Snipped by me:
Just my two cents about his weight loss:
Two years ago, I was hospitalized because of rapid weight loss, caused by what is called Malabsorption Syndrome.
Thank you for sharing this and yikes this must have been terrifying and painful.
Other thoughts I have been having;
If MH had friends put his things in storage - where are these friends? Did they know he was going to be gone for a while? Since they put his stuff in storage, did they pay? Was it monthly? Did MH leave money behind to pay for this? Did he pay for months in one chunk? All of this implies he had friends that knew he was going somewhere. Even if he told them he would be traveling or camping for a while, I would be worried if I had done that for a friend and never heard from him again. Did he burn those bridges on purpose?
If he had perfect teeth and no physical issues or scars, it seems like he took good care of himself. He had regular doctors visits (at least the dentist) so why didn't he want to go to a doctor on the trail? He could have stopped into a walk in clinic where you don't have to have insurance and you could give an alias and pay in cash.
@Tabirey - you said it took you two months to lose all of that weight. It seems like he was only traveling about 10 miles a day. Even with a slightly heavier pack, he wasn't getting the same amount of exercise most other hikers get. The weight loss wasn't overnight. For his height, 164.4 would be a "normal BMI weight". Under 121.7 lbs is underweight and 82 is severely underweight. He must have noticed something was wrong.
10 miles a day: he wasn't in a rush to get wherever he was going. Was his sister waiting? Did she know he was coming? Had he been in contact with her or had he been "no contact" as he was with the rest of his family. Maybe he was planning to reconcile with her and maybe thats why she hasn't been looking for him.
Back to the storage unit. Have Florida police been in contact with storage facilities in NY or NJ? Have there been any that have been abandoned in the time between April 2017 and July 2018? Would they keep records of abandoned storage unit auctions? Do they catalogue items (for tax reasons?) that are in the units when they are auctioned. One with 3 hard drives would be interesting to look into. I assume warrants would be needed to start down this road.
MH seemed a little paranoid (more like cautious) since he mentioned hackers to a fellow traveler. I'm surprised that, if true, he actually left those hard drives behind.
Everything makes me think he had plans to resurface at some point.