A New York man who had just gotten a job at Netflix in California fresh out of college vanished after being seen getting into an Uber earlier this week.
Yohanes Kidane, 22, was seen on security camera exiting his downtown San Jose apartment building at 7:15 p.m. His relatives informed KTVU on Monday that he climbed inside a vehicle with an Uber emblem.
“Two young colleagues of his saw him and were able to talk to him,” said Kidane’s brother, Yosief. “He said he was heading to San Francisco to maybe meet a friend. The last footage I’ve seen of him was leaving his apartment building and getting into a black Toyota Camry.”
Kidane had just come to the Bay Area in July and was in his second week as a software engineer at the streaming giant.
According to a missing persons poster submitted by Yosief Kidane, his cellphone, wallet, and backpack were discovered near the Golden Gate Bridge Welcome Center in San Francisco.
Kidane’s phone’s location showed he was at the Golden Gate Bridge the majority of Monday night.
“Someone who was in San Rafael, who was on a commute, saw a phone and wallet sitting on this small grassy hill right between the Welcome Center and coffee shop,” Kidane’s brother told the station. “Thirty bucks in cash was in his wallet, ID cards, phone untouched.”
The backpack was found the next day closer to the bridge and it contained two of his laptops and personal documents.
Kidane, who graduated from Cornell University in May, is described as 5 feet 8, 150 pounds, and was last seen wearing gray sweatpants, a black hoodie and black shoes.
His distraught mother pleaded for her son’s return.
“We want to take him home. I need my son. I need my son,” Mehret Hana Beyene told KTVU. “He’s a good man who has a bright future, very loving to his family.”
A group of Kidane’s friends and family formed a task force to look for him, contacted San Jose police, and set up a GoFundMe page.
“In San Francisco, Yohanes has gone missing.” “This fundraiser will cover his family’s travel expenses as they search for him,” according to the crowdfunding page.
Kidane’s former college friend claims the Rochester native informed him about a questionable Uber ride just days before he vanished.
“The Uber driver insisted, if it was an actual Uber driver, that instead of taking him to the location that he needed to be, he’s like, ‘Oh, I’m going to take you to Oakland. It’s much safer there,’” Austin Farmer told Fox News.
“And he just wouldn’t let Yohanes go where he needed to go. So they took him to downtown Oakland. I guess he eventually got back to his apartment or wherever he lives, but that was pretty suspicious.”
During the trip, Kidane allegedly texted Farmer, indicating he “might be in trouble,” and the driver urged him to cancel the extra cash.
“I got a sense he’s taking me there for no good reason,” Kidane said.
When he got back to San Jose, Kidane said he was “Never going in Uber solo again in SF.”
