Later, he would tell friends that he wanted to be buried in that field. The mystery of the identity of Mostly Harmless was finally solved in January 2021, thanks to a combination of DNA testing, crowdfunding, and public outreach. With the help of the trail community, the Collier County Sheriffs Office in South Florida was able to piece together a narrative going back 14 months and 1,400 miles. Subscribe to WIRED. And he had beautiful eyes different from any other hiker. I was at the lowest point in my life. As the problems got more complex, he got more comfortable. If youre asking me if he is the guy who shows up at the party in a clown suit blasting things out of a cannon, thats not him, says a former colleague named Corey Tisdale. Sheriff's detectives / CBS News. "When he was in a good mood, he was very easy to talk to. Im trying to look at them, but it seems as though theyre based out of Vancouver which isnt close to New York, where its rumored he was from and they dont appear to have any US offices. When this man asked someone else Whos that guy?, the reply was Hes mostly harmless or along those lines, so Mostly Harmless kept the trail name. Othram Inc., is the first private DNA laboratory built specifically with the intent of assisting law enforcement using this science. redemption church pastor; apartments and houses for rent in bowling green kentucky; madison county election results 2022 Hed destroyed his relationships. But people with computer skills usually dont have a hard time finding a job. There was no cellphone, ID, credit cards and apart from his hiking gear, just two notebooks (with coding notes) and critically $3,640 in cash. She is a trail angel- someone who helps thru-hikers by offering them showers and meals, or anything else they can for hikers. Mostly Harmless checked into Top of Georgia Hostel & Hiking Center under the name Ben Bilemy, which was more than likely an alias since hikers were not allowed to check in under their trail names. When his landlord gained access to his apartment eight months later, he found unopened food as well Rodriguezs passport, wallet, and credit cards, suggesting that Rodriguez left in a hurry with little advance planning. He raised his hand weakly and a passing truck saw him and pulled over. He had money, though, and he was just a few miles from a major highway. His sister wrote back, My family has no comment., After graduating from high school, Rodriguez enrolled at the University of Southwestern Louisiana, now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. "My phone stays blown up all the time with people sending me messages like, 'Could it be this person?' Our phones dont ring and our screens dont beckon us. He left his apartment in anger. His name shouldnt even be on this page. WebWhen the department posted a composite photo to Facebook, fellow hikers sent in dozens of photos and reported meeting him. I want him to have a redemptive story, like Jesse Codys, because I like happy endings and because it better justifies all the time I spent researching bowling alleys in Newport News. He said that they were the only two there so they talked pretty late into the evening, and the conversation got pretty deep. No, she said. While these descriptors seem to hold true, the darker side of Vance Rodriguezs personality takes some reconciliation.But as Nicholas Thompson said in his recent article in Wired,The many people who met him didnt sense the dark, brooding, sometimes dangerous person who left Brooklyn.Maybe he did become someone different. A conversation with the writer and artist on her new book, collective burnout, and ways to live off the clock. A man took a picture of Mostly Harmless when they met at Salem Church Road, which is the first road crossing on the Pinhoti south of the AL/GA state line. Over the following weeks and months, tons of fellow hikers and trail angels came forward with pictures and stories about the kind, quiet man they knew as Mostly Harmless, who was thru-hiking the AT. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. It was easy to map a gentle story onto his past. Within minutes, fellow thru-hikers had sent dozens of photos of Mostly Harmless and reported meeting They were walking a flooded trail when they came upon Mostly Harmless who was walking southbound. giardiasis? In another attempt to identify the deceased hiker, investigators issued a bulletin seeking information from the public. You know, you don't leave someone behind," said Natasha Teasley, who manages a canoe and kayak company in North Carolina. Was his appendix missing? Gill is a former Naples Daily News reporter and current media relations specialist for the Collier County Sheriff's office. They had been lighting candles in an effort to bring someone back to his familyonly to learn that he had completely cut himself off from them. And he hasnt stopped hiking since. How did that happen? The city was filled with constant motion, but that seemed to render him catatonic. He said that they were the only two there so they