Identified! FL - Big Cypress Natl Preserve, Male Hiker, Denim & “Mostly Harmless” July 2018 - Vance Rodriguez #3

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lonewanderer said:
You know whats funny about this? I was watching a documentary about a pharmacist from Louisiana. When he started talked, I had a very hard time not hearing the stereotypical New York accent. It was not only him, but his wife and several other people interviewed had the similar speech patterns like dropping r's; "i was telling ya, i saw(r) him get into duh cah(r)."

The documentary did not say they ever lived in New York, and later implied that the pharmacist's high school friend was now a politician in his county.
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I’m born and raised in Brooklyn. You can tell a lifelong NYC accent a mile away
 
It seems like he was in pretty good condition up until the last weeks. You'd think rhabdo would come on pretty quickly due to overexertion or as a result of some recent trauma. Maybe the urine was just severe dehydration/kidney failure due to his overall cachexia.

Dr Google says that rhabdo can definitely be caused by a lightening strike but wouldn't there be other signs? (singed clothing or belongings, or the characteristic pattern that lightening makes on the skin)
 
branmuffin said:
The ME listed everything he saw while he conducted the autopsy which seemed very complete, imo. The guy knew what he was doing. He noted the impacted bowel and the bladder full of brown urine. I think someone further upthread mentioned rhabdo and its causes and symptoms. It does seem to check a lot of boxes. One of the causes is lightning strikes. MH was in Big Cypress when practically no one hikes because of intense thunder storms and extreme humidity and wetness. Florida is the lightening capital of the world.
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He was not diagnosed with an impacted bowel, so that is not correct. The brown urine could be from decomp, or from kidney or other issues. The ME did not opine which, but he did not note any kidney issues at all. I think the urine was brown from decomp.

I've requested, but not seen, the photos yet. I work in healthcare but I am not a ME so I cannot add a lot of expertise to the autopsy. My opinion is that the entire autopsy was glossed over. I think the ME thought this was an unknown, so his goal was to rule out homicide or other foul play and move on to the next case. Remember, at the time of autopsy, nobody knew there would be this kind of interest in the case. I really think a better autopsy could have been done. We might not know MH's name from a better autopsy, but we might have an accurate cause of death, which ultimately could help to find out who he really is. I was disappointed the ME was not on the podcast. She said "he couldn't be" but I have seen other ME's comment publicly on cases here, so there is a reason why he wasn't on. I am a Floridian, we have probably the most open society there is because of our "Sunshine Laws." Information is pretty easy to come by here if you know how to ask for it.

Oh yeah, not many people hike in July in FL in general because it is too hot and rains too often. Big Cypress has other issues, in addition to storms. It's a swamp so as you can imagine an abundance of mosquitos, alligators and snakes. There was no lightning strike or the tent would have been damaged and there would be external burns on his body, so I don't think that is a viable theory.
 
canteloupe said:
2. The notebooks are pristine: no food/grease stains, no water damage, no dirt smears (at least majorly visible). Some of the ripped out pages have some yellow staining. I'd hazard he had them packed in ziplock or covered by something waterproof.

3. I don't know that I'd agree 100% that the notebooks were written "while hiking", but certainly agree that they were written after his arrival in Florida. Could have been at a public library, hostel, whatever. Considering the uniformity of the script, I think they were written while stationary for a significant amount of time, rather than on a train, bus, or in a car. I'd also wager he wrote on a hard surface...because think about squatting/reclining/contorting yourself in a tent to write sophisticated content with this degree of penmanship. Is there consistent access to picnic tables along the FT?

4. I'd bet my last dollar that those are Wal-Mart notebooks and were purchased not long before his death. Had he hiked the middle section of the Florida Trail, he wouldn't have had great access to Wal-Mart (up by Sebring, maybe?). But if we throw a stop in Sarasota/Ft. Meyers/Naples into the mix, then bingo.
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These comments caught my eye.

He was photographed in clear weather on the AT with his rain cover on his pack. It's a large waterproof envelope to protect the contents of his pack. I saw several comments he always hiked like that. So he was taking care to keep his gear dry.

You have a lot of downtime while hiking. It is extremely common to journal, etc at night. Remember, he had no electronics, TV, radio, or even companions most of the time, on his journey.

Pretty sure I heard on the podcast they tracked the notebooks down to Dollar General. He would have been really close to several of these near Springer Mountain and the Benton MacKaye trail in North Georgia. And likely close to many more throughout his journey. Dollar General could not give CCSO a location where they were bought however.
 
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GatorFL said:
These comments caught my eye.

He was photographed in clear weather on the AT with his rain cover on his pack. It's a large waterproof envelope to protect the contents of his pack. I saw several comments he always hiked like that. So he was taking care to keep his gear dry.

You have a lot of downtime while hiking. It is extremely common to journal, etc at night. Remember, he had no electronics, TV, radio, or even companions most of the time, on his journey.

