Yohanes’ family told KTVU that he was seen on security camera leaving his apartment building in downtown San Jose. He then boarded a vehicle with an Uber sticker.
“Two young colleagues of his saw him and were able to talk to him,” Yohanes’ brother, Yosief, said. “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.”
Yohanes had moved to the Bay Area in July. It was his second week at Netflix. For the majority of the day that he went missing, he was at the Golden Gate Bridge, his phone’s location revealed.
Yohanes’ cell phone, wallet and backpack were later discovered near the Golden Gate Bridge Welcome Center in San Francisco, a missing poster shared on Instagram by Yosief said. “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,” Yosief said. Thirty bucks in cash was in his wallet, IDs cards, phone untouched.”
“We want to take him home. I need my son. I need my son,” Mehret Hana Beyene, Yohanes’ heartbroken mother, said. “He’s a good man who has a bright future, very loving to his family.”
Yohanes Kidane’s scary Uber ride
Austin Farmer, Yohanes’ former college roommate, said that Yohanes had told him about a suspicious Uber ride that took place before his disappearance. “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 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, Yohanes had texted Austin saying he “might be in trouble.” The driver had allegedly asked him to cancel the extra pay. “I got a sense he’s taking me there for no good reason,” Yohanes said. He later said he was “never going in Uber solo again in SF.”
HINDUSTAN TIMES