Missing Person - Tracy Williams, Technorati Employee

http://technorati.com/women/article/missing-person-tracy-williams-technorati-employee/

by sbisker • 15 years ago

525 56 15 years ago

I saw this on Twitter and thought perhaps the HN community could help. My heart goes out to her family and colleagues.

sbisker2• 15 years ago

I saw this on Twitter and thought perhaps HN could help get the word out, particularly around downtown San Francisco where she was last seen. My thoughts and prayers go out to her, her family and her colleagues.

veyron2• 15 years ago

"Tracy was last seen at 7:45pm PDT on Wednesday evening at the Whitehorse Bar located in San Francisco." <-- does the bar have a security camera, and if so has anyone reviewed the footage from that night?

"After leaving the bar, we believe Tracy texted a friend to let him know she was going home." <-- Has anyone asked her friends if she sent them a text message that night?

(these should be obvious, but there was no indication, from what I've read, that these avenues were explored)

citricsquid• 15 years ago

> these should be obvious, but there was no indication

I would assume the latter (txt msg) refers to the possibility that the text message was not sent by her but sent by someone whom has been involved in her disappearance. There was a text message from her phone to a friend, but they don't know if she actually sent it. That's my assumption about what it means anyway.

davyjones• 15 years ago

> but there was no indication

The post mentions: "here is the information we can share". I am guessing they whetted it out with the police and deliberately didn't mention the security cameras and other specifics.

geuis• 15 years ago

Assuming that she has a smartphone, has anyone checked to see her last known gps position?

sbisker2• 15 years ago

Usually the cops are on that sort of thing. I hope. But it might be worth checking Google Latitude, MobileMe, Loopt and the like; if she used any of those indirect passive GPS services.

Klinky• 15 years ago

I believe there were major issues getting & sharing information regarding cell tower pings when James Kim's family went missing a few years back. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Kim

malbs• 15 years ago

I hope she is ok and has just gone walkabout. Even then, a courtesy "I'm ok" call goes a hell of a long way.

adrianwaj2• 15 years ago

Does a product exist combining a panic button with a gps (or mobile location) that links to police, ambulance or fire. 1 click police, 2 clicks ambulance, 3 clicks fire... sort of thing?

veyron2• 15 years ago

http://safekidzone.com/ being tested in california iirc

adrianwaj2• 15 years ago

Actually, I was thinking that the whole network of users could be alerted, so people nearby, not just a call-center or 911. As usual, the issue is who to trust and not to trust from the userbase, but it's a problem worth solving - the equivalent of someone screaming for help.

orjan• 15 years ago

I believe http://wisedameapp.com/ is intended to do something like this.

hassanhassan• 15 years ago

Check out Guardly. I think they are doing something interesting this space: https://www.guardly.com/

_corbett3• 15 years ago

Two apps Circle of 6 and On Watch just won a government challenge put forth by VP Biden. The apps will be available in January, On Watch is similar to this product http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/11/02/announcing-winners... (FD: I'm the developer of Circle of 6)

huhtenberg• 15 years ago

Dial 911 from virtually any cell phone and hang up. No need to say anything.

PS. 112 in Europe.

(edit) I meant to say that American 911 is European 112. I don't know if the police in European countries is supposed to react to dropped 112 calls or not. In Canada and in the US it is. A friend of mine saw it in action. He saw something, dialed, realized it wasn't a big deal, hung up, walked away 100 m, then, boom - not 2 minutes later a fire truck and a police car exactly where he called from. Their precision was really freaky.

iaskwhy• 15 years ago

I'm not sure how it works on all European countries but at least on my home country if you do call 112 and hang up nothing is going to happen. If you call 112 and say something and the call gets cut for some reason nothing is going to happen either...

nknight• 15 years ago

If you can dial 911, don't just hang up, the response to that will vary from one place to another, even from one dispatcher to another. You need to find some way to make clear you're in trouble.

ConstantineXVI• 15 years ago

FYI, 112 will actually work on /any/ GSM phone, no matter where you are (provided there's GSM reception in your area, naturally). It's part of the GSM standard; 112 is supposed to redirect to whatever your local emergency line is.

bbk• 15 years ago

> PS. 112 in Europe.

