OR OR - Michael Rhine, 24, Portland, 24 July 2003 [Archive]

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EdinburghLass

11-28-2005, 10:23 AM

http://www.bootsnall.org/mike_rhine.pdf

WHERE'S MIKE? THE UNCERTAINTY IS GETTING TO HIS FAMILY
BYLINE: MARGIE BOULE - The Oregonian

Will it be harder to disappear in the age of the Internet? When posters can be transmitted from country to country and e-mails translated to any language, when cryptic goodbye letters can be accessed online by anyone?

Mike Rhine may find out. That is, if Mike is still alive somewhere on this Earth. His friends and family aren't sure. There's a lot of pain in that uncertainty.

Mike disappeared from Portland a year ago June without a word. Although he'd been going through some rough times, "He was 24 years old," says his mother, Margaret Rhine. "He's an adult and self-sufficient. Part of you thinks, 'Don't worry. He'll be back.' " But she can't stop looking, and neither can others who love Mike.

Family members have made repeated trips to Central America looking for the tall, young man with curly red hair. His 90-year-old grandfather flew to Costa Rica last December to search for Mike.

Margaret is using the power of the Internet to look for her son. She tracked his early travel, she monitored his bank card purchases until his money ran out. But a year ago the cyber trail went cold. So she set up a missing person Web site (http://redapple.web.aplus.net//index.html (http://redapple.web.aplus.net//index.html)).

So far, all it has yielded is dead ends.

Mike always had a big sense of adventure. He was an athlete, drawn to soccer and then mountain biking, hiking, in-line skating and especially skiing.

"He called himself an adrenaline junkie," Margaret says. "He loved to hike up mountains and ski in remote places." Mike once wrote of his love of "making tracks where no other man has ever made tracks before."

"He was always kind of pushing the envelope," says Shepard DeLong, who met Mike at Sunset High School.

But Mike got more than just a thrill in high places, Shepard says. "He felt like he gained meaning, breathing cold mountain air and finding magic in the snow piling up, and the beauty of mountain settings."

After graduation in 1997 Mike and Shepard moved to Utah, where they worked at resorts and skied for the next few years. Then Mike broke his leg and returned to Portland. After it healed, he lived in Ashland, then moved to Bellingham, near Mount Baker.

But Mike had trouble settling any place for long. Maybe that's why he was drawn to books about wanderers. "I gave him a copy of 'Desolation Angels,' by Jack Kerouac, about a year before he left," says Nathan Javens, another friend since high school. "He totally got into the Kerouac phase."

Kerouac wrote about the romance of being on the road. But nobody expected Mike to just take off. In fact, he'd returned to Portland in the spring of 2003 to learn to operate heavy construction machinery. Margaret and Mike's dad, David, who'd just moved to Vancouver, took out a loan to pay Mike's tuition. Mike was living with his aunt, uncle and grandfather in Portland.

"He was having some very bad problems," says Elaine Tanzer, Mike's aunt. "He was wound up to the point he couldn't sleep. . . . We'd asked him to see a counselor, and he had."

Margaret also had grown concerned about Mike. "We started noticing some paranoia. He thought someone was vandalizing his car at school. We'd look and look, and we couldn't see it."

Mike's friends think he was just sliding into isolation. "The longer he lived alone, he seemed to become more detached from society," Nathan says.

But there was an edge to his isolation. The happy-go-lucky kid had turned into a young man becoming frustrated with what he saw as society's hypocrisy.

"A kind of bitterness was creeping in," Shepard says. "Mike couldn't take what he saw as the cruelty of the world," Elaine says.

When it finally hit Margaret that Mike was gone, she went to her computer. Using materials Mike had left with her, Margaret tracked his bank account activity. He'd withdrawn his savings and cashed in stock his grandfather had given him. After selling his car in Bellingham he'd taken a ferry to Alaska, flown to Cancun and made his way to Belize.

And then Mike's grandfather received a package from Guatemala. In it were letters to all Mike's family members. Goodbye letters.

"If I must depart this world so soon," he wrote David and Margaret, "I would like to leave something in its place. Here is a collection of thoughts, feelings, adventure of the last month of my life."

