I grew up in Deep River and have always been flabbergasted by this case. I would be happy to answer any lingering questions you folks may have about the area.
I didn't grow up there, but have hiked and skied the trails often during my years posted at CFB Petawawa and have a couple friends who live there still. Given this gent was well-travelled and the expense of the items he was found with, IMO he is somehow associated with the scientific or medical community. It's a beautiful town for scientists, and for those who enjoy the outdoors.
For other posters, Deep River was once known as the bedroom community of young, single scientists with nary a mother-in-law to be found. Streets named after notorious scientists etc (Darwin, Rutherford, Newton etc).
Far from a sleepy town, there are so many possibilities for "why" this gentleman could have been there. I'd would safely rule out any association with the CFB Petawawa Iron Man (it is not comparable to any other ironman competition) which was cancelled in 2001 due to the events of 9/11 and our business in the aftermath; it is limited to Canadian serving military or ex-military members and serving civilian employees of DND. It's now called Iron Warrior (
Soldiers test their mettle in Iron Warrior at Garrison Petawawa ). I'd also rule out a Defence or Security Contractor working at the base as, in 2001, contractors there were few for those items and most was handled in-house by our mil staff. And, any D&S contractor would have been escorted into any secure area he needed to access to work on such an item - a cleared individual would have been missed in his absence.
I'm hoping that the RCMP have linked in with the upscale hotels in our National Capital, Ottawa to determine if they had any guest who checked in, but not out. Given the other hotels linked to this UID, I don't think he would have stayed locally.
Scientific Conferences attracting a world-wide audience etc were/are the norm at AECL. AECL is headquartered in Ottawa, but the AECL Chalk River nuclear facility also happens to be the world's largest supplier of medical radioactive isotopes; international visitors/buyers from the scientific and medical communities are not uncommon. I'm wondering if this gent had a presentation to deliver or attend and then whiled away the remainder of his day relaxing on the trails. If a conference was happening, it's not unheard-of for guest speakers to be picked up from the airport (also in Ottawa) or hotel and driven to the location. This may explain the lack of any associated vehicle and personal possessions with him/found.
Then again, the trans-Canada highway to head to western Canada does go right through town … as does the bus-line. I think if he were on a bus, that the ticket would also have been found amongst his other items. I think we can rule out hitch-hiking as this was obviously a man with some accessible finances given the expensive glasses, clothing and hotels he's associated with.
IMO, he looks South American and given that he carried items associated with a Costa Rican airline, I'm convinced that's where the answer lies. Most North Americans would travel to/from Costa Rica on a North American carrier. Are there any scientists or doctors missing from there in Sept 2001? AECL has built CANDU reactors world-wide, one in Argentina. Could he be associated with that project?
Scientific or Medical Conferences in Vancouver or Toronto (dates can be determined as to when he was in those locations as IIRC, he only had matchbooks from there), or in the US around the time that laundry tag was issued? Was there a manufacture date on the G.N.C. products as I believe they'd have been purchased while he was in the USofA. Seems to me G.N.C supplements didn't become available until the late-2000s in Canada (troops) when they expanded their operations to outside of the US.
Triathelete? Deep River has a good one.
Deep River also used to hold a large end-of-summer camp for top University students who were budding scientists from around the globe. I am unsure if they still host this.
As an aside, Mulholland Drive only mentions Deep River, but wasn't filmed there. There was a Zombie film made there at some point in the late 2000s - all too late to have relevance to this unidentified.
They also used to have a full-up symphony orchestra and I'm unsure if this still exists.
So many possibilities.
Who are you?
