Identified! FL - Big Cypress Natl Preserve, Male hiker, "Denim" & "Mostly Harmless", Jul 2018 - Vance Rodriguez

How do we know he didn’t want to be found or identified? He used an alias, but don’t most hikers do the same? Supposedly, he claimed he lost his wallet. Maybe he had identification in it?

If it’s true that he had a friend store his hard drives, I wonder what he told his friend. It just seems to me that the friend would be wondering what happened to him.

If it is true that he didn’t want anyone knowing who he was (more so than most hikers) I can’t help but wonder if he was from a well known family. Maybe he didn’t want to deal with “so what’s it like being the son of a famous musician, politician, actor, etc”

 

Just hit "reply" on the lower left and you quote that post. "Quote" is to add more than one post to a reply.

I concur the signature was forced.

 

He was hiding a lot. His real name, for sure. No electronics.

A trail name is a nickname, not an alias. He also used an alias in addition to at least 2 trail names. If you're using a trail name, many times your fellow hikers either know your real name or it's easy to find out. Or you exchange info like an email or Facebook profile so you can catch up in the future.

I don't know that he claimed he lost his wallet. Some saw him with one but he was not found with it. Maybe he didn't have one, maybe he did. Nobody will ever know for sure.

The hard drives could be a lie by MH or they could have been in a long-liquidated storage unit. Who knows? Maybe with his real name this will get solved. Same about the family. Soon, hopefully.

 

Also I think it was possible he’d ditched his NY life after a nasty divorce, sold everything and gone off to live in a park rather than play the Lawyer Game any longer. The ex can’t get it if she can’t find it, can she (or he?) If that sounds far fetched, me and hubby were about two weeks away from vanishing to South America once, thanks to his nutty ex. I’ve been there, done that.

Geeks will be geeks though. He’s sat there in his tent and decides to code an app that will mine bitcoin on other people’s CPU cycles.

Yeah, slightly iffy, but needs must. (And he likely has a ‘paper’ bitcoin wallet already that does not physically exist except as a seed phrase, to be reconstructed when back to civilization).

The thing I needed to explain was why use a fake name in a guest book? Well..

Who gets to see that data? Is it uploaded to some Parks or State database maybe once a year or something? I don’t know and I’m guessing neither did he. Unless he did, of course..

He’s not too shy about photos, after he thinks about it a bit, because you can’t do a Google search on a photo unless you already have the photo. Text is a different matter. If it gets typed in, it can be searched on.

He didn’t want to be in a government database.

Perhaps on general principles, like any self-respecting hacker, or perhaps with a good reason.

I am guessing either the ex or the IRS had him worried. Maybe both if he spent enough fending off the ex. But it’s the government having access to that data that he doesn’t like.

The Screeps angle needs looking at again. I’ve a feeling someone there knows exactly who he is. Maybe they are ALL busy mining bitcoin on other people’s CPUs or something

A couple more things..

I have been keeping track of his spelling mistakes..

Beleives
Caffiene
Nutrion
Nutrional

I’d like to see more of his notebooks but the scans of his actual handwriting are too fuzzy to make out a thing. I’ve already read the transcribed stuff.

 

Mining bitcoin? I don't think that has been speculated at all on here and there seems to be zero evidence that was in the notebook. Where did you read that?

 

He might have had ID in the wallet that he apparently had at one point, but having done nothing to replace it in any way, even with a handwritten ID, tells me that he really did not want to be identified. By all accounts, he was an intelligent man, and he had to have realized that he could end up deceased for any number of reasons, and that with no phone, no wallet, no ID, no credit card, etc., that he would be unidentifiable in that case. If he wanted any other outcome, it just seems to me that he would have made provision for it.

I too have some doubt about the 'friend with the hard drives' story, because they would surely have missed him by now. It's been three and a half years.

 

I don’t recall where I read it, but I think it was speculation by someone after the word ‘blockchain’ was seen in the notes.

Ahh.. I think I get it now! I just reread part of the notes.

I think the app he was coding was supposed to run on a blockchain. I just noticed the word ‘contract’. I think he was planning on using smart contracts, which would be nothing to do with bitcoin.

Something like what these guys are talking about.

