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

[baberuthless]

All MOO, but I do not think MH was part of the rainbow family or Amish. Both of those sub-cultures have some distinct traits that someone who crossed paths with MH would have picked up on. (unless it was reported he smelled of patchouli and I missed that? just kidding and no offense to the rainbow family folks!)

I think he was a very competent and bright tech worker who made decent money, was thrifty with it, was tech savvy enough to maintain a small digital footprint, was not super close to his family(whether by choice or because his parents are deceased) and was likely never in a long term relationship. I also think he was between 40-50 as I do think a younger person would have used a digital note taking device and been more likely to have had more of a digital presence. Totally basing this off people I have crossed paths with over 25 years of working in tech (me being a chatty cathy type who always tried to get quieter engineers to chat more when they got stuck on projects with me). The people who would know him are likely coworkers but they may have described him as a private person and wouldn't necessarily have asked any questions about his life outside of work. AGAIN - this is all MOO based on the picture painted by the reports of those who encountered him AND colored with my own biases of engineers I have worked with throughout my career.

Without the facial hair, he just looks so much younger. The notebook makes sense if he was writing a lot, think about how much of a nuisance it would be to not only keep a digital note-taking device charged, but also keep it from breaking/getting damaged in a hike. He mentioned to other hikers that he deleted all social media — so he did have a digital presence at one point.

I wonder why he took so much effort to hide his identity and where his wallet went. I hope the DNA testing is helpful.

 

[moonriverfarm]

I’m with you NickandNora. I’m afraid he might have been running from something terrible. Not as in he was a criminal or had a physically abusive father necessarily, but something less obvious.

Awhile back I went down the rabbit hole of researching a child killer from Louisiana/Mississippi. I highly suspect he was a serial offender but that’s irrelevant in this case. Anyway, I was trying find a link between our hiker, Louisiana, and a past worthy of running from. This particular killer (now deceased after being sentenced to death in LA for kidnapping, raping. and murdering his step daughter) was institutionalized and began committing crimes at a very early age. He basically admitted to his attorney that he’d gotten away with who knows how many other crimes, yet I couldn’t find much on him. This took place in/near Denham Springs which is what caught my attention in the first place.

Long story short, I discovered that his father died at a young age when he was only a year or so old and his mother (and in turn him) changed her last name. It made for a very confusing family tree and quite a blended one as well. He ended up having more than one wife and several children/step children. Some of whom I could not account for and some of whom I suspect could have been victimized by him.

My point being, let’s say our hiker was a product of a rape, a victim of rape or similar abuse at the hands of a family member (or friend of a family member), or was born into a family shrouded in darkness (I am simply using these as examples!). I can only imagine how this would affect a person mentally and emotionally. Then, if he were diagnosed with some ailment, I’d think that’d worsen his physical and mental well-being.

Maybe his family knew of the abuse and were too frightened for everyone’s safety to speak up, and disappearing off the face of the earth was the best option for him. Maybe his mothered married an abusive man and forbid him to ever speak of it. Maybe his family even helped him “disappear” and they’ve been mourning his physical loss for almost 2 years (or more) now.

So many possibilities. I spent awhile researching this killer as I thought at the time I could be on to something - now I’m not sure of anything. I am feeling as though he didn’t want us to easily know who he was. I respect that, although I hope one day we do get to know who he was. This has been an unusually tough case all around. I’ve grown rather attached to him!

If he was running/hiding from a past, it's odd how he sure did look straight into the camera for every one of these photos. No hiding from being photographed, no matter a beard or a clean shaved face. I doubt this theory MOO.

 

[moonriverfarm]

Duplicate post

 

[Valiant]

But at the same time, everything that could identify him was removed, and I think it was done by him before he became too ill. He didn't appear to have a name, address, or phone number (his or anyone else's) in his notebooks.

I think he was very intentional about keeping his identify unknown for whatever reason.

 

[moonriverfarm]

But stared straight into the camera for so many of his photos.

 

[HippyArtist]

I know, right? One more aspect of him "leaving no trace."

My thought, after looking at the body, is that he was robbed. I think whoever left the bloody mark on his head, ransacked his tent and left that mess. But because the police think he was a himeless man, they blew all of that off.

 

[Podengo]

This question has probably been asked and answered but I haven’t seen the answer anywhere so, does anyone know if he had water in his tent? I know a bottle was found, but I don’t know if it contained water? And how was he refilling it?

 

[SugarQueen]

My thought, after looking at the body, is that he was robbed. I think whoever left the bloody mark on his head, ransacked his tent and left that mess. But because the police think he was a himeless man, they blew all of that off.

I need to get caught up but......looking at the body? His tent was ransacked? I don’t remember that. What do you mean looking at the body? Photos?

 

[whosbobby]

Sorry if this has already been posted as I know this is a large thread.

