Hi Everyone, I'm new here, and it has taken me several days to read through all 65 pages of this thread. I'm mystified and enthralled. In addition to those feelings, I'm also overwhelmed by the commitment, generosity, and camaraderie on WS - and very eager to contribute in whatever way I can.
My thoughts so far:
- Terminal illness. I'm not sold on it. As others have said, I think a life event took place - a relationship ending, death of a loved one, disillusionment in the workplace, etc. An AT through-hiker loses 30lbs, on average, so citing the photos where he has lost weight and has dark circles under his eyes could just as easily (and perhaps, more likely) be indicative of living on the trail for over a year, rather than a terminal illness.
- HOWEVER. I have also been curious if there was some sort of illness or disease, if it could have been related to his eyesight.
- Hiking experience. I agree with all who have suggested he was inexperienced based on the evidence and comments from hikers he met, and that this man is not going to turn out to be an avid hiker prior to this. It sounds, based on the information available, as though an event prompted him to go for the initial two week hike in June, when he allegedly received his initial trail name, Denim. Perhaps that two week hike is what incited his decision to through hike the AT.
- Hiking experience leading to his predicament in FL.. Well. I'm not a hardcore hiker, but I did grow up spending my summers camping in the Adirondacks - about 45-min from Montreal. This, to me, is wilderness. Everything I have read about the AT suggests that it is a very different experience. I am in no way attempting to cheapen the AT, all I am suggesting is that the AT did not prepare him for what the trails beyond it would be like. When there is a road crossing, on average, every four miles on the AT.. well, that is very different from what I grew up with in the ADKs.
- First-hand hiker accounts. I'm having difficulty weighting information provided by hikers he encountered, and I'm thinking of compiling a spreadsheet of comments/observations by source and date. It would be enlightening (IMO) to quantify observations (how many people said he referenced being sick, having an ex, an abusive father, and when, etc.) to better estimate their validity. Information provided by Obsidian and echoed by three others, for example, I would feel comfortable weighting heavily. Either as fact, or as a potential well-rehearsed cover-story, if he went that far to conceal his identity.
- Unaccounted time in (presumably) FL. Where the heck was he for all that time nobody seems to have encountered him leading up to his death? For much of his journey since he hit the AT, he encountered people at least once a month. Was he really alone, or did he leave the trail, and that's why no hikers saw him? I will echo what some FL hikers have said, as someone who lived there - almost no FL natives are outside for significant periods of time during the summer. If he did have a sister in FL, and was with her before setting back out, perhaps this is why alarm bells were not going off for friends/family.
- Storage of belongings prior to leaving. Is it possible he only left a few small things with a friend, and did not actually purchase a storage container?
- Alleged work history as a programmer. Would it be possible to search cached versions of job openings for programmers and/or developers in NY around the time he took his initial two-week June hike? I'm planning to look into this further unless someone already knows. If we could find job postings that line up with around the time he may have quit.. that could be quite the lead. I'm almost more inclined to invest time searching for previous employment, since it does not appear he kept in close contact with friends and/or family.
- Gaming/hand-written code in notebooks. I work in IT at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Is there anything I can do to leverage this? It would be incredibly helpful to know the programming language to narrow down job possibilities.
- Timeline with photos. I'm happy to use the amazing timeline generated by Gardener1850 to plot his apparent trek with photos of him, unless someone else already completed this.
My head is spinning with so many thoughts on this fellow, but I think I should cut myself off here, for now.
