Identified! FL - Big Cypress Natl Preserve, Male Hiker, Denim & “Mostly Harmless” July 2018 - Vance Rodriguez#4

[Curious_in_NC]

Most everyone I've met, upon learning that I'm from Louisiana, tells me that I don't sound Cajun. My husband, who is originally from Long Island, tells me that my brother and others with the "cajun" accent, sound like they are from Brooklyn.

My experience agrees. Cajun and some New Orleans accents have a lot of similarities to NYC accents to my ear. I would expect someone with a strong Cajun accent moving to Brooklyn would maintain it. On the other hand, I'm from a different part of the South and, after living in New England for half a decade, I lost much of my accent even after returning to the South. Southerners from rural areas typically also have much stronger accents now than anyone growing up in a Southern city or suburbs. My guess is MH came from a more urban area, maybe Baton Rouge, maybe not, and lost any regional accent after spending a decade in NYC.
see also A Common Misconception about the New Orleans Accent

 

[branmuffin]

If you search "Denim" at trailjournals.com, someone mentions a SOBO named Denim spending the night with them at the Clyde Smith Shelter in TN on October 18.

Thanks, I think that is the first time I've seen a record of him in TN. There was a hiker called Denim in other posts who was there in Raven Rock Shelter October 2015 and June 2016 at the Port Clinton Pavilion. It couldn't be the same Denim, though?

 

[gfinale]

I'm still wading through the first thread. It's been a while since I did that and in the interim I realized things I read before didn't have an impact on me that it does now.

Just a few revelations. It was established early on that the backpack MH was carrying was a Gregory, yet I forgot and I guess others did too, since we've discussed it again fairly recently and believe we thought it was another brand. Another thing that made more of an impact on me was many posts from @RickshawFan who is a regular hiker and how he pretty well dismissed the idea that MH staying in a campground for several weeks (in NY state) doesn't necessarily follow that the individual was homeless, that many times, RickshawFan regularly camped in a park when he was on a business trip and left the restroom wearing a suit!

Refreshing my memory about Unionville NY and Bear Mountain State Park in NY makes it quite feasible that MH may have worked in NYC but it's just as likely he could have lived in NJ as much as Brooklyn. I've been to NYC so many times and landed in NJ and took the subway like commuters(or as my friend called them 'tunnel people').

Rereading reminded me that there is NO record of him being in TN or NC which begs the question was he thru-hiking or section hiking and where was he if he went off trail?

For newcomers to the site, it's a good idea to go back through Thread #1 post 336 to see the rule outs from Namus. So all you newbies who suggest Robert Wayne Roush or Glen Oldfield, it ain't them. I presume LE has much better processes to access any and all MP's from each state than we could possibly have.

Also, I was going through the whole anagram thing with the name Ben Bilemy, again. I truly believe his real first name was Ben; many people who adopt aliases retain some portion of their real identities. It's a little awkward if someone is yelling, "Ben! Ben!" and you don't answer because your real name is Matthew or Steven or something. Anyway, I was messing around with the name again and came up with Bemily. I looked on Google and there was some show on tv about kids who sign on for travel on large sailing crafts and one of the episodes was 'Bemily' relating to a romance between a couple of deck hands, Ben and Emily. It reminded me of the whole Bennifer (Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez or Brangelina (Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie) and was wondering if it was a wry reference to his now ex-girlfriend Emily. Clutching at straws here. I am in no way suggesting MH is the male half of the couple on the boat, however.

Unfortunately, I still haven't found any reference to JS. I would like to know what discussion referenced this source and whether it is legitimate. It would be nice if we can all share legitimate information.


I understand where you are coming from, so I apologize. I also believe he suffered greatly and perhaps more so, if he was aware that people who could have saved him were so close but he was unable to muster the energy to attract them. I've read a few posts of hikers who say they always respect a hiker's privacy and would never open or peer into a tent. Based on what I've seen of people dying of old age or terminal illnesses, though, most of them are really not aware of their surroundings or circumstances at that late stage of starvation.




I wasn't referring to him not being in the army. It's obvious he wasn't in the army. Fingerprints, etc. That's based on logic reason, deduction and probability. I was referring to the rest of your comment which is opinion. I just happen to have an opinion that doesn't reflect yours. That's all.

I'm not really understanding what you are getting at about the camping meaning he was homeless but I can say that, living a few hours from a big city where I have done business in person for weeks here and there, instead of being trapped in a hotel, I have got a campsite for weeks. While that's possible, it doesn't seem likely though because MH seemed to leave soon after that to hike forever. I do think the odds are way greater that he was homeless by that point. How long he'd been homeless is another question.

