Identified! FL - Big Cypress Natl Preserve, Male Hiker, Denim & “Mostly Harmless” July 2018 - Vance Rodriguez #2

[carbuff]

I could maybe get past the scar - it's small-ish and old; but the eleven years missing is a stretch, especially considering the high-end equipment he had.

On the other hand, that's about the right time frame for Denim's ten years in IT --if he made it to the New York area, came out of his depression, found a job and a life, then the depression came back.

Not likely I know but there's so much that lines up...

 

[Sweetsbeach]

On the other hand, that's about the right time frame for Denim's ten years in IT --if he made it to the New York area, came out of his depression, found a job and a life, then the depression came back.

Not likely I know but there's so much that lines up...

Although it's a long shot, I figured it was worth a shot. I emailed Kim Cherney yesterday to ask if they had ruled out Davis being Denim. She emailed back and said she'd check their records when she got in the office today. I guess that doesn't necessarily mean she'll let me know though. I figure I'll email her back in a week if I haven't heard anything from her by then.

 

[EllieGato]

I could maybe get past the scar - it's small-ish and old; but the eleven years missing is a stretch, especially considering the high-end equipment he had.

Forgive me in advance, but I can't figure out why the type of equipment conflicts with someone being missing 11 years.

I think the story is a good match because of the 11 years and he has a sister in Florida.

 

[Moonshinerice]

In my opinion, Michael Austin Davis is the closest match so far. The eyes, the nose, the smile. I agree with carbuff that the timeline would allow for someone to start over.

Maybe I’m over analyzing but Davis’ missing persons repost states that he is “well mannered”. I saw a picture of Denim a while back that was taken after he had finished eating a meal with friends. I noticed that he placed his fork and knife were in the 4 o’clock position when he was done eating. That is proper etiquette and told me immediately that Denim was raised by someone that taught him propert table manners.

I also read on another website that Davis had chronic knee and back pain. A lot of people have pointed out Denim/MH’s use of the walking poles and knee brace.

Also, I saw on a different Davis website that his Dad wanted to target FL, GA, SC, and Louisiana with flyers. Davis apparently headed west towards Tallahassee. If he continued West on I-10 he would have made it to Louisiana....

Perhaps these are both insignificant coincidences, but just a few things that have stood out to me that could possible link them. I’m sure they are all just long stretches but just trying to think outside the box.

Has anyone thought about reaching out to the family of Michael Austin Davis via the website they have set up to try and find him?

 

[eucalyptuz]

We had a good think about Michael Austin Davis in the first thread but the scar and the ears seemed to rule him out. Yes, scars and fade and ear morphology can change a little bit over time... but Michael had a pronounced scar that would be evident at the autopsy and the ears are really way different.
Here is a link to thread one and the discussion about the possibility of Davis being MH starts at post #824...
FL - FL - Big Cypress National Preserve, Male hiker, "Denim" and "Mostly Harmless", 23 July 2018

 

[EllieGato]

I agree with you @eucalyptuz, and I do remember him being discussed. I have to admit that my top 3 adult or young adult official MPs that have been discussed here are, in no specific order:
Michael Austin Davis
Robert Wayne Roush
And
Patrick Jason Beavers

I can honestly say that none of the 3 really seem to be him though, but they feel a little closer to a match than the rest of the official adult MPs so far.

Florida Detectives don't seem too interested in us suggesting matches to official missing persons though. There could be a very good reason for this that we don't know (yet?).

What they really want is someone to say, I knew this guy, I worked with him, he came to my Christmas party (and here are the photos), we took a computer class together, we met at a fishing competition, etc,etc. His name was *advertiser censored* Xxxx. He was on the payroll at such and such company. He went to *advertiser censored* University.

I think this in itself is an actual clue to MH's former identity.

 

[EllieGato]

My top pick for an official missing kid is Adam O'Brien.
Parental - Adam O’Brien

Adam was born in Ocober 1982, making him 3 months short of his 36 birthday on July 23, 2018.
Here are his age progressions (2)

Also included is a picture of his father, Gary O'Brien, who is wanted by interpol. Gary, his dad is 5'10", grey hair, blue eyes and was born in 1956.

