The family of Katherine Kerwood, a 21-year-old woman from the UK who landed at SFO for a solo tour of Northern California last Tuesday, are searching for her whereabouts after her phone went silent Friday and they learned she never checked into her hostel when she landed.

Twenty-one-year-old British tourist Katherine Esther Gamboa Kerwood landed in San Francisco for a week-long solo sightseeing tour of Northern California last Tuesday with plans to travel to Sacramento upon landing.

As KTVU reports, her family said she called them when she arrived at SFO and said she’d be checking into a hostel in Sacramento that day. During her week-long visit, Kerwood had plans to visit Sacramento, Calaveras Big Trees State Park, San Francisco, and Santa Cruz.

The next time Kerwood’s family heard from her was Friday when they received a text saying she was still staying at the hostel. Family friend Ali Zaidi told KTVU that immediately following the text, Kerwood’s family asked to speak to her on the phone — as she’s normally very communicative, and there was no further response. They later discovered she never checked into the hostel.

"She's generally very responsive and the fact that she didn't message for hours is the first signal," Zaidi said. "Second, when she messaged they said, 'Hey, let's get on the phone,' and immediately she didn't respond."

Security footage from SFO showed Kerwood meeting a man there who brought her flowers. Her family later discovered the man’s name is “David,” whom they learned Kerwood had previously met in the UK. Kerwood is reportedly scheduled to return to London Wednesday.

According to KTVU, the case is being investigated by both the San Francisco Police Department and authorities in the United Kingdom. Authorities across California have also been alerted via a statewide law enforcement database.

Image: Inside of San Francisco International airport, International Terminal, San Francisco, California, June 7, 2023. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)

Local drag icon Peaches Christ is organizing a protest in London on March 31 as part of an ongoing effort to push the investigation forward into the 2023 death of longtime friend and creative partner, Heklina.

Frustrated with the mishandling of the case surrounding the death of late local drag legend, Heklina, Heklina’s longtime friend and tour partner Peaches Christ and the greater drag community are holding a protest in London on March 31 to pressure police to prioritize the investigation.

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In SFist’s most recent updates on the case, it was revealed that police still have yet to access Heklina’s cellphone, which they initially shipped to her friend Nancy French, and then French had to return it to them after they sent her a box. It also took two years of persistence from Peaches and French for police to release CCTV footage near the scene of Heklina’s death, which showed three men who are now people of interest.

Additionally, London police admitted to “investigative bias,” which was confirmed in a 2023 report that said the department was “riven with institutional racism, misogyny and homophobia and doesn't do enough to weed out bad officers.”

As Peaches told the Chronicle recently, "I think the bias started happening from the moment she was found. This was considered a dismissed case from the moment we started going down this road.”

The protest will start at London’s Big Ben at 10 a.m. on the 31st, followed by a march to the London Met Police headquarters for speeches and peaceful protest until Noon. Speakers will include Peaches Christ, Scissor Sisters’ Ana Matronic, Cheddar Gorgeous, Crystal, plus more.

In a recent Gscene Magazine post, Peaches spoke of Heklina’s covert kindness:

Heklina was maybe one of the funniest people I’ve ever met. She was dark and hilarious and what she didn’t want the world to know was that she was secretly kind.

Quietly behind the scenes, she was constantly helping people out. But the deal was you couldn’t tell people.

Previously: London Police Admit 'Investigative Bias' In Heklina Death Probe as They Try to Unlock Cellphone

The London Metro Police have much to answer for in the now almost two-year-old investigation into the death of San Francisco drag legend Heklina — and more details are coming to light about just how slowly they've been slow-walking this thing.

We learned two weeks ago that London police are still seeking three persons of interest in the death of Heklina — three men who were seen on CCTV footage leaving the Soho neighborhood flat she was staying in early in the morning on the days she was found dead.

Peaches Christ, aka Joshua Grannell, was in London and sharing the flat with Heklina, and was the person to find her. She now tells the Chronicle's Tony Bravo that she knew about the CCTV footage because it had been used early on to clear her as a suspect — she previously said that she had left the flat two days earlier to stay in a hotel so that Heklina could arrange a sexual encounter.