Mike's dad immediately flew to Guatemala; he found no trail. In ensuing months there were more trips south. Then David placed a large ad in a Guatemalan newspaper.

"There was a huge amount of response," Elaine says. "People said they'd seen Michael in Guatemala City in a marketplace, begging and acting bizarre. A sighting had come in that very day."

Elaine, her husband and David flew to Guatemala City and began combing the market area. "We kept walking around, looking, looking, looking," Elaine says. "There was this incredibly intense feeling of, 'I know he's here and I'm going to find him.' "

At night they went to parks where homeless people slept, looking for Mike. By day they walked streets, enlisting the aid of police and drug addicts.

And then one day Elaine saw a tall, red-haired American begging on the street. "It wasn't Mike," Margaret says. "It was some other mother's son."

That was a year ago. Last December someone e-mailed saying he'd seen Mike in Costa Rica. It was another dead end.

Since then clues have become more scarce and less tangible. A few months ago someone left a message on Margaret's Web site. "Mikey not dead," it said. "Mikey just disappeared." Did Mike leave the message?

Nathan has a hard time believing Mike would kill himself. "He had such a love of life," he says. "He enjoyed adventure . . . and the spiritual journey he was on. I don't know if that means it had to end tragically."

Shepard is not as sure. "I don't worry about him because I know he is either dead -- and that doesn't worry me, because I know it's a nice place on the other side -- and if he's not, then he's exactly where he wants to be."

But it's harder for Mike's family to live with uncertainty. "I want Michael to know how much we love him," Elaine says. "He is, with his brother, the center of the family."

Margaret tries hard to hold on to hope. "Maybe it's denial, but I just have a sense he's still around." Still, she says, "I don't want to be living this."

Margie Boule: 503-221-8450; marboule@aol.com

OneLostGrl

12-03-2005, 01:44 AM

WHERE'S MIKE? THE UNCERTAINTY IS GETTING TO HIS FAMILY
[/color] BYLINE: MARGIE BOULE - The Oregonian

[/size][/i][/b][/color][/size][/font]

Will it be harder to disappear in the age of the Internet? When posters can be transmitted from country to country and e-mails translated to any language, when cryptic goodbye letters can be accessed online by anyone?

Mike Rhine may find out. That is, if Mike is still alive somewhere on this Earth. His friends and family aren't sure. There's a lot of pain in that uncertainty.

Mike disappeared from Portland a year ago June without a word. Although he'd been going through some rough times, "He was 24 years old," says his mother, Margaret Rhine. "He's an adult and self-sufficient. Part of you thinks, 'Don't worry. He'll be back.' " But she can't stop looking, and neither can others who love Mike.

Family members have made repeated trips to Central America looking for the tall, young man with curly red hair. His 90-year-old grandfather flew to Costa Rica last December to search for Mike.

Margaret is using the power of the Internet to look for her son. She tracked his early travel, she monitored his bank card purchases until his money ran out. But a year ago the cyber trail went cold. So she set up a missing person Web site (http://redapple.web.aplus.net//index.html (http://redapple.web.aplus.net//index.html)).

So far, all it has yielded is dead ends.

Mike always had a big sense of adventure. He was an athlete, drawn to soccer and then mountain biking, hiking, in-line skating and especially skiing.

"He called himself an adrenaline junkie," Margaret says. "He loved to hike up mountains and ski in remote places." Mike once wrote of his love of "making tracks where no other man has ever made tracks before."

"He was always kind of pushing the envelope," says Shepard DeLong, who met Mike at Sunset High School.

But Mike got more than just a thrill in high places, Shepard says. "He felt like he gained meaning, breathing cold mountain air and finding magic in the snow piling up, and the beauty of mountain settings."

After graduation in 1997 Mike and Shepard moved to Utah, where they worked at resorts and skied for the next few years. Then Mike broke his leg and returned to Portland. After it healed, he lived in Ashland, then moved to Bellingham, near Mount Baker.

But Mike had trouble settling any place for long. Maybe that's why he was drawn to books about wanderers. "I gave him a copy of 'Desolation Angels,' by Jack Kerouac, about a year before he left," says Nathan Javens, another friend since high school. "He totally got into the Kerouac phase."

