Parents of missing freshman from NC issue video plea for help finding daughter
The parents of a 19-year-old college freshman who moved from Chapel Hill to the University of California at Berkeley in August issued a video plea for help Friday to find their missing daughter.
Sydney West was last seen Sept. 30 near the Golden Gate Bridge, the San Francisco Police Department said. It’s a popular park for cyclists, joggers and visitors on the San Francisco coast. A family member reported her missing, police said.
On Friday, Jay and Kimberly West asked for help finding Sydney, known to family and friends as Syd.
“We love Sydney,” Jay West said in the video released by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office. “We miss Sydney, and we want more than anything for her to be found safe and brought back to our home.”
San Francisco police had said West was “considered at-risk due to depression,” but also entered her in the missing persons database and transferred her case to the Missing Persons Section of the Special Victim’s Unit.
“Sydney, or Syd as she likes to be called, is a kind and caring young woman who has a way with young children,” her mother said in the video, “especially her 10-year-old sister, who she has adored since the time she was born and who misses her desperately.”
Sydney West is spontaneous and loves adventure but is also dependable and close with her family. That made her recent lack of contact concerning, family and friends said.
The family has stayed in close contact with the San Francisco police and tried to get more attention to Sydney’s disappearance, said Robert West, an uncle who lives in California.
”She’s very loved by a lot of people,” he said.
“She really was a wonderful, sensitive, really just a good kid who was hurting for sure, like a lot of kids these days are, but she’s a very sweet kid,” Robert West said.
He last saw his niece in August, when he helped his brother, Jay West, move her into a dorm at Berkeley. He dropped by a day or so later to bring Sydney some food and spend time with her, he said.
“She was having a hard time,” he said. “That’s a tough adjustment, and she never had been away from home.”
Attended Carrboro High School in North Carolina
Attending school at Berkeley was a return to California for Sydney. She grew up in the Bay Area, attending Foothill High School in Pleasanton, Calif., where she played softball and volleyball.
In 2017, her family moved to Chapel Hill, and she spent her junior and senior years at Carrboro High School. She was co-captain of the varsity volleyball team and was a member of DECA, a student group focused on careers in marketing, finance, hospitality and management.
West also volunteered with the Global Student Embassy for missions in Ecuador, working with students to implement sustainability techniques in their schools, according to her LinkedIn profile.
In 2019, she took a gap year after graduation to travel and spend time with her parents and sister. This summer, she worked as a research and development intern and lab technician with her father’s Durham-based genomics company, BioSkryb.
This story was originally published October 9, 2020 at 3:01 PM.
