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

[dotr]

The Instagram thing is odd. New people can follow her now but there is no delay to follow others, unless she asked to follow private accounts and they just accepted.

Can others somehow post on Instagram, posing as Syd?

 

[Lilibet]

Rowing and college admissions. Oh my.

Yeah, I found that weird too. Didn't she play volleyball and softball in high school, why would she do rowing in college?

Not that again! I hope.

 

[10ofRods]

Exactly, had been thinking the same thing- checking out the empty buildings, especially office buildings that still have running water, electricity and maybe kitchens, some might even have some food!

If she is in fact living among a homeless population that takes over closed buildings around SF, that's pretty scary to me. The population is mostly male and if in fact, people are using Presidio buildings (which I doubt, since they are fairly expensive buildings and surely must have alarms and cameras?) then the competition for them would be intense.

I find it very hard to believe that a 19 year old could discover a way of living in those buildings that other homeless people who've been there for years has not found.

She has to know someone, IMO, if she's living indoors right now, in SF.

I sure do wonder if maybe she met someone and, thinking her parents would not approve either of that person or of her leaving school, did indeed start a new life...without that older phone, that was probably on her parents' account.

In the Reddit thread, she spoke about her parents paying $15K to an admissions counselor to apply to colleges during the gap year, as well as retaking the standardized tests to boost her scores. She talked about taking 5 APs during her junior year in Chapel Hill which she said would have been impossible to do at Foothill High in Pleasanton because taking 5 AP courses at a time would mean you would have had to have been some sort of prodigy.

At least from what I've read, she never talked about what majors she was or was not accepted in. We don't know what types of classes she was taking at Berkeley or what was the outcome of the UC Berkeley rowing spot. She said she was given a walk-on spot, but whether that means a guaranteed spot or just an ability to try out, is up in the air. I don't see her on the Women's Rowing roster, and don't know if she was on the roster at the beginning of the fall semester. I did look on the Internet Archive to see if it had an older copy but could not find one. The reason her decision was down to UMass and UCB is because of the rowing spot according to her Reddit posts. She said in both cases, the rowing spot had guaranteed tutoring, preferential registration, etc. She also said that if she made it to the fastest two boats, she would get a free ride her junior and senior year, regardless of the schools (UMass or UCB).

I would think LE would need to contact the UC Berkeley rowing team coaches to determine what happened and when and whether her making that team or not caused her to withdraw.

Walk-on spots are exactly what they sound like - not guaranteed. Show up and maybe you'll row. I don't think a person has to be admitted into a major at Cal (Berkeley).

I don't have a lot of confidence that SF LE will do much investigation, although if she is truly considered endangered...maybe.

 

[LadyL]

Rowing and college admissions. Oh my.

I'm not following.

 

[dotr]

I'm not following.

Assuming a reference to this..
In college scandal, rowing was the ideal sport for stowaways, cheating
Ws thread
Nationwide College Cheating Scandal - Actresses, Business Owners Charged, Mar 2019 - #4

 

[Lusitana]

Not that again! I hope.

That could be an explanation for someone to be so "robotic" and to be proceeding with so much caution. Nobody wants their secrets out, especially if you're inserted in a community where appearences seem to be everything.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

Her case was referred to a special victim's unit, correct?
Does anyone have enough knowledge of LE practices to guess what that might mean?
Is it unusual? Or is it an expected way for them to cover all of the possibilities here?

 

[JudgeJoe]

So based on the linked chart we are using, if she had withdrawn by day 11 of instruction (Sept 9 or 10 depending on whether Labor Day counted), she would have gotten a 90% refund of $40,500 on an approximate $45K tuition. Withdrawing day 12 to the day she disappeared would have given her 50% or $22,500. Am I doing the math right? If this is the case, she could have walked away with significant money to start over. This is assuming the refunded tuition didn’t go back to her parents’ credit card or checking account. I’m not sure how the university handles that, but I figure the money would be refunded to the student.

Refunds After Withdrawal | Office of the Registrar

Yes, your math is correct.

The refund would be made to the student even if the parent paid it. Even if you are barely 18 and just left your parents' home, and your parents paid your tuition, there are strict privacy laws protecting the student.

The refund would be made to student and/or parent depending on how this was set up in the university’s online system. These preferences can only be selected by the student- unless there is a signed FERPA waiver allowing parents to make these selections/changes. FERPA waivers can be granted and retracted at any time by the student. After retraction, the student can change whatever settings were created at the start. If no preferences are selected, refund would be processed per the universities default method, which could even be held as a credit for future classes- until the student or authorized person instructs otherwise. So... we have no clue where that money went or how much it was. But LE would certainly find that out as part of their investigation. Imo

 

[technicallymissing]

The Instagram thing is odd. New people can follow her now but there is no delay to follow others, unless she asked to follow private accounts and they just accepted.