Creating an app on Blockchain technology using JavaScript

That.. would put him on the cutting edge.

Whatever it was pushed a guy like this to leave behind his PC had to be so bad that living in the park was his alternative to suicide.

 

In addition to accusing MH of being a criminal (mining bitcoin) which is considered victim shaming around here, you also accused the entire Screeps community of aiding him. Blockchain is just a type of database, there are other technologies use it.

 

Back in Thread 4, user Tilker33, looked at the Screeps code and said "after reading the appears he was planning to mine cryptos (similar to Bitcoin) using the Screeps servers. Also planning an android game. It seems like he could have been looking for fast ways to make money." I think that's where it came from.

 

So much speculation on the code. I think Nark did the most work on it. I don't recall any of the people who spoke to experts said it was a program to mine bitcoin.

 

Er.. mining bitcoin isn’t criminal. Stealing CPU cycles might be if your EULA isn’t right.

I am thinking aloud. If this case was easy and capable of being solved via extant facts, it would be solved by now. Hence, speculation.

A second look suggests a different explanation. Which I have provided, and which is also speculation. An app written in JavaScript running in a blockchain and using smart contracts to do so.

So maybe ask the Screeps people if anyone has done that or is planning to.

 

Thank you Wardo, that was exactly it!

 

I just don’t see that. Perhaps the replacement ID was arranged and is sitting at an address or post office box somewhere.

And if it wasn’t replaced well I don’t think it means trying to avoid detection. Frankly my adult son would do exactly this - while an otherwise responsible adult he just doesn’t see personal admin as important. Wouldn’t replace an ID until he needed it.

Anyway are just speculating and it’s not helping ID this young man.

 

There's a difference between being somewhat slack in personal admin details, and deliberately heading out into the wilderness with no phone, no electronics, no credit cards, no identification of any kind, and no in-case-of-emergency contact. All I'm saying is that it seems like an intentional choice by MH, and not just sloppiness. I could well be wrong, but to me it indicates that he did not want to be identified no matter the circumstances.

And yes, I'm aware that it's speculation of a sort, as is a great deal of what is posted here, and also that it isn't (directly, anyway) helping to identify Mostly Harmless. I'm just throwing the *possibility* out there that that identification isn't in fact what he wanted, and that maybe we're pursuing it as much for us as for him. (Or for his family, the existence of which is also pure speculation after this long). But I hope not. I hope that finding out who he was is what he would have wanted, and that it brings some comfort, or at least closure, to those who knew or loved him, wherever they are.

 

DH and I spent some time on the AT today. We just did a short hike on a new to us section. I think we spent as much time cleaning up fallen branches as we did hiking. LOL
As we walked I couldn’t help but think of MH.

 

There's a pic or two of MH drinking alcohol, right? Did he have to show his ID for that or did the servers just not bother to ask for it since he definitely looks old enough to drink...? Have they ever been asked?

 

This chap is coming up at around 77% match in API geometrics (Highest I've seen yet, I've run all of the suggestions over the last couple of years) He has been missing since 2014. I think he also has something to do with gaming when I googled his name, alas he is on the run from authorities. His name is Brendan Ryder Gill. Everything matches apart from location, also Brendan has a scar on his cheek (Could have faded?) and MH has a scar on his abdomen (Could have gained it) No tattoos. I think we have to be careful with MH with how much we can trust what he told people tbh. The eyebrows through me though, could he have plucked them as a mono is quite an obvious thing to notice (or maybe you lose it as you get older, hubby has now started growing ear hair urgh)

 

I'm not seeing any resemblance to MH.


Not sure if my photo link works so here's the alternate photo
Brendan Ryder Gill - Minnesota Missing Person Directory

 

I'm not seeing any resemblance to MH.



Not sure if my photo link works so here's the alternate photo
Brendan Ryder Gill - Minnesota Missing Person Directory

 

Just going to add this link to your post so admins know that this is a missing person and not a random yearbook photo! thanks for sharing, I can see why the algorithms picked up on facial similarities. I am definitely in the camp that he will turn out to have never been reported missing though

Brendan Ryder Gill - Minnesota Missing Person Directory

ETA - since there is a warrant involved here, would that mean his fingerprints are on file with LE?