Kerouac wrote about the romance of being on the road. But nobody expected Mike to just take off. In fact, he'd returned to Portland in the spring of 2003 to learn to operate heavy construction machinery. Margaret and Mike's dad, David, who'd just moved to Vancouver, took out a loan to pay Mike's tuition. Mike was living with his aunt, uncle and grandfather in Portland.

"He was having some very bad problems," says Elaine Tanzer, Mike's aunt. "He was wound up to the point he couldn't sleep. . . . We'd asked him to see a counselor, and he had."

Margaret also had grown concerned about Mike. "We started noticing some paranoia. He thought someone was vandalizing his car at school. We'd look and look, and we couldn't see it."

Mike's friends think he was just sliding into isolation. "The longer he lived alone, he seemed to become more detached from society," Nathan says.

But there was an edge to his isolation. The happy-go-lucky kid had turned into a young man becoming frustrated with what he saw as society's hypocrisy.

"A kind of bitterness was creeping in," Shepard says. "Mike couldn't take what he saw as the cruelty of the world," Elaine says.

When it finally hit Margaret that Mike was gone, she went to her computer. Using materials Mike had left with her, Margaret tracked his bank account activity. He'd withdrawn his savings and cashed in stock his grandfather had given him. After selling his car in Bellingham he'd taken a ferry to Alaska, flown to Cancun and made his way to Belize.

And then Mike's grandfather received a package from Guatemala. In it were letters to all Mike's family members. Goodbye letters.

"If I must depart this world so soon," he wrote David and Margaret, "I would like to leave something in its place. Here is a collection of thoughts, feelings, adventure of the last month of my life."

Mike's dad immediately flew to Guatemala; he found no trail. In ensuing months there were more trips south. Then David placed a large ad in a Guatemalan newspaper.

"There was a huge amount of response," Elaine says. "People said they'd seen Michael in Guatemala City in a marketplace, begging and acting bizarre. A sighting had come in that very day."

Elaine, her husband and David flew to Guatemala City and began combing the market area. "We kept walking around, looking, looking, looking," Elaine says. "There was this incredibly intense feeling of, 'I know he's here and I'm going to find him.' "

At night they went to parks where homeless people slept, looking for Mike. By day they walked streets, enlisting the aid of police and drug addicts.

And then one day Elaine saw a tall, red-haired American begging on the street. "It wasn't Mike," Margaret says. "It was some other mother's son."

That was a year ago. Last December someone e-mailed saying he'd seen Mike in Costa Rica. It was another dead end.

Since then clues have become more scarce and less tangible. A few months ago someone left a message on Margaret's Web site. "Mikey not dead," it said. "Mikey just disappeared." Did Mike leave the message?

Nathan has a hard time believing Mike would kill himself. "He had such a love of life," he says. "He enjoyed adventure . . . and the spiritual journey he was on. I don't know if that means it had to end tragically."

Shepard is not as sure. "I don't worry about him because I know he is either dead -- and that doesn't worry me, because I know it's a nice place on the other side -- and if he's not, then he's exactly where he wants to be."

But it's harder for Mike's family to live with uncertainty. "I want Michael to know how much we love him," Elaine says. "He is, with his brother, the center of the family."

Margaret tries hard to hold on to hope. "Maybe it's denial, but I just have a sense he's still around." Still, she says, "I don't want to be living this."

Margie Boule: 503-221-8450; marboule@aol.com

Since reading about Mike the other day, I have been unable to get him out of my mind... different theory's jumping through my mind then canceling them out, only to revisit the same ones over and over again.

Could this man have recently found out he was terminally ill and chose not to tell anyone... just live the remainder of his days *his* way?
OR
Could this man have been in the beginning stages of Schizophrenia?
His family states things such as -
He was having some very bad problems," says Elaine Tanzer, Mike's aunt. "He was wound up to the point he couldn't sleep. . . . We'd asked him to see a counselor, and he had." Margaret also had grown concerned about Mike. "We started noticing some paranoia. He thought someone was vandalizing his car at school. We'd look and look, and we couldn't see it." Mike's friends think he was just sliding into isolation. "The longer he lived alone, he seemed to become more detached from society," Nathan says.