For the comment about TN and NC, we haven't even got a reliable timeline yet. They vary depending which one you look at on various sites including here and all of them are either incorrect or lacking info. So, I'd suggest we should get that together because we can truly see where there are gaps and such. I have actually been working on that here and there for the past week since I posted about this concern.

I agree that his most likely first name is Ben but I thought you felt differently because of the signature.

Way back, someone had wondered if his girlfriend was Emily. It has stuck with me that it could be Ben and Emily B. That the real last name may even start with B like Bilemy. A while back, who knows why, I came up with Emil Benby. There aren't many names you can come up with from the Ben Bilemy letters.

 

[gfinale]

Did MH ever discuss his religious beliefs?

Yes, way, way back there was discussion about his religion. For one, it was discussed what if he was in a religion where he was ostracized I think it was JW in particular.

 

[gfinale]

I wonder if there would be any value in attempting a second autopsy. Maybe reviewing organ samples or extracting tissue for DNA analysis to discover any difficult-to-detect diseases or illnesses. It was obvious he had knee problems but there was no mention of deterioration of the knee joints on the AR.

I remember reading years ago that Curt Cobain was convinced he had some kind of illness like cancer since he talked about constant stomach pain he had, yet on autopsy there was no indication that he had any type of illness like cancer, Crohn's, ulcers, etc. It must have just been stress related.

It's been in the back of my mind that MH could have thought he was ill or dying for whatever incorrect reason.He certainly seems to have not eaten very well or balanced which could have caused ongoing problems in the digestive system. I think it was a beer he was drinking in one photo and a can of pop in another. He seemed to be nibbling on pizza (only) and, in his notes, it is not a recipe to make bars, wafers or what a radio program that can't read called them waffles! What he has done is listed the "important" nutritional information of a certain make of wafers/bars. I'm fairly certain they sell regular, high protein, no fat, etc and he has each's nutrition listed. There is one line that notes these bars are all natural and such. Another line that lists flavors they sell and one other note saying he should try their peanut butter. That's it. That's all. If that's what he was eating mainly, again, his system couldn't have been happy!

Seems to be a pretty weak autopsy. Nobody seems to want to point out the elephant in the room. Why was his you know what massacred?! Was it done by him? Was it self-mutilation or was he extremely itchy there for lengths and couldn't stop scratching. Why wouldn't the ME and police wonder more about it?! Here's this unusual situation of a guy who can't be identified for 2 years even though there are lots of pics of him. We seem to know a fair amount about him but he seemingly hid his identity for who knows what reasons. He seems to have killed himself painfully slow of starvation...AND HE'S GOT A MESSED UP YOU KNOW WHAT!!! Kind of puts it over the top, doesn't it? No explanation or thought about it.

 

[gfinale]

If you search "Denim" at trailjournals.com, someone mentions a SOBO named Denim spending the night with them at the Clyde Smith Shelter in TN on October 18.

I found a couple of others. One I found is a journal entry for Aug 25, 2017 saying they arrived at Calf Mountain Shelter and listed about 10 hikers they met with the first two

Obsidian - staunton

Denim - Brooklyn <-- notice Brooklyn

Another Oct 18, 2017 where they started from Clyde Smith Shelter and were at Beauty Spot where they say met Morocco Mule and Denim.

Another Aug 28, 2017 Maupin field Shelter where they talked to Denim about his tent. <-- if this is our Denim, he didn't buy his yellow tent until November which would mean he had a different tent before that.

 

[GatorFL]

It's been in the back of my mind that MH could have thought he was ill or dying for whatever incorrect reason.He certainly seems to have not eaten very well or balanced which could have caused ongoing problems in the digestive system. I think it was a beer he was drinking in one photo and a can of pop in another. He seemed to be nibbling on pizza (only) and, in his notes, it is not a recipe to make bars, wafers or what a radio program that can't read called them waffles! What he has done is listed the "important" nutritional information of a certain make of wafers/bars. I'm fairly certain they sell regular, high protein, no fat, etc and he has each's nutrition listed. There is one line that notes these bars are all natural and such. Another line that lists flavors they sell and one other note saying he should try their peanut butter. That's it. That's all. If that's what he was eating mainly, again, his system couldn't have been happy!