Adam has 2 younger brothers, Trevor and Mitchell, that were also abducted by his father at the same time in 1996.

I can't upload the pics for some reason. I'll keep trying.

 

[EllieGato]

And one more photo of Adam O'Brien I was trying to upload. It's the most recent pic from 1996.

 

[Sweetsbeach]

We had a good think about Michael Austin Davis in the first thread but the scar and the ears seemed to rule him out. Yes, scars and fade and ear morphology can change a little bit over time... but Michael had a pronounced scar that would be evident at the autopsy and the ears are really way different.
Here is a link to thread one and the discussion about the possibility of Davis being MH starts at post #824...
FL - FL - Big Cypress National Preserve, Male hiker, "Denim" and "Mostly Harmless", 23 July 2018

Ah, sorry. I missed Davis being mentioned in the first thread.

JMO, the ears don't look that different to me. Plus normal aging and/or weight loss affects skin elasticity which in turn changes the shape of the ears over time. So ears alone are tricky when ruling someone out.

But scars never fade completely. And the chances of it being missed or not reported have to be close to non-existent.

That being said, the coincidences of the IT background, the mentioning a sister in Florida, the nice teeth, the lack of tattoos, and the slight resemblance are compelling enough that I'll follow up with Kim Cherney, just for the heck of it.

 

[EllieGato]

Can we try a different angle?

Let's say there is at least one friend or family member that already knows he is deceased and has chosen not to come forward to identify him.

Why would somebody do that? What would be a reason?

Religious beliefs are one reason. I've been talking to an ex JW who said there is no way his family would come forward if he was expelled from a JW church. They have their beliefs and practices.

Coming from a criminal family might be another reason. While he certainly doesn't seem to be the criminal type he did use an alias in addition to 2 trail names, and no one can deny that criminals use aliases. A parent with an alias might normalize this decision.

I guess if he didn't actually quit his job, but was fired instead, there could be someone cashing his unemployment checks and they want to keep the income or not get in trouble for doing it already.

Are there any other reasons that you all can think of that the family may choose not to come forward?

 

[Sweetsbeach]

Can we try a different angle?

Let's say there is at least one friend or family member that already knows he is deceased and has chosen not to come forward to identify him.

Why would somebody do that? What would be a reason?

Religious beliefs are one reason. I've been talking to an ex JW who said there is no way his family would come forward if he was expelled from a JW church. They have their beliefs and practices.

Coming from a criminal family might be another reason. While he certainly doesn't seem to be the criminal type he did use an alias in addition to 2 trail names, and no one can deny that criminals use aliases. A parent with an alias might normalize this decision.

I guess if he didn't actually quit his job, but was fired instead, there could be someone cashing his unemployment checks and they want to keep the income or not get in trouble for doing it already.

Are there any other reasons that you all can think of that the family may choose not to come forward?

It's hard for me to think of someone knowing for sure and not coming forward. Maybe that person is deeply involved in something illicit and would avoid law enforcement like the plague.

I just feel like maybe he has a family member who truly doesn't think he's missing yet. Maybe he's always marched to the beat of his own drum...dissapearing months, sometimes years on end without a word only to pop back in for a surprise visit. I'm sure this would be distressing to any relatives he had, but maybe they learned to accept his eccentricities long ago and respected his need for autonomy.

Another scenario where his family might not be looking for him or not assume he's missing would be an estrangement brought on by tough love. Let's say he had a mental health condition requiring medication that he refused to take. Or perhaps he had problems with substance abuse. There may have been a history of wreckless behavior. I could see a loved one saying I can't be in your life while you're making these destructive choices, resulting in a relational rift.

Maybe someone close to him just can't admit that it's been too long for him to be gone. They'd rather live in denial than face that reality.

 

[EllieGato]

...Maybe that person is deeply involved in something illicit and would avoid law enforcement like the plague.

Like Gary O'Brien or his sons? I imagine if alive, even the kids avoid law enforcement like the plague. So I think family crime could be a plausible situation.

I just feel like maybe he has a family member who truly doesn't think he's missing yet. Maybe he's always marched to the beat of his own drum...

