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A 22-year-old Cornell University graduate who just moved to California for a dream job at Netflix has vanished under strange circumstances, according to his friends and family.
Yohanes Kidane, a computer scientist from Rochester, New York, who began work as a software engineer with the streaming giant just two weeks ago, was last seen getting into an Uber at 28 North Fourth Street in San Jose around 7:15 p.m. PT Monday.
Days earlier, he had told friends that another rideshare experience had been so concerning that he didn't plan on riding alone ever again. Now his family is looking for answers.
Yohanes Kidane graduated from Cornell University's computer science program in May and landed a job as a software engineer at Netflix. He went missing just two weeks after moving to California's Bay Area. (Yosief Kidane)
"What we do know is that he was on camera leaving the apartment building getting into an Uber Monday evening," said Yosief Kidane, Yohanes' older brother. "We know that his belongings, his phone and his wallet, were found at the Golden Gate Bridge Tuesday morning by a citizen, who collected them and tried to help us return them to him. We know that an officer found his backpack at the Golden Gate Bridge later Tuesday afternoon, and we know that he was never at home at work on Tuesday or Wednesday."
No money was missing from his wallet, and his laptop was still inside the backpack.
Kidane's family and friends from Cornell have formed a "task force" and traveled to the Bay Area to take part in the search. They also have a private investigator and are hoping that someone who saw something on Monday evening will come forward with information that leads to the missing man's whereabouts.
Yohanes Kidane, second from right and his older brother Yosief, far right, are a year apart but often mistaken for twins. Yosief has traveled from the family's home in Rochester, New York, to take part in the search effort for his missing brother in California's Bay Area. (Yosief Kidane)
They have been scouring shelters, hospitals and other places for signs of Kidane, but so far they have found nothing and are asking for the public's help.
"We just really hope that if some people saw something, or saw someone, or something unusual or someone that looked like him to come forward with anything they have to the San Jose Police Department," he said.
The brothers are a year apart, Kidane said, and so close that many people mistake the for twins.
Yohanes Kidane, left, and Austin Farmer, second from right, are close friends and former roommates at Cornell University, an Ivy League school in Ithaca, New York. Kidane went missing just two weeks after moving to California's Bay Area to work as a software engineer for Netflix. (Kelly Farmer)
"People couldn't tell us apart – they mixed up our names," he said. "We went to university together, where we studied together. . . . We got through our problems together, and even when there's been periods where we weren't in the same area, or we hadn't seen each other for a while, he's always been the part of me and integral to who I am as a person."
Austin Farmer, Kidane's former roommate at Cornell, said that days before the disappearance, the missing software engineer had told friends about another suspicious rideshare encounter.
These images of missing Netflix software engineer Yohanes Kidane appear on a missing-person flyer seeking information about his whereabouts. (Yosief Kidane)
"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,'" Farmer said. "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 experience, Kidane texted another friend that he "might be in trouble."
"He asked me to cancel to pay extra," Kidane wrote. "I got a sense he's taking me there for no good reason."
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After the ordeal, he followed up: "Never going in Uber solo again in SF."
San Jose police, who are leading a multi-agency investigation into Kidane's disappearance, told Fox News Digital that the investigation is ongoing but that they had no additional information they could provide to the public as of Friday morning.
Anyone with information is asked to call police at 408-277-8900.
A friend has established a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for the search effort.
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