The Driver - Michael Eric Hager

Status
Not open for further replies.
I've thought about Eric, the driver, all day. I think we'll find out more about him and the details that led up to the wreck via facebook friends from hs in Inman and college friends of his fm Carolina. It would be nice if we knew if he had any siblings and if he was in a fraternity or band or had any major hobbies at USC. (Like, if he was really into Ultimate Frisbee, we could potentially track down former members of the ultimate club at USC.) Just thinking out loud...

MTA: *Half/step siblings are highly likely given EH's parents' remarriage.
*I think we should investigate same-age (estimate) potential friends from where both his father and his mother (remarried) lived. He could have good friends from his "Dad summers" that might know what he (EH) was up to that summer.
*It'd also be helpful to know if either of EH's families were involved in a house of worship. He might have had a good friend-base from youth groups.
 
Looking at the NC Birth Indexes it looks like Michael is an only child. I will have to look further to see if he might have any half siblings. I'm also thinking thinking about all the other items you suggested.


I've thought about Eric, the driver, all day. I think we'll find out more about him and the details that led up to the wreck via facebook friends from hs in Inman and college friends of his fm Carolina. It would be nice if we knew if he had any siblings and if he was in a fraternity or band or had any major hobbies at USC. (Like, if he was really into Ultimate Frisbee, we could potentially track down former members of the ultimate club at USC.) Just thinking out loud...
 
Alrighty, what are the chances that Jason was from Catawba County, NC???


RKownley,

You are correct, Dr. H G H is not Eric's father. His father is Michael Robert Hager. Also, fyi, Michael Eric Hager was born 4/18/1974 in Catawba County, NC
 
Hey RKnowley
I was thinking and posted in a couple of places this same theory of the two knowing each other before as well..... something just keeps me thinking they are connected whether it be through school or other interests...... I was 19 that year and would never have picked up someone but that is me..... but there are too many similarities.... I really think they are close in age as well.... that is probably why there is not a missing child link with his discription..... and like u said and I repeat if he did not know Jason, hager felt a kindred spirit in him due to his love of music.... only explanation I can think of to trust someone you don't know to travel with.....
 
Hi folks.

There are reams of reading here, so I hope I've got my info correct.

Were Jason Doe and Eric (the driver) seen at Eric's father's place? I recall reading that somewhere.

Considering that Eric trusted Jason enough to give him a ride and bring him to his father's home, I wonder if he let Jason use his Dad's phone?

While I certainly don't expect a phone bill to be top of mind for a grief-stricken father, I wonder if Mr. Hager happened to notice any unusual numbers, perhaps long-distance charges, on his phone bill the next month?
 
Hi folks.

There are reams of reading here, so I hope I've got my info correct.

Were Jason Doe and Eric (the driver) seen at Eric's father's place? I recall reading that somewhere.

Considering that Eric trusted Jason enough to give him a ride and bring him to his father's home, I wonder if he let Jason use his Dad's phone?

While I certainly don't expect a phone bill to be top of mind for a grief-stricken father, I wonder if Mr. Hager happened to notice any unusual numbers, perhaps long-distance charges, on his phone bill the next month?

iirc - there was a belief that they were both at the father's house based on the location of the father's house on the trip. i believe the father wasn't at home and stated that the son never mentioned having a passenger or friend with him.
 
I believe a neighbor saw two people at the father's house. Thats how they know Jason had already been picked up.
 
Hi all,

After posting GD's story all over Reddit, wherever I could imagine it may fit, I made contact with somebody who was close friends with the driver, Eric (that was his preferred name). I thought you might like to have a read through the questions I asked, and his responses. Please, if you would like me to ask any questions, don't hesitate to mail or post here and I will forward them on to him! :)


First off, could you tell me a bit more about Michael?

First off, his name was Michael but he was called Eric. That's what everyone knew him as for as long as I knew him (from 5th grade when he moved to Spartanburg, SC). His mother was married to one of my Dad's high school friends and I used to spend the night with him growing up a good bit.