Seems to be a pretty weak autopsy. Nobody seems to want to point out the elephant in the room. Why was his you know what massacred?! Was it done by him? Was it self-mutilation or was he extremely itchy there for lengths and couldn't stop scratching. Why wouldn't the ME and police wonder more about it?! Here's this unusual situation of a guy who can't be identified for 2 years even though there are lots of pics of him. We seem to know a fair amount about him but he seemingly hid his identity for who knows what reasons. He seems to have killed himself painfully slow of starvation...AND HE'S GOT A MESSED UP YOU KNOW WHAT!!! Kind of puts it over the top, doesn't it? No explanation or thought about it.

Regarding the bolded, was he talking about Honey Stinger Waffles by EN-R-G? I actually got a free sample of these on Tuesday. I was out of town and hit REI and they gave me some. EN-R-G has been around a long time.

Yeah, nobody is going to argue the autopsy could have been more through. I think it was a quick one because the ME figured this was some homeless guy. The ME did not know this was going to turn into an Unknown case that is now followed internationally. The exam exam also occurred a couple days after MH being found. There were no pics of him yet, no stories from the other hikers. Also, regarding the autopsy, ME's don't speculate. The ME did mention the trauma to his genital area. It wasn't a cause of death and so I think that's about all he could do. I don't think it was a massacre either. I asked a nurse about it, she said that area is very vascular and so when scratched can bleed a lot, which is what we see on his underwear. We will never know if it was a bug bite, self mutilation or something else, sadly. But that's not what killed him, starvation did. There are some studies on starvation out there and self mutilation does occur by those who are starving. Look up the Minnesota Starvation Experiment. One of the subjects of that experiment amputated some of his fingers during the study and he could not remember why.

 

[GatorFL]

I found a couple of others. One I found is a journal entry for Aug 25, 2017 saying they arrived at Calf Mountain Shelter and listed about 10 hikers they met with the first two

Obsidian - staunton

Denim - Brooklyn <-- notice Brooklyn

Another Oct 18, 2017 where they started from Clyde Smith Shelter and were at Beauty Spot where they say met Morocco Mule and Denim.

Another Aug 28, 2017 Maupin field Shelter where they talked to Denim about his tent. <-- if this is our Denim, he didn't buy his yellow tent until November which would mean he had a different tent before that.

Of course he had a different tent before he bought the Foray. They simply aren't very durable, and the lighter the tent the more fragile they are.

Even tarps have a shelf life. I once encountered a camper who was sleeping under a tarp. It wasn't that old but the main rope line he suspended the tarp on was already paper thin and had holes in it. He was using an abrasive kind of rope to suspend it and it ate through the tarp like sandpaper.

You can only patch a tarp or tent so much before it becomes a losing battle.

 

[GatorFL]

Yes, way, way back there was discussion about his religion. For one, it was discussed what if he was in a religion where he was ostracized I think it was JW in particular.

But did MH discuss religion or was this speculation by a group of Websleuthers?

 

[GatorFL]

Interesting story on the news today. Injured hiker rescued after 14 days. He was drinking water but he had no food, apparently he only had a day or two left: https://nypost.com/2020/08/19/hiker-survives-being-stranded-in-santa-fe-forest-for-14-days/

I wonder if MH went downhill really fast, over a couple of weeks, instead of months like we have been speculating?

 

[K9Enzo]

Interesting story on the news today. Injured hiker rescued after 14 days. He was drinking water but he had no food, apparently he only had a day or two left: https://nypost.com/2020/08/19/hiker-survives-being-stranded-in-santa-fe-forest-for-14-days/

I wonder if MH went downhill really fast, over a couple of weeks, instead of months like we have been speculating?

Wow. This poor guy had a back injury while hiking. The article stated he would "wiggle" his way to the stream for water, then back. I know of hikers also blowing a knee while hiking that leaves them unable to go further. You make a good point, perhaps MH wasn't there for as long as I have speculated. Glad this poor guy was found. What an ordeal -14 days.

ETA: I know MH would have never carried a PLB but it's such a good idea when hiking, especially alone but even in a group. Accidents happen to the best of them.

 

[GatorFL]

Wow. This poor guy had a back injury while hiking. The article stated he would "wiggle" his way to the stream for water, then back. I know of hikers also blowing a knee while hiking that leaves them unable to go further. You make a good point, perhaps MH wasn't there for as long as I have speculated. Glad this poor guy was found. What an ordeal -14 days.

ETA: I know MH would have never carried a PLB but it's such a good idea when hiking, especially alone but even in a group. Accidents happen to the best of them.