Peaches said she found Heklina in the living room in a "compromising position," and now we also learn that drugs were present on the scene as well.

But the Chronicle also now reports the further detail that not only did the London Metro Police take two years to release the CCTV footage seeking the public's help in identifying the men, they also majorly flubbed another aspect of the case. Without attempting to gain access to Heklina's cellphone, they packed it with her other belongings and shipped it off to back to the states to her "next of kin," who is her friend Nancy French.

French says she informed the London investigators that she had the iPhone in a Zoom call a year ago, in February 2024. It would then take them four more months to send her a box in which to return it to them, and they have yet to be able to access the device without Heklina's pincode. French tells the Chronicle it's especially frustrating because if Heklina was only communicating with people via an app, after two years, those people could be impossible to locate.

French also says that London Detective Chief Inspector Dean Purvis has admitted that the department has failed in this investigation so far. "He basically fell on his sword and admitted they have not handled this correctly. He admitted what he called 'investigative bias,'" French tells Chronicle.

Grannell spoke to the BBC this week, appearing on a news broadcast Tuesday night in which the news agency reported on the accusations of homophobia against the London Metro Police, and a 2023 report that found institutional bias in the department.

"They convinced me that we would be updated weekly, that we would be included in the process," Grannell says. "I got on that plane, and every email went unanswered for months and months. They just completely ignored us."

Grannell adds, "I hate being the person who incorrectly would cry 'homophobia' if it's not homophobia. They have left me no choice."

The police department has previously faced serious criticism over the botched investigation into serial killer Stephen Port, who killed four young gay men in London in 2014 and 2015 before being caught.

Previously: London Police Say They're Seeking Three Men For Questioning In Connection With 2023 Death of Drag Queen Heklina

London Metro Police have put out a notice, nearly two years after the fact, about three men seen on CCTV footage in the vicinity of the apartment where SF drag legend Heklina was found dead. Friends of Heklina say the London cops have been inept and unresponsive.

It has never been suggested that foul play was involved in the April 2023 death of Heklina, aka Stefan Grygelko, or that other people might have been in the apartment she was staying in in the hours before her death. And it may be that foul play is still not suspected. But London Metro police have just publicly released footage for the first time of three men seen on CCTV footage in London's Soho in the early morning hours of April 3, hours before Heklina would be found dead by tour partner and longtime friend Peaches Christ.

As the UK Metro reports, police are asking the men to come forward, with Detective Chief Inspector Dean Purvis saying, "We know that the three men in the CCTV images were at the flat in the early hours of 3 April 2023. I am asking them to contact police. We need to establish what happened, and how Steven [sic] was when they left."

According to friend Nancy French, who was listed as Heklina's "next of kin" when she died, "There is no 'new' news here," adding that she has still been given no death certificate or official cause of death by the London police. "This CCTV footage should have been released 21 months ago. Releasing it now just proves their ineptitude and mismanagement that we’ve been dealing with for almost 2 years."

Peaches Christ, aka Joshua Grannell, adds, "To get the London Police to take more action has been something Nancy and I have been pushing for since the tragedy began. Why has it taken this long? There is so much more to this story that will have to be told."

"Two years later, we still have no cause of death, and getting the London Police motivated to solve this potential crime has been slow-moving and potentially anti-LGBT biased," says friend Sister Roma, in a Facebook post.

Grannell had previously revealed that he went to the Soho flat on the morning of April 3, 2023 to "collect" his friend, and found Heklina, age 54, collapsed and already deceased of unknown causes.

This week, Grannell shares with the Chronicle's Tony Bravo that he had left Heklina alone in their shared flat on Saturday and Sunday night, opting to get a hotel room, because Heklina had arranged a sexual encounter.

"I am not airing any dirty laundry. If you knew her at all, this is all stuff she would have been glad to talk about on stage," Grannell says. He says he returned to the flat to find Heklina deceased on the living room floor, in drag and in "a compromising position." Also, the door to the flat had been left ajar, and a noisy fan in the bathroom had been left on.

