Definitely thanks for doing a timeline, Gardener. I'm just pushing hard to make it even better I can supply additional or conflicting info that everyone can check if wanted.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.
I think it was just speculation. IMO.
Personally, I think there has been lots more we have learned in the past 3 weeks about MH including clearing up some confusion. That it could all help lead to identifying him. That I'm not going to wait for months for DNA to hopefully help when there is more otherwise that I believe could help identify him.
To me, it's counter productive to have all these distractions of people with tattoos, 5'2" or 6'4", etc. being considered. If you're saying "If it wasn't for the tattoos" then it isn't him so why post it?