Nothing personal obviously, just what he was like as a person? Do you think it would be likely he would pick up a hitchhiker? Was he a Grateful Dead fan? I think it has been confirmed he was not at that concert, as he was with his girlfriend, but I'd be interested to know if he was motivated to pick up our doe because of his clothing. Do you know if he had ever been to a GD concert before?

Eric was a really big dead fan. I wasn't really into them but he and I would smoke weed and play music for each other (I was more into indie rock at the time...Phish caught me not long after when they played Columbia). Anyway, yeah, all his newer friends were dead fans and I heard that he was going to see the dead around that time so it surprised me to hear that he hadn't been to the show when he wrecked - which by the way, I didn't know until recently in a forum somewhere that was talking about this. For years, I thought he was coming back from a dead show.

The girlfriend thing is tricky. He had a girlfriend I think was originally from VA but went to USC. I don't remember her name (it's been too many years) but was friends with her at the time. They had broken up and he was dating another girl I didn't know but she was at USC also. Cute red-head. I didn't know her well - only met her through him - but she was a hippy type, wore tie dye, long skirts, berkenstocks, etc. They both were at the funeral, which was a bit weird.

And, yeah, he was a kind and trusting person. I don't doubt at all he would've picked up a hitchhiker, especially a young guy wearing deadhead attire.

Were you given any information about the accident at all? Say, were they able to estimate how long it was between when it happened, to when they were found? It has been entertained in the past that maybe someone robbed our doe, and that is why there is no information on him at all.

I don't know anything really. All I heard was he fell asleep driving. I was more upset about Eric than anything and didn't know about the unidentified guy until later. I have known a number of people who similarly toured with Phish and wouldn't be surprised at all if they had no identifying information on them

There was information presented that perhaps a neighbour spotted a 'young man' with Michael as he entered his fathers house the day of the accident. Did you ever hear anything of that nature?

No. His mother and father were divorced and I grew up with him in SC where he lived with his mother. I only met his real father a couple of times, one of them at the funeral.

Wish I had more info for you. Like I said, it's been many, many years and I probably didn't have much information that would be helpful even then.


Let me know if you would like anything else asked! :)
 
Hi all,

After posting GD's story all over Reddit, wherever I could imagine it may fit, I made contact with somebody who was close friends with the driver, Eric (that was his preferred name). I thought you might like to have a read through the questions I asked, and his responses. Please, if you would like me to ask any questions, don't hesitate to mail or post here and I will forward them on to him! :)


First off, could you tell me a bit more about Michael?

First off, his name was Michael but he was called Eric. That's what everyone knew him as for as long as I knew him (from 5th grade when he moved to Spartanburg, SC). His mother was married to one of my Dad's high school friends and I used to spend the night with him growing up a good bit.

Nothing personal obviously, just what he was like as a person? Do you think it would be likely he would pick up a hitchhiker? Was he a Grateful Dead fan? I think it has been confirmed he was not at that concert, as he was with his girlfriend, but I'd be interested to know if he was motivated to pick up our doe because of his clothing. Do you know if he had ever been to a GD concert before?

Eric was a really big dead fan. I wasn't really into them but he and I would smoke weed and play music for each other (I was more into indie rock at the time...Phish caught me not long after when they played Columbia). Anyway, yeah, all his newer friends were dead fans and I heard that he was going to see the dead around that time so it surprised me to hear that he hadn't been to the show when he wrecked - which by the way, I didn't know until recently in a forum somewhere that was talking about this. For years, I thought he was coming back from a dead show.

The girlfriend thing is tricky. He had a girlfriend I think was originally from VA but went to USC. I don't remember her name (it's been too many years) but was friends with her at the time. They had broken up and he was dating another girl I didn't know but she was at USC also. Cute red-head. I didn't know her well - only met her through him - but she was a hippy type, wore tie dye, long skirts, berkenstocks, etc. They both were at the funeral, which was a bit weird.

And, yeah, he was a kind and trusting person. I don't doubt at all he would've picked up a hitchhiker, especially a young guy wearing deadhead attire.

Were you given any information about the accident at all? Say, were they able to estimate how long it was between when it happened, to when they were found? It has been entertained in the past that maybe someone robbed our doe, and that is why there is no information on him at all.