I also noticed in his letters to home were full of things like this- "If I must depart this world so soon," he wrote David and Margaret, "I would like to leave something in its place. Here is a collection of thoughts, feelings, adventure of the last month of my life."

Who knows, maybe I'm completely off track here but I can't get this poor boy and his family out of my mind.

docwho3

12-03-2005, 02:18 AM

A good idea would have been to seed his bank account with $10 or $20 deposits from time to time so he never quite ran clear out of money then they might be able to continue tracking him that way.

gatetrekker44

12-04-2005, 12:57 AM

EdinburghLass

12-05-2005, 04:50 AM

I do not know alot about Mike's disappearance, only having come across his website last week. It was a story that stuck in my mind as well. If you read his journal entries, it may give some more insight into his frame of mind and views on the world.
I have emailed his family and invited them to come and join this forum and will let you know what I hear back.

This link is to the family website if you would like to try and contact them or read more : http://redapple.web.aplus.net/id15.html

KRW

12-05-2005, 06:49 AM

How heartbreaking! I have a 21 yr. old son, and
it frightens me to think something could happen
to him such as this young man! God Bless his
family! :(

jodierenee

12-05-2005, 05:55 PM

his journal entries sound like he was very paranoid. He wrote about people trying to poison him and about how everyone made fun of him all the time and laughed at him and about how he is "known" everywhere...like people are out to get him.

well its obvious that either

a) he committed suicide, and his body is either somewhere as a John Doe or has never been found

or

b) he is still traveling somewhere. Has no money, maybe he got a job somewhere?

EdinburghLass

12-06-2005, 04:20 AM

OneLostGrl

12-06-2005, 11:26 PM

I received an email from Mike's mother and she has said she will try and join the forum for a discussion over the weekend. She sounded interested and hopefully we can help her find out what happened to her son.

Oh that's a great idea!
I can't stop thinking about this kid... he seems so very full of paranoia.. I just know something awful was going on in his head around this time.

Prayers to Mike and his family!

OneLostGrl

12-20-2005, 01:03 AM

Bump!
This one has got me!
Let's find out what happened to Mike!

Bobbisangel

12-20-2005, 01:20 AM

of a psychotic break-most schizophrenics have their first major episode in their 20's-and the descriptions of his behavior are almost textbook. The paranoia, the suspicion, and then the "taking off"- only for his family to receive reports of sightings and "bizarre behavior". If they find Michael, and I truly hope they do-they should be prepared for the real possibility that he is delusional-and may perceive them as a threat-or the "enemy"-and to be prepared for a long, hard, difficult road if he has had a psychotic break.

I will keep Michaels family in my prayers...have they treid contacting the US Consulate in the last country he was known to be in?

Bring Jennifer, Adrianna, and Maura home!

BOYCOTT ARUBA!

I can't help but agree with you. I worked with mentally ill clients for a long time and I think you are right on the money. All of the symptoms are classic
schizophrenic. This young man could be living in homeless shelters or anyplace that helps the mentally ill. Without proper mental health help he won't become better...he will just keep declining. This is really sad. I wish someone he is living around would find his parents address or phone number in his belongings and contact them.

mysteriew

12-20-2005, 01:44 AM

Has anyone referred this to Kelly? Sounds like a good one for her site.
We could try looking for some Guatemala websites and start asking questions.

EdinburghLass

12-20-2005, 04:47 AM

mysteriew

12-20-2005, 05:07 AM

This case has gotten to me too. I thought I had seen nearly every missing website and when I came across Mike's site I was hooked.

I have been a lurker for a long time on this site and would love to get involved in helping Mike's family perhaps obtain some closure. How do I go about letting Kelly know?

I sent her a PM asking her to look at this case.
My idea about the Guatemala websites is not missing persons sites, but city sites, tourist sites or anything that has to do with Guatemala. Maybe send them an email, giving them a brief outline of his story and asking them if they have seen him, could they check around- that type of thing. Another option is to find out what charities work down there, and email them.