talked pretty late into the evening, and the conversation got pretty deep. He also told her that he had some health issues and needed/wanted to do the trip while he still could. The following timeline was established based on feedback from the public: Mostly Harmless told people along the way that he started hiking in New York in April 2017, Initially, Denim was his trail name because for his first two weeks of hiking he wore denim jeans. At 17, with the consent of his parents, Rodriguez was emancipated by a Lafayette, Louisiana, court. She is a trail angel- someone who helps thru-hikers by offering them showers and meals, or anything else they can for hikers. After years of investigation by authorities and amateur online sleuths, the identity of the deceased Appalachian Trail hiker known by the trail name Mostly Harmless has been uncovered. We enlisted the help of the Lafayette Parish County Sheriffs Office, which made contact with his family. The thru hiker, who went by trail names "Denim" and "Mostly Harmless, interacted with others along the Appalachian and Florida trails. And so, no one would remember him [that way], I'm sure. Online sleuths poured over the details of his time on trail and desperately attempted to connect the dots. At first, he was romantic and sweet. They had a bead on a user named Vaejor. "And I said, 'What do you mean, you're not using a cell phone?' There are dozens of surgeries that could have resulted in that scar. Missing Florida mother found deceased in Alabama, Where is 4-year-old Codi Bigsby, missing from Hampton, VA, Ill either see you again or never see you again The Disappearance of Daniel Robinson, Destiny Jacksons body was found in the Las Vegas desert after she was killed during a car jacking, Spooky Houses youll be DYING to stay far away from, Suzanne Morphew (49) has been missing since May 10th, 2020 her husband has been arrested, Dr. Beth Potter, her husband, Robin Carre were killed and found in a ditch, Missing Child Alert: Taylor Rose Williams (5) is missing from Jacksonville, Florida, No one mentioned an accent, except one person did mention that he had, He wasnt an experienced hiker (wore jeans the first couple weeks, didnt carry maps/gps/phone, had a tent that was too big, carried a backpack that was over 50 lbs). Mostly Harmless is the 5th book in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series. Mostly Harmless was in good spirits at this time, and he seemed to be enjoying his hike. Hed go for a year without smiling or being nice to people, Godso recalls. Meanwhile, a woman named Sahar Bigdeli had arranged for one of the countrys leading isotope analysts to study the hikers teeth in hopes that clues could be discovered about where he had lived. KEV said his pack was 53 1/2 pounds in Damascus, VA -- she took a photo of it on the scales because it was so heavy she almost toppled over trying it on. Can anyone explain this to me? To me, it seems he starved himself to death. He was a long time friend, roommate ans travel companion who we had lost contact with. Maybe he worked for them. Hed never seen snow before. Hey people get involved we have crimes to solve The nose was the same. That's what he called himself when he was on the trail, and off the grid. 4 Ridgerunners Share Their Top Advice for AT Thru-Hikers. She would ask him if he wanted to travel, and he would respond that he didnt need to go anywhere because he could easily look at pictures online. There is some speculation that his knees may have given out on him effectively trapping him and causing him to starve, He was known to wear braces on both knees and carry an excessively heavy pack. She helped form a Facebook group to try to identify him, named for an alias he sometimes used: Ben Bilemy. He also declined her offer to a shower and a place to stay. I was not aware of how many missing people there are in our country.". Authorities did not consider that the campers cause of death was suspicious. Websmall prefab homes michigan; ABOUT US. He now runs an organization to help people struggling with depression by taking them into nature. "What we do is, we capture tens of thousands of markers to hundreds of thousands of markers," said Mittelman. Its more likely, his friends suggest, that he had one last, major outage. Most people are not comfortable being completely off the grid like that. The examiner recorded cause of death as undetermined. The photos in my story didnt look at all like her friend, who was indeed a hiker but who was alive and well in Los Angeles. He wore black jeans, a black shirt, and a black trench coat. But his real name remained a mystery. Rodriguez was born in 1976 and was an IT worker in New York with roots in The big questions were, how did he starve to death in his tent and who was he? Ad Choices, The Unsettling Truth About the Mostly Harmless Hiker. And his friends in Louisiana just thought he was in a long-ass outage, as Marie puts it. In July 2020, it was announced that the Collier County Sheriff's Office was working with Othram