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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.
- sbisker 15y agoI 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 15y 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 15y 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 15y 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 15y agoAssuming that she has a smartphone, has anyone checked to see her last known gps position?
- sbisker 15y agoUsually 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 15y agoI 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 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Kim
- malbs 15y agoI hope she is ok and has just gone walkabout. Even then, a courtesy "I'm ok" call goes a hell of a long way.
- adrianwaj 15y agoDoes 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?
- veyron 15y agohttp://safekidzone.com/ http://safekidzone.com/ being tested in california iirc
- adrianwaj 15y agoActually, 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.
- egwor 15y agoin the UK they recommend that if you need help, you actually shout fire. Sadly in big cities people will 'put their heads down' and walk past muggings. The idea is that if you shout fire, then all those individuals are also at risk, and therefore come to help.
- orjan 15y agoI believe http://wisedameapp.com/ http://wisedameapp.com/ is intended to do something like this.
- hassanhassan 15y agoCheck out Guardly. I think they are doing something interesting this space: https://www.guardly.com/ https://www.guardly.com/
- _corbett 15y agoTwo 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-apps-against-abuse-technology-challenge http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/11/02/announcing-winners... (FD: I'm the developer of Circle of 6)
- click170 15y agoIf 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 15y agoYes, most crimes like this are committed by people the victim knows. :(
- PaulHoule 15y agoWow, technorati is still around? That's news.
- leahculver 15y agoHas 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 15y agoWe have notified the San Francisco Police department and hospital checks are being conducted.
- leahculver 15y agoThanks! 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 15y agoWell, 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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- codedivine 15y agoTechnorati 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 15y agoAnd post different angles if possible (front, profile, etc). It matters.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- krookoo 15y agoThis doesn't sound good. :-(
- cpeterso 15y agoThe 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 15y agoI 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 15y agoSeeing 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 15y agoThere 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 15y agoWhy the quotes on "smoke"?
- rsiqueira 15y agoTracy 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-williams-technorati-employee/ http://technorati.com/women/article/missing-person-tracy-wil...
- codezero 15y agoHow 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 15y agoYou 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 15y agoBut 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.
- drallison 15y agoTracy Williams Found http://technorati.com/women/article/missing-person-tracy-williams-technorati-employee/ http://technorati.com/women/article/missing-person-tracy-wil...