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Sydney West was last seen at San Francisco’s Crissy Field approaching the Golden Gate Bridge shortly before sunrise on Sept. 30, 2020. New information has now revealed that the 19-year-old UC Berkeley student was captured on surveillance video that morning disappearing “into the fog” near the “crowded” bridge.
Due to the location of her last known sighting, some believe she may have died, but West’s family says everything doesn’t quite add up.
“First off, it was 6:45, roughly, in the morning. Extremely crowded. It was foggy, but she kind of disappears into the fog,” Scott Dudek, a private investigator representing the family, told Fox News this week. “You would think if somebody went and crawled up on the rails with all those people and bike riders, somebody would have either called … or somebody would have tried to talk to her and try to come forward with all that publicity, and that never happened.”
“There were a lot of people on the bridge that morning, so that’s what continues to baffle us,” West’s mom, Kimberly West, added.
It’s not clear exactly where the surveillance footage, which has not been share with the public, was taken. Dudek told Fox News that in addition to the fog, there was significant wildfire smoke on the SF Bay that day, further obscuring the footage of West. (The Bay Area’s infamous “Orange Day,” during which the skies were dimmed due to smoke from Oregon wildfires, occurred just weeks earlier.)
Sydney West had moved to the Bay Area to attend UC Berkeley.
Courtesy the West familyThe Golden Gate Bridge is a known suicide spot. According to the Bridge Rail Foundation, approximately 2,100 people have ended their lives at the iconic tourist destination. At the time of her disappearance, the San Francisco Police Department stated that West was “considered at risk due to depression.” SFGATE reached out to SFPD for further comment Wednesday but had not heard back at time of publication.
West reportedly took a ride-hailing service to the Golden Gate Bridge that morning. The driver cooperated with SFPD and is not believed to be a suspect.
Originally from California, West’s family moved to North Carolina and lived there at the time of her disappearance. West moved back to the Bay Area to attend her first year at UC Berkeley in 2020. But due to the coronavirus pandemic, and a concussion sustained earlier that summer that limited her ability to use screens to study virtually, West had deferred her studies to the fall of 2021, and was living with friends in the Bay Area when she went missing.
West is 5-foot-10 and weighs 130 pounds, with light brown hair and blue eyes. She was last seen in dark leggings, a teal hoodie and Vans sneakers with a tropical print on them. “Her hair was in a bun on top of her head. She may have been carrying a black backpack,” her family said on a website highlighting the case. West reportedly last contacted her family the evening before in a lengthy phone call with her father, Jay West. The family says her father “fully expected to speak with her the next day.”
Sydney West was last seen near the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco on Sept. 30, 2020.
Courtesy the West family“Lots of people have been like, ‘Well, it’s obvious what happened. She was on the Golden Gate Bridge,’” Jay West told Fox News. “But … her being my daughter and knowing how she feels about her sister and about her family and all of the things that she was looking forward … I just find it [hard to believe] she would just leave all of that.”
Anyone with any information on West’s disappearance is asked to call SFPD’s 24-hour tip line at 415-575-4444.
If you are in distress, call the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline 24 hours a day at 988, or visit 988lifeline.org for more resources.
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