Inc. to identify the decedent through forensic genealogy. The breakthroughs and innovations that we uncover lead to new ways of thinking, new connections, and new industries. But not entirely surprised. I know it cant be easy to process all of this. Rodriguez had not been reported as a missing person. Known on different sections of the trails as Denim and Mostly Harmless, Rodriguez stayed in shelters and hostels, hiked alongside other backpackers, and even had his photo taken dozens of times. I cant help but agree with the theory he had a bowel obstruction In the late stages it would explain the empty stomach as eating would have caused nausea and faecal vomiting.. His disease progression likely led to multi organ failure including the kidneys and potential urinary retention which would explain the full bladder.. In April of 2017, Rodriguez left his New York apartment for the last time and spent the next 15 months hiking south. But I hadnt focused on all the pain that could bring. He would not talk about his parents except to say fuck them, Marie recalls. Or was he working on some type of trail bar for hikers? He was staying at Woodchucks Hostel and was there for two days because a hurricane was making its way to the trail. Thats not Daryl, she said. He had perfect teeth, which suggested good dental care as a child. David Mittelman, the founder of Othram, just outside Houston, said his lab is the only one in the United States that does advanced forensic testing in-house. He reached out to Godso, who remembers worrying that Rodriguez would commit suicide. The autopsy indicated that there were no signs of cardiac, liver or kidney damage nor drug issues. Enter the online sleuths: "There was a dedicated group of folks that really wanted to see this case moved forward," Mittelman said. K, who asked for anonymity because of the public obsession about the hiker, was then finishing college in upstate New York. his notebook has been transcribed and is public. In 2013, Rodriguez moved to New York City. Im sketching in details in the half light. WIRED may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The thousands of people following the case soon learned that Rodriguez was complicated. The partnership comes after detectives determined that they had exhausted DNA searches through national missing persons databases in March of this year and following national developments in DNA privacy. Did he mention Dont Starve? In this particular case, you know, there was so much pent-up interest in the case that we crowdfunded it, in the truest sense of the word, in about, I think, like, eight days, which was really quick. Story produced by Alan Golds. She still moved out that winter. He had long, dark hair almost down to his waist. I dont immediately recall anything strikingly unique. What's the difference? WIRED is where tomorrow is realized. In the years since, the life and death of Mostly Harmless have captured the imaginations of many. And so a group focused on digital forensics went through the accounts of every possible user who had been on Screeps up until April 2017, the date Mostly Harmless had given other hikers for when hed begun his journey. I found this forum where a journalist asked a community of gamers if they had any ideas. Vance John Rodriguez, a k a Vaejor, was born in February 1976 near Baton Rouge. He carried cash and couldnt be tracked by credit card receipts. They are here on TCS. You can read more about the DNA update here CCSO and DNA Lab Partner In Attempt To ID Hiker Mostly Harmless. We stand in the vastness of nature, remember how small we are, and everything slows down. Except he would always code everything the hardest way possible, kind of like you hired Rembrandt to paint your bathroom. Which can be lonely when you share a 500-square-foot apartment, she says. They traveled back and forth to visit each other. The effort eventually reached a former colleague, who recognized a local called Vance Rodriguez and reached out to the Collier County Sheriffs Office. On July 23, 2018, hikers found a deceased man in a tent at a campsite called Nobles Camp in Big Cypress National Preserve located in Collier County, Florida. Sheriff's detectives searched databases using his face and fingerprints: nothing. His death was not suspicious, and he likely died a few days before. Both these pictures were taken by Kristin Ernst Vanpelt and posted in the comments section of the Collier County Sheriffs Office post. Everyone had a story they wanted to be true: He was trying to escape modern society. You can email truecrimesociety@gmail.com if you would prefer. James and Michelle Butler: The Senseless Murder of 21-Year-Navy Veteran and Wife. Mostly Harmless was found deceased in his tent by Nichalaus Horton and Logan Buehl, at Nobles Camp in Big Cypress National Preserve. I bought Facebook ads on my personal page to promote my story in the region of Louisiana where I thought his relatives likely lived. The autopsy would have found out. Or Hospital Scapegoat? I don't think I was