Regarding how police have seemed to de-prioritize the case, he adds, "I think the bias started happening from the moment she was found. This was considered a dismissed case from the moment we started going down this road."

Grannell adds that his anger toward the police and the mystery men involved is "indescribable," and he wants answers.

Peaches and Heklina had just arrived in London to begin a series of performances of their drag sendup of Mommie Dearest, called Mommie Queerest, at the Soho Theatre.

"If you recognise any of the men, I would encourage you to let us know who they are," DCI Purvis said in his statement.

Previously: Heklina Memorial Features Hours of Laughs, and a Few Tears, for a Beloved Queen and Mother

This post has been updated with quotes from Peaches Christ's interview with the Chronicle.

A series of cock-ups has rideshare Uber arse-deep in trouble on the other side of the pond. In the wake of a Guardian report on sexual assaults committed by Uber drivers, the regulatory transportation authority Transport for London (TfL) has rejected Uber’s license to operate in London according to TechCrunch. (Uber has previously received such a license, but it expires September 30). Using adorably British terminology, TfL declared that Uber “is not fit and proper to hold a private hire operator licence.”

“TfL’s regulation of London’s taxi and private hire trades is designed to ensure passenger safety,” the regulatory body said in a statement. “TfL considers that Uber's approach and conduct demonstrate a lack of corporate responsibility in relation to a number of issues which have potential public safety and security implications.”

Business Insider reports that Uber was not aware of the decision “until one minute before the regulator tweeted its statement out publicly.”

In this particular rejection for a license renewal, Uber was dinged on the rigorousness of their background checks and their approach to reporting criminal offenses among drivers and those applying to be drivers. UK authorities also suspect Uber has been using their shady Greyball scheme in England to evade regulators.

This is not a death blow to Uber’s operation in London. The Private Hire Vehicles (London) Act 1998 gives Uber 21 days to appeal the decision, and they’re still allowed to operate during the appeal. But unsurprisingly, the company is circulating an online petition that creates the impression that Uber is all about the “drivers’ livelihoods.”

London mayor Sadiq Khan tweeted his support of the Uber ban, noting that “any operator of private hire services in London needs to play by the rules.”

According to CNet, “Uber's rivals in London celebrated the news with discounted fares for customers.”

Related: Kalanick Reportedly Cries As He Passes Torch To New Uber CEO

Police are asking for public assistance after a San Francisco-based financial trader disappeared during a trip to England for a job interview.

24-year-old Josh Sanchez-Maldonado flew to London from Japan on October 21, according to NBC News, in a trip London's Metropolitan Police are describing as "the first time he had traveled outside the U.S. on his own."

He was spotted leaving the St Giles Hotel in the West London area of Feltham at 12:35 a.m. on October 22, reports the Daily Mail. He never returned, nor did he catch his scheduled flight (Heathrow to Dublin to SF) later that day.

Though every other outlet reporting on Sanchez-Maldonado's disappearance says that he is a financial trader based in San Francisco, the UK Guardian says that he actually lives in Puerto Rico with his mother, "while working on his MBA in finance and as a self-employed commodities and foreign exchange trader." An email sent to the Guardian reporter for clarification was not responded to at publication time.

According to his parents, Sanchez-Maldonado had flown to London for a job interview, though "investigators said they had been unable to uncover the details of the appointment," NBC reports.

The Guardian reports that Sanchez-Maldonado's parents have since arrived in London to meet with police.

According to his father, Jose Sanchez, Sanchez-Maldonado had been in regular communication with his family throughout the trip, and when they spoke on October 21 “He was kind of tired because he had just arrived...He was sad he was away from home, so we were just talking about when he was coming back. He never confirmed the interview, he just told me he had a potential job interview in London.”

In a video statement released earlier today, Sanchez father asks any Londoners who might see Josh to "let him know that we're concerned, that we're looking for him."

ABC reports that the U.S. Embassy in London is aware of Sanchez-Maldonado's disappearance and is "working closely with his family and British police." Anyone at home or abroad who might have information on his disappearance is asked to get in touch with Hounslow CID, which offers a variety of contact methods on their website.