

Missing Person - Tracy Williams, Technorati Employee - sbisker
http://technorati.com/women/article/missing-person-tracy-williams-technorati-employee/
I saw this on Twitter and thought perhaps the HN community could help. My heart goes out to her family and colleagues.
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codedivine
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
And post different angles if possible (front, profile, etc). It matters.

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sbisker
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.

------
veyron
"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
> 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.

------
rsiqueira
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...](http://technorati.com/women/article/missing-person-tracy-williams-
technorati-employee/)

~~~
codezero
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
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.

~~~
codezero
But after filing a missing persons report with the police, it seems that the
police would be able to quickly find out if they were in an area hospital and
contact the next of kin/emergency contact, this should take less than 3 days.

------
adrianwaj
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?

~~~
huhtenberg
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
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...

~~~
raphman
German anecdote: A few years ago my 2yr old son seems to have dialed 112 by
accident. We learned about this a minute later when the fire department called
back to check if we needed help.

~~~
sixtofour
When my kid was three or four, I called the sheriff's business number, asked
to talk to the 911 office, and asked them if I could have my son dial 911 and
talk to them, for training (his). They checked if they were busy, then said
OK.

It puffed up his chest a bit, but we talked about emergencies, how to get
help, why we don't call 911 unless it's an emergency, etc.

I suppose if everyone did it they wouldn't be agreeable, but no one does, so
you should too. :)

------
leahculver
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?).

~~~
icebraining
_We have notified the San Francisco Police department and hospital checks are
being conducted._

~~~
leahculver
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.

~~~
icebraining
Well, there are fall detectors out there, both as hardware devices as well as
smartphone apps, which can send an SMS automatically in such cases. Of course,
they have to be installed a priori.

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click170
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.

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

~~~
_mrc
Crimes like what?

~~~
dotBen
This is beyond scope..

..or to put it more bluntly: this is not appropriate for HN.

~~~
_mrc
Fair call. I intended to say the same thing with my comment, but I should have
been clearer (rather than appearing to encourage a flame war). Sorry 'bout
that.

------
cpeterso
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
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...

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

~~~
sbisker
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
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>

------
drallison
_Tracy Williams Found_

[http://technorati.com/women/article/missing-person-tracy-
wil...](http://technorati.com/women/article/missing-person-tracy-williams-
technorati-employee/)

------
krookoo
This doesn't sound good. :-(

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swah
Why the quotes on "smoke"?

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malbs
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.

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

