Hi OilPainter,
I wrote to the website again and asked about the wallet and some other things. I was just going to summarize but I thought it was an interesting read. I'm forwarding it along pretty much as it came.
"We thought the wallet was interesting at first because we figured, if Mike were trying to intentionally disappear, one of the things he would do would be to completely get rid of his identify. So it would be logical that he would leave his wallet, his car, his bank account, all of it behind.
Mike lived with a large, very religious family. He was the sole member of the family who both rejected, and was a bit embarrassed by, some of the religious rituals the others practiced. Mike was also part of a blended family, and was quite a bit different from his step-siblings. He was generally an outsider in his own family.
He was close to his father. He was the "golden boy" of the family, and so they were a little jealous of him because people really liked Mike, he was smart, and everything seemed to go really well for him. It sounds funny, but it really is a good analogy: Mike's story really is very much like Cinderella.
At work, Mike had a boss who not only jumped on him for every little thing at every turn, he took great pride in humiliating Mike in front of customers and other employees. Mike was smart, charismatic, witty, kind, attractive, and really good at anything he set out to do. That included academics, drumming in the marching band, his job, you name it. His boss was the polar opposite of Mike, and he was nearly twice Mike's age. Mike never raised his voice or lost his temper, and his boss resented Mike for everything that he was. Mike always handled it well until that last day.
He wasn't going to go back to work at all after the last humiliation his boss subjected him to. His dad advised him that he should go back to work for his last remaining two weeks, since he enjoyed his job and was good at it, and not let his boss unfairly run him out of it.
His dad has never forgiven himself for that. He thinks, had he not given Mike that advice and just let him quit like he wanted to, Mike would still be here. The unfortunate thing about that is it's actually good advice for a father to give his teenage son. But on this particular day, Mike went missing.
We thought that Mike had just enough and took off. That's why the wallet was significant. But then we were able to verify that Mike had reserved and paid for a dorm room at the University he was attending, and had bought the supplies he needed for his freshman year.
We also found out, after a lot of investigating, that it wouldn't have mattered if Mike had returned to the store that day or not. Mike tended to attract people into his orbit that could be very jealous and possessive of him. Mike, for all of his book smarts, didn't seem to recognize this as fast as he could have. The men that targeted Mike had a specific need for him, and so they chose him as their victim. For what they wanted of him, they would have gotten Mike whether he had returned to that store that day or not."
I plan on writing back because now my curiosity about Michael being "chosen" is peaked. Kline, I hope I haven't hijacked your thread. If you'd like me to move Michael to his own thread just let me know.
gaia227, thanks for posting the Dyatlov Pass Incident. I hadn't read about that one before. But I'm adding it to my list of cases now. I've been scouring the internet reading up on it ever since you posted about it. It's a fascinating read.
I was thinking the exact same thing when I read the text of the letter then I scrolled down and saw your post!