Like a kid who keeps running away but is over 18, so its not a crime. So does he run away to friends? because MH doesn't seem to have the physical markers of being transient or living homeless for extended periods of time. I have read there is a certain type of person who runs away alot... like a runaway bride. Where do these people go? The Emerald Triangle? Mexico?

Another scenario... tough love.... mental health condition... substance abuse... wreckless behavior. I could see a loved one saying I can't be in your life while you're making these destructive choices, resulting in a relational rift.

So for this we still try to cover group homes, treatment centers, other medical type facilities, and LE covers criminal records and fingerprints... but no hits so far as we know.

Maybe someone close to him just can't admit that it's been too long for him to be gone. They'd rather live in denial than face that reality.

And for this one we hope to find someone other than the mother or the person who lives in denial. Fingers crossed that at least one person who was close to him isn't stuck in denial.

One area relative to your suggestions that is hard to cover due to the anonymous aspect is Alcoholics Anonymous. He doesn't appear to be a person who was into alcohol or drugs but sometime these signs aren't obvious. I wonder, if a person from AA did recognize him, would they come forward or remain with the anonymous clause after death?

These are all good areas to cover for spreading the word about MH. Again I'm still looking for places to send the CCSO flyer and the additional photos.

 

[EllieGato]

Another thought I had - I wonder if LE posted pics of his handwriting, it might be another way someone might remember him. They have numerous samples of his writing that could be shared with the public.

I found some info in my notes about the handwriting from the telephone conversation I had with Detective O'Neil back in November.

The call was made to suggest a person who was being looked for and referred to as missing on an alumni site. The classmates referred to his foster family as having no idea where the guy and his sister were. They both attended the high school where they were being sought as alumni and were reffered to fondly. He graduated 2003, went to a local polytech school while working at a grocery store in the meat department, and then no one could find either one of them.

After I gave the Detective all the info to follow up on on this missing classmate, including obituaries they were mentioned in, I then asked about the handwriting.

I suggested that Bilemy wasn't a surname and they misinterpreted the signature. I suggested that it was BILMYER, not bilemy.

The E in cursive signature of Bilemy could have been an L, (cursive loop) and the ER at the end just left off/trailed off.

I used to leave ER off the end of my married name all the time in a signature. So change the E to L, and add ER to the end to get Billmyer, a very popular surname.

Detective O'Neil said that it was definitely a printed E and was no way mistaken for what might have been an L, and that with a printed name there isn't a trail at the end.

This was actually a clue that raised my suspicions about Patrick Beavers at the time. The note HE left was printed in all caps. So I found this interesting.

MOO: I think printing in all caps is secretive. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe its popular with people who code.

 

[Gardener1850]

I found some info in my notes about the handwriting from the telephone conversation I had with Detective O'Neil back in November.

The call was made to suggest a person who was being looked for and referred to as missing on an alumni site. The classmates referred to his foster family as having no idea where the guy and his sister were. They both attended the high school where they were being sought as alumni and were reffered to fondly. He graduated 2003, went to a local polytech school while working at a grocery store in the meat department, and then no one could find either one of them.

After I gave the Detective all the info to follow up on on this missing classmate, including obituaries they were mentioned in, I then asked about the handwriting.

I suggested that Bilemy wasn't a surname and they misinterpreted the signature. I suggested that it was BILMYER, not bilemy.

The E in cursive signature of Bilemy could have been an L, (cursive loop) and the ER at the end just left off/trailed off.

I used to leave ER off the end of my married name all the time in a signature. So change the E to L, and add ER to the end to get Billmyer, a very popular surname.

Detective O'Neil said that it was definitely a printed E and was no way mistaken for what might have been an L, and that with a printed name there isn't a trail at the end.

This was actually a clue that raised my suspicions about Patrick Beavers at the time. The note HE left was printed in all caps. So I found this interesting.

MOO: I think printing in all caps is secretive. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe its popular with people who code.

Printing in all caps can be a trait of people who were in the US military. Official messages and military paperwork have to be filled out in all caps.

ETA: I just googled trying to find a reference for that and found the Navy changed to include use of lower case in 2013: U.S. Navy ditches its ALL CAPS message format - CNN

But for anyone in the military before 2013, if your job included filling out forms requiring all capital letters, you might get used to writing in all caps at all times.