I don't know anything really. All I heard was he fell asleep driving. I was more upset about Eric than anything and didn't know about the unidentified guy until later. I have known a number of people who similarly toured with Phish and wouldn't be surprised at all if they had no identifying information on them

There was information presented that perhaps a neighbour spotted a 'young man' with Michael as he entered his fathers house the day of the accident. Did you ever hear anything of that nature?

No. His mother and father were divorced and I grew up with him in SC where he lived with his mother. I only met his real father a couple of times, one of them at the funeral.

Wish I had more info for you. Like I said, it's been many, many years and I probably didn't have much information that would be helpful even then.


Let me know if you would like anything else asked! :)

Thanks so much! Can you leave these links there? Grateful dead fans were you at @Rfk stadium June24&25 1995 if so please join & share & Grateful Doe FB page

Do we know for sure he was not at the show too? Sure sounds like he may have been
 
Yup! I'll get on to that today!

Have just asked the friend your question, will post a reply once I receive one :)
 
Roselvr here is the most recently reply :) :

"I don't know if he went to the concert. Right after it happened I had heard he was coming back from a grateful dead concert. That's all I heard though and it seemed reasonable since he was a big fan. That said, I don't know if he was or not...I hadn't discussed it with him and wasn't close enough with him at the time to him to know.

That was just was someone had told me and what I assumed to be the case until years later when I ran across a site talking about the rider. I assumed that other people might've known better. Even if had gone to a show, I couldn't be sure that it was RFK.

It would make sense to me if he had been to the show (or at least the lot) and met Jason who hitched a ride with him."
 
Roselvr here is the most recently reply :) :

"I don't know if he went to the concert. Right after it happened I had heard he was coming back from a grateful dead concert. That's all I heard though and it seemed reasonable since he was a big fan. That said, I don't know if he was or not...I hadn't discussed it with him and wasn't close enough with him at the time to him to know.

That was just was someone had told me and what I assumed to be the case until years later when I ran across a site talking about the rider. I assumed that other people might've known better. Even if had gone to a show, I couldn't be sure that it was RFK.

It would make sense to me if he had been to the show (or at least the lot) and met Jason who hitched a ride with him."

Thanks so much!
 
First off, his name was Michael but he was called Eric.

I'm glad I saw this. I was posting some information on reddit the other day and as I'm proofreading I saw I had written Eric but the article I was referencing said Michael. I was coming across so much conflicting and confusing information and I was wondering where I came up with Eric.

I hope this renewed interest doesn't open up old wounds for Eric's family. I would be nice learn a little more about him.

And, yeah, he was a kind and trusting person. I don't doubt at all he would've picked up a hitchhiker, especially a young guy wearing deadhead attire.

Just a couple of Dead Heads "Going down the road and feeling bad".
 
all this makes much more sense than the hitch hiker theories i heard. If the circulating photo of Jay/Jason from Illinois is GD, and it's true that he was from SC, then it's highly likely in my opinion that they arranged to meet up and go from VA to SC together. The fact that the VA girlfriend didn't recall Eric saying anything about giving a ride to someone is irrelevant. I think they at least knew each other before the day they died. I wish there was a picture of Eric, too, to tag onto some of these social media posts in case it jogs anyone's memory. For me, I'm going to assume they knew each other already.
 
Searched but didn't see him
What year? I think you linked to 88.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Hmmmm. Not sure why the link is not working correctly. It's Boiling Springs High School, Class of 1992, he's on page 56 of the year book (the page is blue) but the classmates site says it is page 60/61.

He was such a cutie. The wavy, blonde hair kinda reminds me of "Jason".
 
I can't seem to get the page to enlarge, is there anyway you could post the picture on here?
 
I can't seem to get the page to enlarge, is there anyway you could post the picture on here?

I wish I knew how. Unfortunately, even in this day and age, I am still a bit computer illiterate. :)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Members online

Online statistics

Members online
91
Guests online
834
Total visitors
925

Forum statistics

Threads
589,927
Messages
17,927,750
Members
228,002
Latest member
zipperoni
Back
Top