Was there anything special about the belt that would help trace it to a particular country or region within a country? Was it made in the USA or in another country and was it commonly sold in the USA or elsewhere or both?
Are pictures of the belt available? Was the belt of multi layer construction and if so were there any identifying marks on any of the layers? People sweat on a belt so was only his sweat,DNA, in the belt?
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He looks very like a transfer student I saw in my old high school a long time ago. Not the same person, just a similarity in features. I do not remember where his family was from or the last name- sorry. I will look for some similar pics on the web.
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Ok, the rest of this will be rank speculation and will range all over the place but I share the thoughts in hopes they might jog others to paths of thinking that might prove fruitful someday:
If the belt and pants is the only indicator we have of his weight loss then I am not yet 100 % convinced he lost weight even if it might seem probable. He might have gotten both the pants and belt from a lover. Was his shirt also way too large for him (and what about under clothing,including any possible undershirt) or was it just the pants and belt?
A belt is less likely to be given away than a pair of pants but not impossibly less likely as some people have more than one belt. But a belt and matching size pants makes it less likely that he got them from a free group and more liely that they were either his own to begin with or that he got them from one individual.
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Then there is the possibility of a break up that turned violent and deadly with the result that the belt and pants were available without the victems permission. I could see remorse and guilt possibly causing him to use the belt of his victem to hang himself while wearing the pants of the victem. It has a sort of odd sense of justice to it. One question, and problem, in that scenario is where is the other person, the victem?
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If he did lose wieght was it on purpose?
Could he have lost weight to impress someone and when it did not win over the special someone or failed to help his love life then he became despondent and suicided and took his new self and his old self (via the old pants and belt) to the end at the same time?
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If he lost weight while indoors due to exerxise I wonder where he worked out, a college gym room on a tread mill perhaps? If he lost weight due to diet alone I would think there would be evidence of that in his heart and muscle fibers and other body parts.
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Out of control diabetes,alcoholism, drub abuse, depression, and hospitalization can also cause some weight loss, although so far no evidence of such condition recent to his date of death seems to have surfaced (other than the depression which led to his suicide.)
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Being pale means not much sun exposure so not an outdoor sports person (and also not someone who frequents a tanning salon as a customer.) and not an outdoor job. That eliminates a golf person I was looking into with the same first name.
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Any evidence of psych meds in his system?
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In meridian, at the time, there was a person of the same first name who was a CEO or main manager of a company and I wondered if he might of had a kid of the right age since 25 or so seems awfully young to be so high up in a corp. world and no mention was ever made on the company website of the head man leaving or being replaced.
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Interesting but unneeded side bit of info:Lyle seems to be a name fairly common in Meridian,Idaho, at least I found several instances of the name tied to the town on the internet. So, although I question whether he was ever in that town, if you judge by the frequency of use of the name alone it is possible that he not only was there once as a visitor but could have been from that town.
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