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

Status
Not open for further replies.
I will pm mods as both threads seems to be still existing.
 
Could be...I looked for more photos of him without any luck. Checked for any family looking for him...Nothing on the FB friends/family about him.

Can't believe family/friends are not plastering photos all over about their missing loved ones...I don't care how long they been gone, I would flood facebook pages, twitter, newspapers, etc if it was one of my family/friends missing.
He may not have been very close to his family. I have family in same city-hell same side of town and we don’t speak so they wouldn’t notice if I disappeared and I wouldn’t notice if they did. He may have been the type to send a card & some money to parents,siblings & such at Christmas time and just go on a trip somewhere or go hiking so they may not even realize he’s missing yet. My former neighbor was unmarried , had 2 grown kids but he wasn’t close to them & several siblings & that’s how he was. Only way we would have known is if mail/newspapers started piling up. My gut feeling says that’s how he was. Not necessarily leaving everything behind but just a “loner” & just living his life by himself
 
I can't find the rule-outs list anymore, can someone please repost it? There was a list with suggested persons that family had ruled out of social media as well.

I want to know if anyone has suggested Robert Hoagland:

robert+hoagland+newtown.jpg


He walked away with a recently purchased map of the Eastern US, had wanted to go and hike the AT, and is rumored to have had $600 cash on him.
 
Bringing forward the Rule Out List:

Sheriff fb has directly responded on several suggestions on their page saying -- " That is not the decedent". They have also said in these replies he is not in NAMUS nor any missing person databases they have access to.
Most of these responses are found here: Collier County Sheriff's Office

Ruled out:
Glen Oldfield (ruled out on UID's NAMUS page)
Paul Glova (Ruled out on UID's NAMUS page)
Kyle Leigh Art
Robert Wayne Roush
Jeffrey Alan Boughton
Michael Robinson
Joel Matthew Thompson
Kris Fowler
Trevor Nichols
Kevin Mitchell

Other MP's suggested on CCSO fb page (but Sheriff has not replied yet):
David William Blake
Joshua Wellman (a family member did reply that this is not him)
Joshua Scott
Eric Daniel Prueitt
Christopher King
Bradley Allen (a family member replied it is not him)
Shane Michael Fell
Patrick Lee Ghering
Derek Lueking (his mother replied it is not him)

(I will check today to see if there are any new replies on the above)

@dorothyland here you go ;) Again thanks to Gardener for putting everything together in a post! This post dates back to September 12th so it probably needs an update.

I was going through posts on the facebook page of the Colliet County Sheriff’s department to look for possible updates. While I didn’t really find any, there are some posts that made me wonder about certain things in this case again:

1) Where is his pack?? Pretty much everyone who met him while hiking said his pack was huge and extremely heavy for a hiker (about 50lbs) and yet his pack (nor what I assume was in it) isn’t listed among things found in his possession when he was found deceased. I read people saying that the Sheriff’s department wouldn’t list his pack because it’s considered “evidence”, but as they’ve stated themselves several times on their facebook account: “this isn’t a criminal investigation”; so why would they not tell the public about his belongings? Unless of course the pack wasn’t at his camping site when he was found. I’ve wondered before if maybe he got rid of it because he was growing weaker and it became impossible for him to hike while carrying 50lbs on his back. Then again, the backpack cover was found at the site so the entire thing is just strange.

2) The female hiker who hiked a great deal with him on his travels (I think her name was Obsidian) actually responded to the Sheriff’s facebook post. She (as well as anyone who ever met him) talked about how kind and pleasant he was. She also responded to someone asking whether MD had an accent that he just had an “American accent”. Imo that means he didn’t have an accent that really stuck out (like a southern drawl).

3) I saw someone in the comments saying they read on another forum that he was also known as “Rouge” (possibly referring to him being from the Baton Rouge area). He was looking for someone named “Liz” in Florida. She lives in Naples.
- I’m not sure if they are talking about the same person. Just thought it should be mentioned here in case it handn’t yet.

4) The Sheriff’s department replied to someone stating that “for now they are looking for someone who knew him and his legal name”. I wonder if that’s why they are so quick to eliminate suggested matches on their facebook page. Could it be that unless someone starts their reply with “Hey, that’s my son/brother/neighbour/co-worker...” they aren’t really looking into any suggested matches at all? I don’t want to suggest they’re doing a bad job, I’m sure they’re doing everything they possibly can with the resources they have, but the way they worded their reply just made me wonder about this.
 
I can't find the rule-outs list anymore, can someone please repost it? There was a list with suggested persons that family had ruled out of social media as well.

I want to know if anyone has suggested Robert Hoagland:

robert+hoagland+newtown.jpg


He walked away with a recently purchased map of the Eastern US, had wanted to go and hike the AT, and is rumored to have had $600 cash on him.

I think his teeth are too cooked. Denim has straight front teeth. It's hard to see them in the few photos where his teeth show but they made it clear in the illustration:
Attempt%20to%20identify%20Collier%20hiker_1533232465182.JPG_93999161_ver1.0_640_480.jpg
upload_2019-1-1_11-0-30.pngupload_2019-1-1_11-2-10.png
 
I very much agree. He looks a lot like him. Nose resemblance as well, IMO. I did a teeny bit of research and can’t find much. With the exception of a possibility that the name Pery is a shortened version of their last name: Pidperyhora. I hope and pray that Denim gets his identity.



How about Elias Jean Pery Jr.?



It could be that this is how he broke ties with his family and friends. The move would have placed him in the area where MD started hiking. I'm not 100% sure of the timeline anymore so possibly people had already encountered MD on the hiking trail before Elias went missing. That being said, his namus file doesn't state when he was last "physically" seen.

But it's mainly the kindness in his eyes that grabs my attention the same way those of Mostly Harmless do. Judging from the attached photo on his namus file, Elias may have been younger than 31 when it was taken. When I try to picture him older, after having lost weight and with a beard, I can definitely see a resemblance. But maybe my eyes are tricking me because I just really want him to be identified. What do you think?

Thumbnail
 
He lived his life his own way for a long time. Perhaps there is no family to mourn or miss him. As long as he was on the trail and as many paths as he crossed, had he mentioned a family or home I'm certain other backpackers would've remembered. I hope his ending was peaceful and where he wanted it to be.
 
He lived his life his own way for a long time. Perhaps there is no family to mourn or miss him. As long as he was on the trail and as many paths as he crossed, had he mentioned a family or home I'm certain other backpackers would've remembered. I hope his ending was peaceful and where he wanted it to be.
If I recall right he mentioned a broken up relationship, ties to Batton Rouge and a sister in Florida.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Members online

Online statistics

Members online
67
Guests online
2,381
Total visitors
2,448

Forum statistics

Threads
590,011
Messages
17,928,949
Members
228,038
Latest member
shmoozie
Back
Top