What I mean is MH could have been there at Nobles the whole time, from mid-April on, but only gotten in trouble the last couple weeks.

The PLB's and Sat Messengers are nice. If I was thru hiking or going remote it would be a must. I rarely hike alone even a short trip off the trail combined with a fall could be lethal. I always felt safer on my boat with the EPIRB.

 

[branmuffin]

I'm not really understanding what you are getting at about the camping meaning he was homeless but I can say that, living a few hours from a big city where I have done business in person for weeks here and there, instead of being trapped in a hotel, I have got a campsite for weeks. While that's possible, it doesn't seem likely though because MH seemed to leave soon after that to hike forever. I do think the odds are way greater that he was homeless by that point. How long he'd been homeless is another question.

For the comment about TN and NC, we haven't even got a reliable timeline yet. They vary depending which one you look at on various sites including here and all of them are either incorrect or lacking info. So, I'd suggest we should get that together because we can truly see where there are gaps and such. I have actually been working on that here and there for the past week since I posted about this concern.

I agree that his most likely first name is Ben but I thought you felt differently because of the signature.

Way back, someone had wondered if his girlfriend was Emily. It has stuck with me that it could be Ben and Emily B. That the real last name may even start with B like Bilemy. A while back, who knows why, I came up with Emil Benby. There aren't many names you can come up with from the Ben Bilemy letters.

I was agreeing with Rickshawfan that I couldn't say unequivocally that MH was homeless based on him camping/living in the New York State Park. That's based on the traditional definition of homeless usually meaning 'without choice'. And now you and Richshawfan have cemented that camping in a park while on a business trip doesn't denote homelessness it denotes choice. Seeing someone come out of a public washroom wearing a suit could be seen by other campers as the equivalent of living out of your car.

It's the same as the interpretation of staying/visiting with a sister. Both those words can mean the same thing. It's just semantics and we can get bogged down by focusing on the terms.

I do think his first name is Ben based on the law of averages for aliases but at the same time I felt he absolutely was gonna write another name but again I could be way off base. It's just my opinion.

I've always been under the assumption (wrongly, as it turns out) that someone going by the name 'Ben' means their name is Benjamin. However I realized that a friend's aunt who's name was Bernadette was called Bennie, so I guess Bernard could also be his given name. If he signed his name 'Jack' most people might assume that his real name is John (like JFK and my dad!) but a friend's first born son is just Jack so maybe it's just 'Ben'. Who knows? We're just spitting in the wind at this point in time.

I am curious about the other posters on the hiker website who mentioned a Denim who was hiking in 2015 and 2016. It's been discussed way earlier that Mostly Harmless is a common enough avatar name online due to the popularity of the Hitchhikers series so it's possible that other hikers have also either been given or assumed the trail name Denim for exactly the same reason MH was given it early on the AT.

I have no problem with posters proposing alternate theories to mine. If their theory involves individuals who bear no resemblance to MH by way of partial bridges, root canals, tattoos, scarring, ex-con, brown eyes, six feet tall, pushing the envelope age-wise, like 60ish, or have been missing for 20+ years, I'll give my opinion regarding the likelihood of them being MH, which will be an emphatic NO but I'm not going to belabour the point.

It may be beneficial to update the timeline and map of MH's travel to include the two sightings of him at Nobles camp June 1-2 and July 3 2018 with supporting screenshots of the discussion on the hiking site (if it is an approved source). Maybe @Gardener1850 would be so kind to do it since it was her baby. And the TN sighting if it can be verified. The timeline has helped a lot of posters having it included at the beginning of each thread.

At this point in time, I'm just waiting for the results from Othram.

But did MH discuss religion or was this speculation by a group of Websleuthers?

I think it was just speculation. IMO.

 

[wardo27]

I am curious about the other posters on the hiker website who mentioned a Denim who was hiking in 2015 and 2016. It's been discussed way earlier that Mostly Harmless is a common enough avatar name online due to the popularity of the Hitchhikers series so it's possible that other hikers have also either been given or assumed the trail name Denim for exactly the same reason MH was given it early on the AT.

Yep, your inference is correct, it was discussed on various forums back when the case was first publicized and everyone was combing the 'net for references - the Denim from 2015/2016, as well as another Denim that appeared on the Pacific Crest Trail a few years ago, were different Denims, and it was mentioned a few times that "Denim" is/was a common trail name.

