Family of teen missing since 2020 ‘baffled’ by video of her walking into fog, offering reward
The family of a North Carolina teen who vanished from the Golden Gate Bridge nearly three years ago is offering a reward for infor💖mation, as surveillance footage of her last movements has left investigators and loved ones “baffled.”
Sydney West, 19, was last seen on the iconic San Francisco landmark around 6:45 a.m. PT Sept. 30, 2020. She was reported missing by her family𝄹 in Orange County, North Carolina, the following day.
“First off, it was 6:45, roughly, in the morning. Extremely crowded. It was foggy, but she kind of disappears into the fog,” private investigator Scott Dudek this week of the last known footage of West.
The video, which is also obscured by smoke from nearby wildfires🐎, was originally viewed shortly after West went missing, a representative for the family told The Post. Dudek, however♚, believes police have wrongly “given up” on the case because they believe the teen died by suicide.
“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,” he said of the footage.
West’s fam𝓡ily lived in California before moving to Chapel Hill, NC, Fox said. At the time of her disappearance, the teen was staying with family friends in the Bay Area after deferring her plans to study at the University of California, Berkeley, until the following fall.
West’s mother🏅, Kimberly, said she struggled with online learning due to COVID-19 after sustaining a serious concussion over the summer.
“Before she went out [to California], she was having a really hard time with screen time. She wasn’t supposed to be doing any screen time, but this was the fall of 2020, and classes were completely virtual,” Kimberly explained.
“So, everything was on the computer … and she just she said she couldn’t do it.”
West reportedly felt isolated and lonely in the wake of her decision, but her family is pushing back on the San Francisco Police Department’s 2020 assessment that she was “at risk due t♏o depression.”
“There were a lot of people on the bridge that morning, so that’s what continues to baffle us,” Kimberly said of the video footage.
“Lots of people have been like, ‘Well, it’s obvious what happened. She was on the Golden Gate Bridge,’” West’s father, Jay, added.
The Golden Gate Bridge is one of the world’s most well-known suicide spots. Last year, that a staggering 1,800 fatalities can be linked to the landmark — more than any other bridge in the country.
“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 to and … all the things that she would get to experience … I just find it [hard to believe] she would just leave all of that,” Jay, who spoke to his daughter the night before her disappearance, noted.
According to her mother, West’s interests included science, art, music and sports.
The family is offer𒆙ing a $25,000 reward for information leading to West’s recovery, through the .
Though none of the hundreds of tips in two-and-a-half years have ♉panned out, West’s loved ones remain hopeful.
“That’s what we continue to hope — that there was somebody who maybe doesn’t even realize they saw something,” Kimberly told the outlet.
Sydney West is 5 feet 10 inches and weighed about 130 pounds at the time of his disappearance. She was last seen wearing dark leggings, a teal hoodie, and Vans sneakers with her ha🍃ir in a bun.
The San Francꦿisco Police Departmen♐t did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for a comment.