Another profession that comes to mind that uses all capital letters (or used to) is an architect or engineer hand drafting blueprints. I'm guessing no one uses hand drafting anymore, but when I was in high school (in the dark ages, lol) I took a drafting class where we had to do everything by hand and use capital printing to be neat and uniform.

I'm sure there are other examples where a career choice might influence someone to use all caps. Maybe even computers? Wikipedia says "In programming, writing in all caps (possibly with underscores replacing spaces) is an identifier naming convention in many programming languages that symbolizes that the given identifier represents a constant."
All caps - Wikipedia

 

[Podengo]

My dad and an old BF write in all caps. My dad was an electrical engineer and the boyfriend a land surveyor. Neither were in the military.

 

[inmyhumbleopinion]

My dad and an old BF write in all caps. My dad was an electrical engineer and the boyfriend a land surveyor. Neither were in the military.

My uncle worked as a mechanical engineer for five years right after college, the latter four of which he also attended evening classes to get his law degree.

At 72, he stil works as a patent attorney and writes in all caps.

Interior design is another profession that came to mind.

 

[Ursamajr]

My father, who was in the Navy, writes in all caps. I picked it up from him and it stuck especially when I went off to become a Graphic Designer. I wouldn't say it is a common way to write in general, I've gotten compliments and questions about it over the years, but in the arts and design fields it's definitely not the outlier. From what I have gathered from reading about peoples encounters and conversations with him, he definitely seemed like he was the creative type. I've always wondered if he went through something similar to what I did - went into a field I thought would be more creative and not as corporate as it turned out to be, became disillusioned and left in search of other creative outlets. It was a stressful time when I realized what I studied and worked towards for YEARS just wasn't what I wanted. I could see how the adventure he was on might have been him doing some serious soul searching.

I leave again in 2 days to start another soul searching mission. Maybe this is why Denim sticks with me daily. I feel like if I could just find the missing piece, this case will be "solved".

 

[carbuff]

Can we try a different angle?

Let's say there is at least one friend or family member that already knows he is deceased and has chosen not to come forward to identify him.

Why would somebody do that? What would be a reason?

snipped

Can't afford the funeral expenses, or is afraid they'll be responsible for the person's debts if they claim him.

 

[ilovepierre]

My dad and an old BF write in all caps. My dad was an electrical engineer and the boyfriend a land surveyor. Neither were in the military.

My dad writes in all caps too.
He was never in the military, either.

 

[amytothekate]

I've scanned 1,000+ pages of yearbooks on Classmates, and have a list of 70+ firm (alive and well) exclusions from the Baton Rouge area. A handful of maybes, but only one I'm thinking of passing on to LE. I've started a list of Brooklyn companies with a tech focus to send the flyer to. Other than that.. I'm really stumped!

I've been pondering the use of the alias Ben Bilemy, and I have a lot of questions.

• Why choose a last name that is uncommon? In fact, a handy website Forebears.com lists only one instance of the last name recorded, in 2014.. in Cameroon. This website also has a neat feature that shows you phonetically similar last names and their prevalence. I'll paste that below.
• Is it a code? I know this has been mentioned and delved into before, so I'm not passing it off as my original idea, but it's a great theory. Given that bilemy doesn't appear to be a word, acronym, or even a real/common last name.
• SSN? Again, this was looked into and found to be a legitimate SSN.
• What if it is a code, but the numbers are by the number of the letter in the alphabet? Then we have:
  • 2 5 14 2 9 12 5 13 25 or
  • 2 5 1 4 2 9 1 2 5 1 3 2 5
• IP address?

I feel like the apparent randomness of the last name precludes it from being a situation where he got to the hostel, realized he had to give a first and last name, glanced around the room and saw an object that brought him to Bilemy. Like a product with a brand name, or an item that could be used. Such as Ben (oh! aspirin..) Bayer. Or Ben (oh! a picture..) Frame.

Something tells me there is more information to be gleaned from the use of this alias.

Bilemy last name info from Forebears.
Similarity: % to which it's similar to Bilemy
Incidence: # people who bear the surname worldwide (assuming not comprehensive BUT representative of trends)
Prevalency: Nation with highest incidence/Nation with the most dense occurrence