A Netflix software engineer has gone missing after boarding an Uber before his wallet and phone were mysteriously found near the Golden Gate Bridge.
Yohanes Kidane, 22, was last seen around 7:15 p.m. Monday night getting into the black Toyota Camry in San Jose.
The recent Cornell graduate, who majored in computer science, has not been seen since and did not show up for work on Tuesday.
His family and friends have descended on the Bay Area to help find him and have plastered the city with missing posters.
Yohanes Kidane, 22, was last seen around 7:15 p.m. Monday night getting into the black Toyota Camry in San Jose
His family and friends have descended on the Bay Area to find him and plaster the city with missing posters
Kidane’s younger sister Sarah said her brother’s phone location showed he was at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge Monday night.
Noticing that his location did not change, she asked her older brother if he had spoken to him, which he had not.
Relatives started calling Kidane’s friends, but no one had any information about his whereabouts.
Tuesday morning, a commuter found his phone and wallet near the Golden Gate Bridge Welcome Center and turned it into police.
Kidane’s brother told KTVU Fox2 San Francisco “someone who was in San Rafael, who was commuting, saw a phone and wallet on this little grassy knoll between the Welcome Center and the coffee shop.”
He added, “Thirty dollars in cash was in his wallet, ID cards, phone untouched.”
That same day, Kidane didn’t show up to his new job at Netflix and the police couldn’t find him at home.
On Wednesday, the family said police found his backpack containing two laptops and some personal documents that were “apparently untouched,” his brother said.
Kidane studied computer science and graduated from Cornell University’s College of Engineering in May
The San Jose Police Department is asking anyone with information to contact 408-277-8900 and may refer to case number 23-277-0531
Kidane’s family described him as “highly intelligent, high-achieving individual with high expectations of himself.” “They said he was also at the top of his class at Cornell.
He started his new job on August 7, a week before he disappeared.
Kidane is 5ft 8in and weighs 150lbs. He was dressed in a black hoodie, gray sweatpants and black shoes.
Some of Kidane’s relatives arrived in San Francisco on Tuesday evening and began searching on Wednesday.
Posters were distributed and the family also sought help from the media and authorities.
Lucas Achkarian, who described Kidane as one of his best friends, said he reportedly told some co-workers that he was planning to see a friend, but no one knew who that was.
Achkarian told The Cornell Daily Sun that there was still a lot of cloud cover around what happened.
Yosief and his father flew to California on Tuesday to search for Kidane who had been missing since Aug. 7. He was last seen getting into a black Toyota sedan with an Uber sticker
He said he and another friend spoke to Kidane via FaceTime on Saturday.
They described him as “normal as ever” and said he’s “always been a really positive guy.”
He added: “We don’t think there was self-harm or anything like that.
A poster circulating about missing 22-year-old Yohanes S. Kidane
Kidane’s missing flyers were posted near the Golden Gate Bridge and surrounding areas
“Because his family situation, I think, was fine, his friends were fine, his workplace was fine.
“He was super motivated, to be honest. He went to the gym and was just pretty excited about life.”
Achkarian described Kidane as a positive and reliable person who is always ready to lend a helping hand to both friends and strangers.
“Anytime I had a problem, I could turn to him,” Achkarian said. “He is what everyone should honestly try to be.”
From Saturday evening a GoFundMe to aid the search has raised more than $41,000 towards their $60,000 goal.