There is a man with a very similar name to the Ben Bilemy alias, is from Florida and has worked in IT for 20 years. Is it possible that the UID did in-fact have a Sister in Florida , lived there at one point and this was an old co-worker or acquaintance. I also want to assume LE has already reached out to this man

What else can you tell us about this person?

 

[Coffee56]

Watching some Rainbow videos just in case. They have nationals and regionals but I haven’t quite figured it out yet. 2018 was held in Georgia but he wouldn’t have made that one. Close enough (beginning of July) though to think he may have been headed back that way. 2016 was in Vermont. If he was in NY at that time and a Family member I would think this is one he’d attend. There’s a lot of video footage. If the fire starting info is true I can’t imagine he was a Rainbow Family member. They appear to have some really good camping skills. The kitchens run pretty flawlessly.

 

[GatorFL]

My thought, after looking at the body, is that he was robbed. I think whoever left the bloody mark on his head, ransacked his tent and left that mess. But because the police think he was a himeless man, they blew all of that off.

He had almost $4000 in cash if he was robbed the robbers were incompetent.

This is the second or third comment I've seen about a bloody mark on his head. Sorry, that is fake news.

There is one postmortem photo #87 that shows the back of his head and there is no bloody mark. I believe what is represented in that photo is livor mortis where the blood pools where the body is lying after death. There is no cut or gash on his head, front or back, nor were any noted on the autopsy. As I've said before I don't think the autopsy was as through as it could have been but the ME did note all the obvious stuff.

 

[GatorFL]

This question has probably been asked and answered but I haven’t seen the answer anywhere so, does anyone know if he had water in his tent? I know a bottle was found, but I don’t know if it contained water? And how was he refilling it?

There is a freshwater pond at Nobles that is suitable for drinking water. What is more curious to me, did he have a filtration device or purification tablets? I'm a FL hiker, even when we pump water out of a hand pump well we filter it because of parasites.

 

[GatorFL]

I need to get caught up but......looking at the body? His tent was ransacked? I don’t remember that. What do you mean looking at the body? Photos?

Along with the postmortems the police took photos of the tent. What I cannot tell is if the investigators moved the tent after they took him out and then took photos of the inside.

There are pictures of the tent staked into the ground. Without stakes and guy lines that thing can be picked up and moved easily. It looks to me like that happened after the removed him. Because before they removed him the belongings in the tent looked pretty orderly.

 

[GatorFL]

Without the facial hair, he just looks so much younger. The notebook makes sense if he was writing a lot, think about how much of a nuisance it would be to not only keep a digital note-taking device charged, but also keep it from breaking/getting damaged in a hike. He mentioned to other hikers that he deleted all social media — so he did have a digital presence at one point.

I wonder why he took so much effort to hide his identity and where his wallet went. I hope the DNA testing is helpful.

I think he chucked the wallet somewhere.

Lots of thru hikers carry a notebook. When you're not hiking, there is a lot of downtime in the afternoon and evening. He was only going 10 miles a day he told others. That's like 4-5 hours of hiking except in swamp conditions. He had to do something during his downtime and journaling, writing, etc is a great time killer, and you can do it while resting.

For those that don't hike, there are lots of solar battery chargers available for hikers. They clip to the outside of your pack and in a day it can fully charge battery which can repower an iPhone and another device like a GPS.

 

[HippyArtist]

He had almost $4000 in cash if he was robbed the robbers were incompetent.

This is the second or third comment I've seen about a bloody mark on his head. Sorry, that is fake news.

There is one postmortem photo #87 that shows the back of his head and there is no bloody mark. I believe what is represented in that photo is livor mortis where the blood pools where the body is lying after death. There is no cut or gash on his head, front or back, nor were any noted on the autopsy. As I've said before I don't think the autopsy was as through as it could have been but the ME did note all the obvious stuff.

Yes. There is. His hair is bloody. You may not have seen all 187 pictures then.

 

[HippyArtist]

Yes, there is. There is also blood in his hair and on his ear. You may not have seen all 187 pictures then, as I have.

 

[HippyArtist]

I need to get caught up but......looking at the body? His tent was ransacked? I don’t remember that. What do you mean looking at the body? Photos?

Yes. 187 of them. They were released by the PD. Since they are not autopsy photos, they are public.

 

[Classito]

Rumors from social media, although interesting, aren't supposed to be brought here. I feel rumors really muddy the waters and take away from facts. It's tough to wait patiently for facts from LE, but the rumor-culture online can hurt innocent people.

When someone says they know who the person is I don't consider it a rumor. We need to remember how the Grateful Doe (Jason) and many more was matched. Someone posted they knew who it was after seeing the photo.

 

[SugarQueen]

Can anyone provide a link so I can look at them. I am way out of the loop.

 

[GatorFL]

Yes, there is. There is also blood in his hair and on his ear. You may not have seen all 187 pictures then, as I have.

I saw the pics I will take another look.