committed to Vance as a human. He was a brilliant computer programmer whose notebooks, found in the tent where he died, were filled with computer code. All rights reserved. Self inflicted gunshot doesnt sound happy. Maybe his inexperience caught up to him and he was outmatched by the bugs, the snakes, and the humidity. We know where hes been. In mid-December of 2020, as photos of Mostly Harmless continued to circulate online, a group of friends in Baton Rouge recognized Mostly Harmless as Vance Rodriguez and got in touch with the Collier County Sheriffs Office. He checked into Top of Georgia Hostel & Hiking Center under the name Ben Bilemy, which was more than likely an alias since hikers were not allowed to check in under their trail names. They are currently trying to raise funds to do a reverse DNA search for him https://dnasolves.com/articles/big_cypress_remains. The group grew to more than 6,000 members. It was interesting to note that he discolouration and abrasion of the shaft and glans of the penis in addition to wasting (cachexia). He told people he was from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and that he worked in tech in New York. The bulletin included a composite sketch and said that the man had been between 35 and 50 years old, he had salt and pepper hair and beard, and his teeth were in excellent condition. This website contains affiliate links, which means The Trek may receive a percentage of any product or service you purchase using the links in the articles or advertisements. In 2018, fellow hikers discovered an unidentified deceased person on a trail in Big Cypress Preserve, Florida. The timeline of his last few months is unclear, but he appears to have been stuck and starving, maybe at the same campground where he was found on July 23, 2018. But then, as he lay bleeding to death, he decided to live. Soon, the team was able to pinpoint Assumption Parish as the mans area of origin. A man was harmed and maybe harmful. He appeared to suffer from some mental health issues, but, according to Marie, he refused conventional medicine. ", "It's not really a difference; it's a difference in when you're talking to him,'"he replied. As I tried to make sense of Rodriguez, I thought about a man I know named Jesse Cody who I had raced against in high school cross country. If he had been trying to escape something, it was himself. Absolutely no one needs to feel the need to take this into their hands when the whole reason we are even aware is because CCSO has been informed and is doing their job. Please, for the love of god, do not contact, hassle, or share information about/and or to his poor family. "As soon as I saw the pictures I knew immediately it's like, 'Oh, that's Vance!'" It will take about 12 weeks to sequence Mostly Harmless DNA a process much different than that done by the University of North Texas before a genealogist will use the sequence to build out a family tree using a public database. But his real name remained a mystery. But it ended quite badly. I hope you have many good memories. But by far the most enticing tip came from a man in Virginia who persuaded me, briefly, that he had known the hiker and that his name was Daryl McKenzie. Today, according to Collier County Sheriff's office, the unidentified hiker Mostly Harmless has now been officially confirmed to be Vance Rodriguez. Mostly Harmless was in good spirits at this time, and he seemed to be enjoying his hike. A medical exam was done on the remains on Wednesday, July 25, 2018, by Deputy Chief Medical Examiner, Manfred D Borges. Eerie and beautiful at the same time. Someone would have to tell all the people who missed him. Google Maps Sept 2017 Hiker (Obsidian) took a photo of him reading the logbook in the Mountain Home Hostel in Front Royal, Virginia. Mostly Harmless told people along the way that he started hiking in New York in April, and this is where his trail name Denim came from. He was alone in a vast, unfamiliar city. Mostly Harmless was found deceased in his tent by two hikers, Nichalaus Horton and Logan Buehl, at Nobles Camp in Big Cypress National Preserve. ", Nicholas Thompson, of the Atlantic Magazine, asked, "Why did he make an impression on you? What happened next involved a huge number of man hours and DNA testing to try and discover the identity of this mystery man, who was quickly established to be hiking under the names Mostly Harmless and Denim along the Florida Trail (FT). Launched in 2018, Othram is a relatively new lab whose goal has been to partner with law enforcement agencies to solve cold case crimes and unidentified persons cases. It was thought that he probably died a few days before being discovered by the hikers. Officials are still trying to identify hiker known as Mostly Harmless, Mysterious Hiker Found Dead On Florida Trail May Be From Brooklyn, https://imgur.com/a/eTphrRF?fbclid=IwAR0Ng8nt6WyOkEZw9iYCDfRmFbQ5YbLxfsnTWNdPtzMgjJM7aeyR0s1iP7E, https://imgur.com/a/b5Ny98l?fbclid=IwAR02hs0APr3VDyzhOt7YyjSg2jgZ8AT3VwASZNFvjwMs_PJHbmQtr4i5Ba4, CCSO