That’s what I was thinking, that her most recently followed were possibly private accounts for which there’d be a delay. If not and they’re set to public that’s definitely weird.

 

[SouthAussie]

Her case was referred to a special victim's unit, correct?
Does anyone have enough knowledge of LE practices to guess what that might mean?
Is it unusual? Or is it an expected way for them to cover all of the possibilities here?

Just bringing forward Lilibet's posted info .... from post #221.
Normal procedure, except it seems that Syd's case has gone to special victims unit sooner than the usual 30 days after initial investigations. Maybe because she is considered to be 'at risk' ?


Police Investigation
Since being a missing person is not a crime, police are given a very limited role while conducting these types of investigations. As a general rule, all people have a right to be left alone, and police intrusion into their lives must be minimal. However, in cases where “foul-play” exists, police can investigate just like any other criminal act. Also, in cases where the missing person is “endangered” due to medical problems, or life-threatening situations, police will take appropriate investigative measures.

Missing Persons Cases are investigated by the SIT teams at the district stations for 30 days. Thereafter, the case will be transferred to the Missing Persons Unit at the Special Victims Unit. Please contact the reporting district station (Station Finder | San Francisco Police Department) for all Missing Persons Cases less than 30 days old.

More info at link, including suggestions for families:
Missing Persons | Police Commission

 

[SteveP]

Just bringing forward Lilibet's posted info .... from post #221.
Normal procedure, except it seems that Syd's case has gone to special victims unit sooner than the usual 30 days after initial investigations. Maybe because she is considered to be 'at risk' ?


Police Investigation
Since being a missing person is not a crime, police are given a very limited role while conducting these types of investigations. As a general rule, all people have a right to be left alone, and police intrusion into their lives must be minimal. However, in cases where “foul-play” exists, police can investigate just like any other criminal act. Also, in cases where the missing person is “endangered” due to medical problems, or life-threatening situations, police will take appropriate investigative measures.

Missing Persons Cases are investigated by the SIT teams at the district stations for 30 days. Thereafter, the case will be transferred to the Missing Persons Unit at the Special Victims Unit. Please contact the reporting district station (Station Finder | San Francisco Police Department) for all Missing Persons Cases less than 30 days old.

More info at link, including suggestions for families:
Missing Persons | Police Commission

I see this information, explaining that missing person cases are investigated by the SIT teams at the district stations for 30 days, and then transferred to Missing Persons Unit of SVU, but I have not seen anything that suggests that SW's disappearance has been handed over to SVU. Am I missing something?

 

[ocsalumni]

The Instagram thing is odd. New people can follow her now but there is no delay to follow others, unless she asked to follow private accounts and they just accepted.

I just went and took a look at her following on Instagram, the most recent accounts she followed were 1 public and 1 private account. I don't think I'm allowed to say the names of them per WS rules.

The public account she followed has no photos posted, and they do not follow her. They have a couple dozen followers and people that they follow.

You used to be able to use the app to check someone's newest followings, but they arrange it randomly now. From what I've been able to figure out, they prioritize mutual followings (if you and the person follow the same account, it will be at the top), then possibly follower count? But sometimes it'll just be a random assortment, it's weird. If you check on the web however, it will show you their following from newest to oldest.

So... one account is private, which makes sense why she'd only start following them after going missing, but the other account is public... which means there should be no delay. The only possibility of it not being done recently is if that account was private, Syd requested to follow, and then they recently went public, automatically accepting follower requests and being shown as a public profile.

 

[ocsalumni]

Accidental double post

 

[ElizabethAnne]

I have to say, I thought the same thing!

I don't know, but my guess is that in order to play Volleyball at the college level, you would perhaps have to be taller than 5 foot 10 inches to play Division 1. It is a height driven sport and maybe being 5 foot 10 inches would be fine for Division 2 or Division 3. In the Reddit posts, Sydney says that she is aiming for a D1 school meaning Division 1.

Also she said in the Reddit posts that her parents knew the rowing coach at UMass and that they were UMass legacies. That would mean both of the parents went to UMass at one point and probably means one was on the rowing team.

She also mentioned on Reddit a small school in Iowa where she was recruited by the Volleyball coach, but then was turned down by the Admissions office. Maybe that was enough for her to drop pursuing Volleyball even though she put highlight reels online on the internet for her Volleyball skills.

 

[ocsalumni]

I don't know, but my guess is that in order to play Volleyball at the college level, you would perhaps have to be taller than 5 foot 10 inches to play Division 1. It is a height driven sport and maybe being 5 foot 10 inches would be fine for Division 2 or Division 3. In the Reddit posts, Sydney says that she is aiming for a D1 school meaning Division 1.

