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On March
29, 2006 shortly after 11:36 a.m. Shawn was last seen in a
cave accessed through a man-made tunnel at Sutro Baths in
San Francisco, California. The only witness to the incident
was his high school friend Robert Milano
(Rob) who also took a
picture of Shawn while he was standing in the cave holding
onto a piece of bark lodged in the cave wall. The
family did
not find out that he had been seen swept into the ocean
until 32.5 hours later.
Shawn's 23rd
birthday was April 1, 2006, three days after he disappeared. He
was on spring break from UC Santa Barbara on his way home to the
Sacramento area to celebrate his birthday with his family and to
see other childhood friends. He decided to visit
old friends and ex-housemates in San Francisco, as he described it
"one last time since I will be so busy in grad school I
won't have time to make the difficult drive up again."
His family was expecting him home on March 30, 2006. He
told mom he would be home on either the 29th or the 30th but
most likely the 30th.
He spent two
days with his childhood friend Rob in San Francisco. Rob took him to a site he visited often, the Sutro
Baths, location of an old bath house which was in ruins and
disrepair. The National Park Service (at the Golden Gate
National Recreation Area) has been responsible for administering
this area since 1973. Wednesday, March 29, 2006, started
out as an overcast day with good visibility and sporadic
drizzles. By 2:00 p.m. it was a beautiful sunny day as
shown by a
picture taken on that day at 4:16 p.m.
Most visitors
walk through a tunnel that leads to a ledge and large rocks.
Shawn and Rob stood there for nearly two hours before heading
back at about the time when it was high tide at 11:28 a.m. Shawn's
new camera was used to take a series of pictures and videos while
they were in and outside the tunnel at Sutro Baths. The
last
picture shows Shawn standing in a cave accessible from the
tunnel, approximately eight feet below the tunnel, surrounded by
water.
Shawn's reported drowning occurred
in the middle of the
day in the city within view and walking distance of two
restaurants with clear evidence that there were many other
people in the area.
There were potential witnesses in the area before and
after Shawn ended up in the cave.
Rob
stated that he was unable to speak and in shock and that he
attempted to use someone's phone to dial 911 but he got a busy
ringing sound twice. He also stated that two men he went
up to refused to help him.
The family will offer a
reward for new factual information leading to a better
understanding of the events of that day.
Rob stated he was unable to seek
help or report the incident to authorities despite the fact that
there were many people around (at the baths, parking lots, Louis
restaurant, and Cliff House) at the time. More than 45 minutes
elapsed before Rob climbed the stairs to the parking lot, drove
home, called 411 to get his roommate's work number, eventually
told him what had happened, and then sat in a warm tub not
speaking to anyone about what happened to Shawn. After
being pressured by a friend to explain where Shawn was, he
eventually stated that Shawn was dead--that he had drowned
at Sutro Baths. Although he spoke with friends throughout
the day on the date of
the incident, it seems he was unresponsive towards the San
Francisco Police Department when they came to his house.
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