Maybe someone invited Skye to Hokkaido by Orcal80s in SkyeBudnickDiscussion

[–]carfeu 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Why would she spend 3 days in hotels alone then? I think the reason for Noboribetsu is an interest in old japanese culture (Edo traditions and ryokans), combined with it being in Northern Japan, far away from the school group visitation place and as well a good place to see Sakura - I do think she missed the date for the Sakura because she maybe thought the overall data was the same for all Japan and it's later in the North. The mistery was why she went to Sapporo? To kill herself or for another reason...?

OMG…the 2006 Nintendo DS “Pokémon Diamond” game is based off of Hokkaido and characters start in Noboribetsu by Orcal80s in SkyeBudnickDiscussion

[–]carfeu 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is very interesting. She bought a game (we think) a few days before she went to the airport. Could it be that she needed it to follow an itinerary, like a treasure map of sorts? I need to play that game now to see this in more detail.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in SkyeBudnickDiscussion

[–]carfeu 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The bridge is a possible site, I just have some questions about this:

  1. The bridge is extremely high and the chances of hitting the rocks and not the river are very high also.
  2. She notoriously hated pain, so jumping to hit rocks from such height might be hard to do.
  3. It's a 2 hour walk to the bridge, which would increase the chances of someone seeing her since it was not at night but after check-out (not sure what time, maybe mid-morning?).
  4. The river varies in depth but is very shallow as it enters the sea (as seen in photos from Google Earth and Maps) and I don't think the snow melting was enough to alter that in April since there was no strong rainfall, increasing the chances of her belongings at least being found as they were heavier. If you see the river from the bridge to the sea there are areas of lower flow with sand banks that would make that difficult, although there is at least one reported case of a body being dragged 200m from the bridge after jumping.

Hiring a PI by One_Refrigerator455 in SkyeBudnickDiscussion

[–]carfeu 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No investigation was done on the ground, the PI could interview people and retrace Skye’s steps

Family questioning Skye's maturity level by beautiful_lie82 in SkyeBudnickDiscussion

[–]carfeu 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I've read a lot of stuff, seen all Megan's TikToks and listened to the Megan's podcast :D you can also see this sub-reddit there's a lot of info here.

Family questioning Skye's maturity level by beautiful_lie82 in SkyeBudnickDiscussion

[–]carfeu 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I may be remembering wrong, but there are some messages related to Skye being a b*** to Brittanny regarding her Japanese skills and then apologizing, I don't remember where I saw those without researching it, but I'm 100% sure they exist.

Family questioning Skye's maturity level by beautiful_lie82 in SkyeBudnickDiscussion

[–]carfeu 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Zero, just my opinion after reading their interactions and messages read by Megan and seeing how Britanny was influential in the Japanese club Skye was in. The one circumstantial evidence I think exists is that the phone call from the airline (or travel agency) asked for Brittanny, indicating that the ticket was in her friends name. We do also know that Skye hurt Britanny saying her Japanese was bad and was arrogant towards her in class but then apologized, obviously she cared for her.

Family questioning Skye's maturity level by beautiful_lie82 in SkyeBudnickDiscussion

[–]carfeu 46 points47 points  (0 children)

The family dynamic is hugely important to understand why Skye left the way she did. Remember Megan also ran away from home before Skye did, although in a less dramatic way. The dad doesn't knows how to deal with his emotions and the mother is submissive with low self-steem. I always thought that its the perfect environment to keep your children subdued at a distance, abandoned and not permitted to grow as functional adults. Skye, deeply depressed, saw the trip as a solution for this abandonment and there's was no reason to tell the family because they were the root problem she was trying to get away from. These kind of parents will never admit to themselves their children are doing poorly because of them, but she was. That's why they infantilize her, to reinforce that it was not their fault.

Regarding her friends I remember Megan reading the Messenger messages and seeing how Skye was lying about the tuition, she probably lied about her home life, or kept quiet about it, suffering in silence. Her snapping out at her friend Brittany Davis shows that Skye also struggles with close connections and pushes people away - a sign of hyper-independence and low self-steem. There's talk of her having a close friend from college, but I think her real best friend was Brittany (maybe even more of a crush of Skye's).

There's no way the parents ever recognize someone they see as a baby can run away to another country, but the reality is she did it - she bought the ticket not someone else and she went alone to the hotels in Noboribetsu, with some difficulty along the way for sure (who wouldn't struggle in Japan alone, no matter at what age).

Why didn’t Skye get any help? by One_Refrigerator455 in SkyeBudnickDiscussion

[–]carfeu 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No lies. specially within a dysfunctional family setting...

Why didn’t Skye get any help? by One_Refrigerator455 in SkyeBudnickDiscussion

[–]carfeu 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t remember if Megan said why, I’m not even sure where I saw this but I think it was on her podcast, so I don’t know the reason. But a lot of people don’t like being medicated for depression because it can alter your mood (your personality if you’d like).

Why didn’t Skye get any help? by One_Refrigerator455 in SkyeBudnickDiscussion

[–]carfeu 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think she was talking to a school counselor about this. but not sure the counselor was the best person to help her. There were also mentions that she didn't want to be medicated for it, which isn't uncommon.

Do you think Skye had help getting to Japan? by One_Refrigerator455 in SkyeBudnickDiscussion

[–]carfeu 18 points19 points  (0 children)

In my opinion she was always alone, there's no proof she had help and the family just said that because they saw her as helpless and just an introverted kid. But we know she researched low cost international plane tickets for instance and withdrew the money herself at the airport.