EdinburghLass

12-20-2005, 10:31 AM

My idea about the Guatemala websites is not missing persons sites, but city sites, tourist sites or anything that has to do with Guatemala. Maybe send them an email, giving them a brief outline of his story and asking them if they have seen him, could they check around- that type of thing. .
I have started on this today whilst being totally unproductive at work. I have added Mike to any relevant forums and am putting together an email that I can send to relevant tourist or travel sites in the hope that someone knows something.

I do hope that Mike's mother will come and chat with us here too. I will wait until after the Christmas break and send her another message letting her know what we are doing.

mysteriew

12-20-2005, 02:14 PM

Does anyone know what churches/charities are active there? Isn't the peace cops active there? Likely the peace corps would not respond to anyone other than the parents, but I think it would be a good idea for the parents to make contact with them.
I know there have to be other charities/churches working down there.

Kelly

12-20-2005, 02:33 PM

Thank you for asking me to look at Mike's case.

It does sound as if he is mentally ill. Unfortunately, our resources are all US based. If Mike was in this country, we would certainly give strong consideration to program placement for him.

I would urge his family to contact the National Center for Missing Adults at 800-690-FIND and see if they have any foreign country resources or contacts. I have never discussed that with them, so I am not sure. At any rate, he should be listed on their site.

I think you are on the right track in looking for Guatemala-based sources who might be willing to distribute his poster and keep an eye out for him.

A good question to ask would be what authorities there would do if they found him. Can they detain him? His family may already know the answer. The mental illness apsect of things may have no bearing on it, although it should. (The same thing takes place in this country, sadly.)

Kelly

mysteriew

12-20-2005, 03:46 PM

Thanks for the suggestions Kelly.

annemc2

12-20-2005, 10:14 PM

What an interesting, talented, and life-loving guy Mike must be! I cannot imagine the pain that his friends and family are going through, missing him as they must be. I did not get the impression that Mike was suicidal, but rather was experiencing some delusional thoughts indicating to him that his demise was imminent. From a brief glimpse at his (beautiful and entertaining) writings, I gathered that he was experiencing significant paranoia (being poisoned, things being written about him on the internet) and some grandiosity ("known all over the world," believing people are writing about him on a website), which are symptoms of any number of mental illnesses (notably bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or schizoaffective disorder). During his travels, Mike seemed to be sleeping (at least some) and was organized (thought-wise) enough to transcribe his journey, provide food and shelter for himself, interact meaningfully and appropriately with others, and send a package home. Although it's nothing that anyone hasn't speculated before, it is likely that Mike's symptoms worsened and he became increasingly detached from reality. He would be very vulnerable in such a state, especially in a foreign land. I think he's out there somewhere.

EdinburghLass

12-21-2005, 05:41 AM

This is a link to another forum - the Lonely Planet and some replies that I have gotten in response to Mike's article.

I do not believe the man mentioned is Mike because the height is significantly shorter than Mike and his parents also speak of going to Guatemala in 2003 upon reports of a man matching Mike's description begging. The man was not Mike.

http://thorntree.lonelyplanet.com/messagepost.cfm?postaction=reply&catid=12&threadid=979533&messid=8366654&STARTPAGE=1&parentid=0&from=2

petra

12-21-2005, 06:06 AM

I believe that some US colleges and universities have exchange programs in Guatemala and other Central American countries. Perhaps this might be another lead.

Good going ,lass!!

EdinburghLass

01-04-2006, 04:43 AM

docwho3

01-04-2006, 05:09 AM

. . .Any suggestions would be appreciated.'

Does anyone know why she is having problems?
Make sure she has her browser set to accept cookies and then if she is on her own home computer have her allow the question that may pop up asking if it should remember her or should keep her logged on this website. (I cant remember how it was worded but I had the same troubles until I made these changes.)