Also she said in the Reddit posts that her parents knew the rowing coach at UMass and that they were UMass legacies. That would mean both of the parents went to UMass at one point and probably means one was on the rowing team.

She also mentioned on Reddit a small school in Iowa where she was recruited by the Volleyball coach, but then was turned down by the Admissions office. Maybe that was enough for her to drop pursuing Volleyball even though she put highlight reels online on the internet for her Volleyball skills.

When you look up her Instagram username on Google in quotes, you'll see that she commented on a photo of Olivia Jade's. There are so many comments on Olivia Jade's post that it would take a loooong time to find the context of Sydney's, but she responded to someone and said: "@(instagram user) It was free with her college acceptance lolll"

So that makes me wonder if the rowing thing was sort of a joke to throw around because of Olivia Jade and the scandal? I'd have to look at her Reddit history again to get more context, but just thought I'd put this out there

 

[ElizabethAnne]

At least as far as the college admissions scandal, from what I have read, most if not all universities have lower admissions standards for athletes. That is why Rick Singer used the side door coach bribery scheme.

I don't think Sydney's high school Carrboro High has a rowing team, but many high schools don't which is why perhaps rowing teams allow walk ons. Both Amador Valley and Foothill high schools in Pleasanton don't have rowing teams either.

I have read that as far as UC Berkeley and rowing, there is no off-season and students train about 20 hours a week. I am not sure what the situation is during the COVID situation.

 

[Fidobell]

In the Reddit thread, she spoke about her parents paying $15K to an admissions counselor to apply to colleges during the gap year, as well as retaking the standardized tests to boost her scores. She talked about taking 5 APs during her junior year in Chapel Hill which she said would have been impossible to do at Foothill High in Pleasanton because taking 5 AP courses at a time would mean you would have had to have been some sort of prodigy.

At least from what I've read, she never talked about what majors she was or was not accepted in. We don't know what types of classes she was taking at Berkeley or what was the outcome of the UC Berkeley rowing spot. She said she was given a walk-on spot, but whether that means a guaranteed spot or just an ability to try out, is up in the air. I don't see her on the Women's Rowing roster, and don't know if she was on the roster at the beginning of the fall semester. I did look on the Internet Archive to see if it had an older copy but could not find one. The reason her decision was down to UMass and UCB is because of the rowing spot according to her Reddit posts. She said in both cases, the rowing spot had guaranteed tutoring, preferential registration, etc. She also said that if she made it to the fastest two boats, she would get a free ride her junior and senior year, regardless of the schools (UMass or UCB).

I would think LE would need to contact the UC Berkeley rowing team coaches to determine what happened and when and whether her making that team or not caused her to withdraw.

Eh? Have we not heard ' rowing team spot ' before , this year?

 

[ocsalumni]

I don't think anyone has posted about what her parents have been sharing on Facebook, but I just found a post from her dad. It says:

"Thinking of the blessing of playing with you, whether that be music, school, sports or traveling. I miss you so much. Let me find you and wrap my arms around you. I love you and will leave no stone unturned to bring you home."

There is a photo of them on a plane attached, and a 6 min audio clip of them making music together.

Edit: There is also a comment from her dad on a different post of his, where he says "more info coming in a few days - the best thing we can do is make this thing as big as possible and put her picture in everyone’s brain. Post post post"
This was 2 days ago, so maybe more coming tomorrow or Tuesday?

 

[ocsalumni]

Has anyone considered/looked into the sugar baby/sugar daddy route? Based on the NSFW reddit post?

I was super into the Kenzie Lueck case when it happened, something similar with the Instagram following amount happened with her, so my memory of her case was triggered. I wonder if detectives have considered that possibility? Syd also said that her parents weren't going to be helping her much financially on Reddit... idk. Just complete speculation, MOO. I do not want to get banned (there was a LOT of temporary banning with KL's thread) so mods please remove this or I will remove it if it is breaking rules.

 

[ElizabethAnne]

Just bringing forward Lilibet's posted info .... from post #221.
Normal procedure, except it seems that Syd's case has gone to special victims unit sooner than the usual 30 days after initial investigations. Maybe because she is considered to be 'at risk' ?

Here is the Facebook page that has been set up. I think a friend of the family set it up. I don't know why it sent to the Special Victims Unit earlier than 30 days.

The last internet postings I see from Sydney occurred about a week and a half before her disappearance on this Poshmark discussion where she was asking about this particular item.
Accessories | Wonder Woman Costume | Poshmark

and here is the Facebook page called Find Sydney West with a flyer attached... Find Sydney West