This explains. My old phone with a physical keyboard would allow me to dial 112 even when it was locked.

JVirissimo• 15 years ago

911 Operator here, most cities won't follow up a 911 hangup call from a cellphone unless there is reason to think there is an emergency. In large cities, you get hundreds of accidental 911 calls a day and finding all of the phones (even if they are WPH2) would take more than the entire police department only looking for 911 hangup calls. In many cities, a 911 call from a land line will automatically dispatch PD to the address.

Following the advice above is very dangerous.

fgimenez• 15 years ago

Life360 (www.life360.com) has such a feature. It is essentially a safety app so families or groups of friends can keep tabs on each other.

Full disclosure: I interned with them a few years ago when they were a startup out of Berkeley. Looks like they've grown a lot since then.

click170• 15 years ago

If someone could get her to leave with them without her making a fuss, I'd suspect someone she already knows. Assuming she did leave with someone.

cpeterso2• 15 years ago

Yes, most crimes like this are committed by people the victim knows. :(

_mrc2• 15 years ago

Crimes like what?

PaulHoule• 15 years ago

Wow, technorati is still around? That's news.

leahculver2• 15 years ago

Has anyone checked the local hospitals already?

Tracy could have left the bar like her co-workers assumed, only to have some sort of medical emergency (heart attack? Seizure? Hit by a car?).

icebraining2• 15 years ago

We have notified the San Francisco Police department and hospital checks are being conducted.

leahculver2• 15 years ago

Thanks! I either missed that or it was an update to the post.

When walking around alone in SF, I'm actually irrationally afraid of getting hit by a car and nobody knowing what happened to me. So yeah, if this is what happened that would be terrible and one of my worst nightmares come true.

codedivine• 15 years ago

Technorati people, in case you are reading this, it might help to post more than one photo of her. Sometimes, it is hard to remember or recognize faces, when you have only seen one photo.

I hope everything turns out all right.

Mz• 15 years ago

And post different angles if possible (front, profile, etc). It matters.

krookoo• 15 years ago

This doesn't sound good. :-(

cpeterso2• 15 years ago

The FBI should use Facebook and RSS to crowdsource manhunts. California has "Amber Alerts" for abducted children that are announced on TV, radio, and highway signs. But the FBI might be able to get more eyeballs Facebook and RSS feeds announcing with photos of missing people or wanted criminals. They could have national, state, and local feeds so people can choose fewer but closer announcements.

swalkergibson• 15 years ago

I literally thought about building a Facebook app like this not more than an hour ago. This is definitely something that should be built, I wonder how difficult it would be to get the data out of the police departments...

superrad• 15 years ago

Seeing as facebook can now recognise faces and auto tag those in uploaded photos, I wonder if that could be put to use to have a report/help dialogue pop up (verifying information like location/date) if someone who was reported missing appears in a new photograph.

X-Istence• 15 years ago

There was something similar I was thinking about, Amber Alerts are generally set for a certain area, cell carriers in that area could be notified and send out a free MMS that contains name, license plate info, car make and model and stuff like that to a specific area thereby alerting everyone in a specific area as to what is happening.

This should allow people to be more vigilant and people are more likely to be paying attention to incoming messages on their phones than on FB whereby I have to be logged in first.

swah• 15 years ago

Why the quotes on "smoke"?

rsiqueira• 15 years ago

Tracy Williams WAS FOUND:

"November 7, 2011 at 9:15am PDT - We are relieved to share that Tracy Williams is indeed alive and safe at a local hospital. We want to thank everyone who helped spread the word about Tracy's disappearance."

Source: http://technorati.com/women/article/missing-person-tracy-wil...

codezero2• 15 years ago

How can it take 3 days to find someone at a hospital? I mean, obviously it can, but still, this seems to be an inordinate amount of time to find someone.

athom• 15 years ago

You can't just go calling hospitals asking if a certain person has been admitted. That's actually confidential information, and they won't just give that out.

drallison• 15 years ago

Tracy Williams Found

http://technorati.com/women/article/missing-person-tracy-wil...

Missing Person - Tracy Williams, Technorati Employee

Related Stories