One thing that I also do to combat posting glitches is to copy and paste the text into a word document (or I use notepad.) Then if anything interrupts me or loses the post I can easily paste it into a new post and try again. Even just copying the post text into memory will enable you to paste into a new post as long as you have not copied anything else and have not rebooted since that copy.

mysteriew

01-04-2006, 06:21 AM

If she is having problems and the above doesn't work, at the very bottom of the index page is a forum called forum finesse. She can check there to see if the problem has been posted. If not then pm one of the mods. You can find the mods by looking at the bottom of the forums on the index page and there is a clickable link that says something like forum leaders. They are all listed there and most have contact info listed on their profiles.
Another option is to go into chat, there is always a mod there during the day and you can get real time assistance.

OneLostGrl

01-12-2006, 12:20 AM

I received an email from Mike's mother today who seemed quite upset that for some reason she could not log onto this site. This is what she wrote -

'Well - I am so upset about this website. I finally got around to posting a reply and just typed up a very long, "good" response and the web-site kicked me out into something about invalid passwords and everything is lost. Note that it took me quite a while just to be able to post anything.

Don't know what to do. Sorry for venting, but this has been very upsetting. I have entered and re-entered an d gotten new passwords, etc trying to be able to post and finally got to the correct place and typed a reply and then it dumped me out again after I spent 45 minutes typing a response.

Have you heard from Mike's mother again since then? Gosh, I really wish she could get logged on and be able to share her thoughts with us.

I suppose the reason I can't stop thinking of Mike is that his "thoughts", his letters home, remind me soooo much of myself before I was regulated on Meds. It honestly sounds as if he was/is mentally Ill.

I will continue to pray for him and for his family, I can't imagine what they must be feeling!

EdinburghLass

01-12-2006, 04:49 AM

I have not heard from her again. She has mentioned working long hours and may not be able to get online frequently. I will leave it until early next week and try and get in contact with her again. I would love for us to be able to speak to her and maybe learn some more about Mike and if we can help.

EdinburghLass

11-21-2006, 11:59 PM

How time flies.. I emailed Mike's mother again and will let you know if I hear back from her. No news on him that I can find :(

EdinburghLass

11-22-2006, 03:56 PM

Michael's mother got back to me very quickly - here is the email that she sent.

Dear Olivia - Thank you for contacting me again. I have dealt with this by blocking it out of my mind and creating a new life for myself - keeping busy and getting on with my life - but the holidays always bring back memories - so it was opportune for you to contact me again.

No - we have heard nothing. I don't know if you get this from his web-site - but there are similarities between Mike's disappearance and the details of the young man in Jon Krakauer's book - "Into the Wild" - a book which I also found among my son's things. They ironically have just finished a film version of "into the wild" - some of which was filmed here in the Pacific NW.

I seem to be busy - but maybe during the holidays would be a good time to join. The difficulty with finding Mike - or finding out what happened to him is that he is not in this country - We definitely know he was last heard from in Guatemala - and it is very difficult to track someone there. My now ex-husband actually is now living in Guatemala - but is not really in a position to look for him. Are there members who perhaps live - or are familiar with - Central America?

Also - there were some mental issues going on - which he hopefully has dealt with - or maybe he hasn't - that may make him reluctant or unable to contact us, even if he wanted to.

Hope this helps...

Maggie Rhine

EdinburghLass

11-22-2006, 03:57 PM

Is there anything we can do to help Maggie?

EdinburghLass

11-27-2006, 03:40 AM

Bumping in case people missed this thread because of the holidays.. :(

EdinburghLass

08-14-2007, 07:19 PM

An update from Mike's website -

August 2007 - Mike's dad had moved to Guatemala where he hoped to make some contact with Mike. Early in 2007, he reported that one of his contacts in Central America claimed a young man had been admitted to a hospital in Costa Rica with a serious head injury who was carrying Mike's drivers license. The brain injury had damaged his memory. Before any contact could be made, the young man escaped from the hospital with some others and took off.

Mike's dad returned to the US in February of this year and was diagnosed with lung cancer. He passed away in April. We do not know whether the story about Mike was true or was a fabrication.

PinkyPoo

08-14-2007, 07:26 PM

Oh my...this is such a sad story. I hope soon this family will find answers.

hoppyfrog

10-11-2007, 11:58 AM

http://redapple.web.aplus.net/

This is the website about Michael and the family looking for him.