and DNA Lab Partner In Attempt To ID Hiker Mostly Harmless, https://www.adventure-journal.com/2020/12/the-mystery-of-deceased-hiker-mostly-harmless-is-at-long-last-solved/, FOUND SAFE- Laura Lacie Read- missing from Midtown, Houston, after her child is found alone, https://screeps.com/forum/topic/2937/a-strange-request-for-help, https://dnasolves.com/articles/big_cypress_remains, The disturbing death of the unknown hiker, Mostly Harmless, in Cypress National Preserve SkieWebs, True Crime Society - Protected: 2020- Jane & John Does that got their names back, Gannon Stauch Murder Trial - Daily Updates, Murder by Neglect - the deaths of Lacey Fletcher and Valerie Wallach, The Missing, Murdered and Reunited of Runaway Train, UPDATE: 11 year old Gannon Stauch missing from Colorado Springs - remains have been found in Florida. 7-16-20: Photos have been released of the scene: In July 2020, it was announced that detectives have partnered with a private DNA laboratory in Texas to identify Mostly Harmless using a new technique in forensic genealogy and handles the process in-house. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Honestly that looks like a tummy tuck scar, especially around the belly button, maybe he used to be over weight and had excess skin removed. He told Kelly that he had started in New York and was heading down to Key West. Everyone liked him. The sheriffs office had received hundreds of bad tips. Karen . In the sketch, his mouth is open My concern is all of the people who will see this and rush to stalk family members. His eyes were wide open and he was looking right at me. Become a member of StrangeOutdoors.com for exclusive content, See the latest Exclusive members-only articles on StrangeOutdoors.com, https://www.namus.gov/UnidentifiedPersons/Case#/51453, http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/3343umfl.html, https://truecrimesociety.com/2019/08/22/unidentified-and-mostly-harmless/, https://patch.com/new-york/brooklyn/can-police-podcast-help-id-mysterious-appalachian-hiker, https://unidentified.wikia.org/wiki/Ben_Bilemy, https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/cyj27g/unidentified_hiker_mostly_harmless/, https://www.colliersheriff.org/news/sworn-statement#ad-image-0, https://www.facebook.com/colliersheriff/posts/3207390245987402, https://www.oxygen.com/crime-news/vance-rodriguez-idd-as-mostly-harmless-hiker-found-dead, Tagged: The disturbing death of the hiker Mostly Harmless, denim death cypress national preserve, Ben bilemy death cypress national preserve, mostly harmless identity, mostly harmless death, Vance Rodriguez identified as Mostly Harmless, Mostly harmless hiker identity, Vance Rodriguez is denim and mostly harmless, StrangeOutdoors.com Terms of use/Cookie notice/Privacy Policy, Sign Up for a one-off fee to read many exclusive member-only articles, The puzzling disappearance of Saeed Emadi at Strawberry point, The strange hiking death of Jason Chase in New Zealand's Tamaki Reserve, The disturbing death of the unknown hiker, Mostly Harmless, in Cypress National Preserve, Exclusive members-only articles on StrangeOutdoors.com, The disturbing death of the hiker Mostly Harmless, Ben bilemy death cypress national preserve, Vance Rodriguez identified as Mostly Harmless, Vance Rodriguez is denim and mostly harmless, The mysterious disappearance and death of Nicola Bulley in Lancashire, The strange disappearance of the YouTube Survivalist Finn Creaney in the Scottish Highlands, The shocking disappearance of Theresa Ann Bier, The strange disappearance of Daniel Robinson from Buckeye in Arizona, The bizarre deaths of the Gerrish family in Devils Gulch, The strange death of Lucas Renoud at the Hrisson waterfalls in the Jura Mountains, The disturbing disappearance of Daylenn Pua from Hawaiis Stairway To Heaven walkway, The puzzling disappearance of ex-paratrooper Gilbert Gilman from Olympic National Park, The Dead man who saved Brandon Day and Gina Allen on Mount San Jacinto, The strange disappearance and death of Geoff Hague in the Great Smoky Mountains, The weird disappearance of Garrett Bardsley from Cuberant Lake in Utah, The bizarre death of Cullen Finnerty in the Michigan wilderness, The puzzling disappearance of Barbara Bolick from the Bitterroot Mountains, The strange disappearance of Mike Hearon from the Great Smoky Mountains, Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) report June 2021, The bizarre disappearance and death of Adrienne Quintal in Michigan, The strange disappearance of Fern Baird from the Prairie Peak Trail in Idaho, The strange deaths of David Horesay and Frederick Hardisty in the Northwest Territories, The disappearance of Steven Kubacki in the Lake Michigan Triangle, The lucky survival story of Chris Staff in the White Mountains - hallucinations, bugs and hunger, Mysterious UFO phenomena begins to be acknowledged officially by the US Military, The mysterious disappearance of Michael Bryson from the Hobo Campground in Oregon. 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