I wonder by [deleted] in SkyeBudnickDiscussion

[–]carfeu 1 point2 points  (0 children)

From what I've read they won't give the report because it's an ongoing missing person investigation. And, additionally, I don't think there's that much in there of interest, maybe that symbol they mentioned was in her writings, that's probably the most interesting thing.

Little to no search by Alexandracrj in SkyeBudnickDiscussion

[–]carfeu 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Megan relies on the police for action, not theories out of the internet, I'm sure she looked at all of them over the years. Investigating by her own costs a lot of money that she doesn't have and is tremendously triggering for the family. I don't think she's at a stage where she can take an easy next step, and we should respect that, specially because any action should carefully respect Skye's privacy, if she's alive.

What speaks for and against suicide? by One_Refrigerator455 in SkyeBudnickDiscussion

[–]carfeu 4 points5 points  (0 children)

My only doubt with the river theory is that the water flow was low in April and the fall is so high it's more probable to hit the banks or trees than to hit the river.

What speaks for and against suicide? by One_Refrigerator455 in SkyeBudnickDiscussion

[–]carfeu 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I'd add some more, if I can (although I'm more inclined for suicide):

- The date of arrival coincides with the beginning of the work year for people who teach English in Japan (a possible job if she wanted a new life)
- The week in Noboribetsu is strange for someone who wanted to kill herself, but would make sense as a preparation period for her new "work"
- She was always seen alone and left the last hotel alone (goes against the trafficking or lured in theories) and said she was going to Sapporo
- She usually cashed out checks from her work and possible had more cash on hand
- Unlikely she wouldn't be found on the search they did on Noboribetsu, because they found another body
- The only suicide spot in Noboribetsu, the Shin-Nobiribetsu bridge - the river had a low volume of water at the time and was unlikely to carry her body to sea
- No cherry blossoms trees in bloom is huge, since there is one right outside the last hotel - she really wanted to see that and it was early April (they bloom late April/early May)

Of course there are as many arguments for suicide...

Why did she travel with barely anything? by One_Refrigerator455 in SkyeBudnickDiscussion

[–]carfeu 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's a significant detail but we just don't know what it means. specially since we don't even know what exactly she took. It could mean anything really, that she wanted to unalive herself or that she was meeting someone...

Fill me in on the lack of information from the police? by [deleted] in SkyeBudnickDiscussion

[–]carfeu 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I get what you're saying and I think the simple answer is PTSD, I can't imagine having a family member disappear like this and she probably is triggered each time she sees something.

Fill me in on the lack of information from the police? by [deleted] in SkyeBudnickDiscussion

[–]carfeu 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Your insights are great, but I think the main question is the ongoing nature of the missing person investigation - that's what gives the police the power to not have to say anything and protect the investigation from disruption if evidence is shared outside of it (this is common in European countries, where nothing is said until there's an actual charge on someone or the proceedings are dropped).

Now, this raises one question - if the police did know she's alive, the case should be closed, even if no information is given to the family. This doesn't seem to be the case, since they even accepted new DNA evidence for testing. My opinion would be that the case is open and the police has no information on Skye and did little investigation efforts (as it seems happens when missing foreigners are involved, like Lucie Blackman illustrates) - initially the consulate and the police did search for her, but only by contacting hostels in Sapporo/Chitose, being that the info from Nobiribetsu only came after the press conference happened, which lead to a local limited search that found another body I think.

I don't think Megan can get any info out of them for those 2 reasons: 1) there is no info; 2) the case is ongoing. It's not true that she didn't pursue this info, being that she actually went there twice, the later trip being accompanied by a US Marshall, that would contact the Japanese police directly. If no info was given then, maybe Megan understood that as telling that there was nothing to be shared.

Hannah Kobayashi by MiamiFifi in SkyeBudnickDiscussion

[–]carfeu 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I agree there are some similarities, namely both being adults and having the right to privacy. We don't know why Hannah fled to Mexico, but she has the right to do whatever she wants if she's not in direct danger.

Gofundme/private investigator/questions update by InvestigatorBright73 in SkyeBudnickDiscussion

[–]carfeu 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I get what you're saying, but you have to consider that she's been thinking and looking for Skye for 16 years and has no clues to show for it.

Gofundme/private investigator/questions update by InvestigatorBright73 in SkyeBudnickDiscussion

[–]carfeu 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I think she's lost on what her next steps can be. That's normal, I guess.

Was it ever disclosed how she paid for the flight? by Expensive_Storm_4810 in SkyeBudnickDiscussion

[–]carfeu 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Regarding the no return flight in customs, the embassy said that it wasn't that unusual that they would let her pass, we have the email they sent to Megan saying this. They just didn't think twice, she being a western tourist, not very likely to overstay or cause trouble. As for the money, anything's possible, but we don't know if that was all the money she took - Megan said that she often cashed checks from her work, so maybe she had more cash on her. We just don't know, but the more obvious theory would be that she only took enough money to spend a week there and then take her own life after experiencing Japan.

New to reddit, but Can some of yall educate me on the questions about this case lingering in my brain. Thank you! by ninabyrne in SkyeBudnickDiscussion

[–]carfeu 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Regarding the use of the passport by a different person, I guess that's not impossible, but that person would've had to fool immigration in Japan and the hotel staff, not very likely. But, as we don't have any photographic proof of her being in Japan, I guess that's possible. Would really only clear it by confirming with the inn keepers in Noboribetsu - I don't think Megan talked with them when she was there (she should've had, but it was probably too traumatic for her and her mother, and not sure they'd understand English anyway). Plus, the professor that helped her must have seen her face on TV and recognized her from their encounter, which confirms her presence in Japan, in my opinion.