. Truly hope to be wrong.

Oh my gosh. That is truly disturbing and heartbreaking. Lately I have been feeling like this case may never be solved and will just sort of evaporate with no more information ever revealed.

 

[SouthAussie]

Syd’d vigil was video recorded & can be seen at #FindSydneyWest FB. It lasted a bit over an hour & featured Syd’s songs, memories & messages from friends & fam. I just get the impression they are all lost- understandably so. About 85% ish of the language used was past-tense. As expected, I think they fear the worst but are trying to hope for the best. Up until now, I’ve thought perhaps purposely dropped off-grid. But now I’m thinking water. Truly hope to be wrong.

Does any local person know .... are all/most cases that end up in the water found at some point in time?

With the ocean on one side and the bay on the other side, just wondering which way the prevalent tide flows during the early morning. If that bears any relevance.