 

[gfinale]

Regarding the bolded, was he talking about Honey Stinger Waffles by EN-R-G? I actually got a free sample of these on Tuesday. I was out of town and hit REI and they gave me some. EN-R-G has been around a long time.

Yeah, nobody is going to argue the autopsy could have been more through. I think it was a quick one because the ME figured this was some homeless guy. The ME did not know this was going to turn into an Unknown case that is now followed internationally. The exam exam also occurred a couple days after MH being found. There were no pics of him yet, no stories from the other hikers. Also, regarding the autopsy, ME's don't speculate. The ME did mention the trauma to his genital area. It wasn't a cause of death and so I think that's about all he could do. I don't think it was a massacre either. I asked a nurse about it, she said that area is very vascular and so when scratched can bleed a lot, which is what we see on his underwear. We will never know if it was a bug bite, self mutilation or something else, sadly. But that's not what killed him, starvation did. There are some studies on starvation out there and self mutilation does occur by those who are starving. Look up the Minnesota Starvation Experiment. One of the subjects of that experiment amputated some of his fingers during the study and he could not remember why.

There are certain mental and physical conditions that can cause that though and they could help explain where he was at

On the one radio program you can probably find in a search, they said waffles but his notes clearly say wafers. There is no doubt if it says wafers or waffles. Still, you could compare (or I may) the nutritional info. Once I read every detail on the bars in his notes, I went on a tear on the internet to find the bars that matched. I found similar but the numbers didn't match close enough along with the flavours, whether they had wafers, and whether they offered the various kinds. The notes pdf on Sworn Statement page is pretty good quality. BTW, if he had some food left as I thought I read and some of it was those bars, again, why don't we know that in a complete list of what was found on him?

One further point about the bars. He put "Future Flavours" such as raspberry and peanut butter and "Future Types" such as High Protein. This may be where some are assuming he means he's going to make those in the future. However, I believe he just means he could try those in the future and the people who say it's a recipe are completely incorrect, there is no recipe of ingredients, how to make them or anything.
"

 

[gfinale]

Of course he had a different tent before he bought the Foray. They simply aren't very durable, and the lighter the tent the more fragile they are.

Even tarps have a shelf life. I once encountered a camper who was sleeping under a tarp. It wasn't that old but the main rope line he suspended the tarp on was already paper thin and had holes in it. He was using an abrasive kind of rope to suspend it and it ate through the tarp like sandpaper.

You can only patch a tarp or tent so much before it becomes a losing battle.

Yikes, thinking the rope they use for boats would be best, smooth and weatherproof.

In past discussion here, some of us have wondered if he had a tent before the yellow one and, if he did, there is a possibility we could find where he bought that one and know more. I don't think it is a given that he had a tent before because he could have always stayed in hostels, or done something else, maybe a tarp.

 

[gfinale]

But did MH discuss religion or was this speculation by a group of Websleuthers?

I meant it was discussed in this forum as a possibility

 

[GatorFL]

Yikes, thinking the rope they use for boats would be best, smooth and weatherproof.

In past discussion here, some of us have wondered if he had a tent before the yellow one and, if he did, there is a possibility we could find where he bought that one and know more. I don't think it is a given that he had a tent before because he could have always stayed in hostels, or done something else, maybe a tarp.

Best kind of rope for a tarp is paracord.

The shelters on the AT are first come, first served and most are open on one side. There are pics of MH in a shelter, you cans see what I mean. No way he hiked from NY to Georgia where he bought the Foray without another tent or tarp.

 

[gfinale]

Interesting story on the news today. Injured hiker rescued after 14 days. He was drinking water but he had no food, apparently he only had a day or two left: https://nypost.com/2020/08/19/hiker-survives-being-stranded-in-santa-fe-forest-for-14-days/

I wonder if MH went downhill really fast, over a couple of weeks, instead of months like we have been speculating?

He could have just decided to camp there until the weather got better for hiking then a couple of months later been hit with something heavy BUT he stayed quiet in the tent while June 1-2 and July 3 hikers were there. Still, possible. If he decided to camp there so long though, you would think he would have made trips into town for some supplies but nobody has said they saw him. Since he died there, they must have all heard about him yet nobody.

 

[K9Enzo]

Best kind of rope for a tarp is paracord.

The shelters on the AT are first come, first served and most are open on one side. There are pics of MH in a shelter, you cans see what I mean. No way he hiked from NY to Georgia where he bought the Foray without another tent or tarp.

Yup.

550 cord is a requirement with our hiking gear.