Pretty sure I heard on the podcast they tracked the notebooks down to Dollar General. He would have been really close to several of these near Springer Mountain and the Benton MacKaye trail in North Georgia. And likely close to many more throughout his journey. Dollar General could not give CCSO a location where they were bought however.
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There are several Dollar Generals near the area where the photo was taken on 90 in Crestview. However, I don’t remember how long before his death that photo was taken.
 
dotr said:
fred&edna posted this link..
Collier deputies release video of hiker prior to death
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It's interesting what this hiker said in the article. “It’s unnerving when you think I can’t get in touch with anyone no one can get in touch with me and if I get turned around I’m lost–there’s no good words for that,” Howe said.

Without GPS or a phone it would easy to get lost in the sameness of the Everglades. Perhaps MH decided he would have expended too much energy trying to find a way out and chose to stay put and hope through-hikers could have aided him, except it was summer when few hikers were in the Everglades.

Normally if someone goes missing in the wild, the normal advice is to stay put and let the searchers come to you. But someone has to be aware that you are missing for that advice to work.

Unfortunately, the advice in this link would not have worked for MH since the basic elements of staying safe had not been implemented.
What to Do If You're Lost in the Woods
 
CCSO released an update on their Facebook page this afternoon. It refers to the DNA testing partnership. I hope it is ok to paste this here.

In July 2018, two men discovered the body of a deceased hiker along a remote trail in Big Cypress National Preserve. Since then, detectives with the Collier County Sheriff’s Office have been working to identify the man known only by his trail name: Mostly Harmless.
Now, as the two-year anniversary of the case approaches, detectives have partnered with a private DNA laboratory in Texas to identify the man using a new technique in forensic genealogy and handles the process in-house. The partnership comes after detectives determined that they had exhausted DNA searches through national missing person’s databases in March of this year and following national developments in DNA privacy.
“We got the results back this year and at that point, we thought ‘what’s next?’” said Holly Cherian, a crime scene lab analyst with the agency.
That’s when the agency agreed to work alongside Othram Inc., the first private DNA laboratory built specifically with the intent of assisting law enforcement using this science. CCSO reached an agreement with Othram this month to potentially discover a relative for the hiker and close the case following widespread public interest.
Launched in 2018, Othram is a relatively new lab whose goal has been to partner with law enforcement agencies to solve cold case crimes and unidentified persons cases. Unlike other commercial testing sites offered to the public for family tree tracing, Othram solicits DNA from members of the public who are also hoping to help solve criminal cases with their personal information, through its database DNASolves.com
“A lot of people are very interested in trying to help,” said Othram CEO Dr. David Mittelman. “It’s something of humanitarian value.”
Since 2018, the uncharted landscape of forensic genealogy has also become a bit clearer, paving the way for Othram to offer its services to law enforcement who were otherwise finding it difficult to work with commercial testing sites whose priority was the privacy of their customers.
The Golden State Killer case in California, made famous again after forensic genealogy led to a suspect who has since been convicted, also laid a foundation for approved methods law enforcement can use when considering forensic genealogy. As a result, members of the public submitting their DNA from places like Ancestry.com or 23andMe, can choose to opt into helping law enforcement when they upload their results to the third-party databases such as GEDMatch or DNASolves.com.
CCSO detectives first sent samples of Mostly Harmless’ DNA to the University of North Texas. Then in March of this year, after DNA was extracted and compared to national databases of missing persons, it was determined after several searches that there were no hits, meaning no one had reported Mostly Harmless missing and uploaded his information to these databases. Cherian said the next step would have been to send a sample of the hiker’s DNA to a lab in Florida for forensic genealogy testing when Othram offered to use a new technique at no charge to the agency.
Mittelman said it will take about 12 weeks to sequence Mostly Harmless’ DNA – a process much different than that done by the University of North Texas – before a genealogist will use the sequence to build out a family tree using a public database.
Mittelman said the process of mapping a family tree can take days, weeks or months to produce a possible, distant relative.
“Then, we’ll have an investigative lead at that point,” Cherian said.
 
GatorFL said:
CCSO released an update on their Facebook page this afternoon. It refers to the DNA testing partnership. I hope it is ok to paste this here.

In July 2018, two men discovered the body of a deceased hiker along a remote trail in Big Cypress National Preserve. Since then, detectives with the Collier County Sheriff’s Office have been working to identify the man known only by his trail name: Mostly Harmless.
Now, as the two-year anniversary of the case approaches, detectives have partnered with a private DNA laboratory in Texas to identify the man using a new technique in forensic genealogy and handles the process in-house. The partnership comes after detectives determined that they had exhausted DNA searches through national missing person’s databases in March of this year and following national developments in DNA privacy.
“We got the results back this year and at that point, we thought ‘what’s next?’” said Holly Cherian, a crime scene lab analyst with the agency.
That’s when the agency agreed to work alongside Othram Inc., the first private DNA laboratory built specifically with the intent of assisting law enforcement using this science. CCSO reached an agreement with Othram this month to potentially discover a relative for the hiker and close the case following widespread public interest.
Launched in 2018, Othram is a relatively new lab whose goal has been to partner with law enforcement agencies to solve cold case crimes and unidentified persons cases. Unlike other commercial testing sites offered to the public for family tree tracing, Othram solicits DNA from members of the public who are also hoping to help solve criminal cases with their personal information, through its database DNASolves.com
“A lot of people are very interested in trying to help,” said Othram CEO Dr. David Mittelman. “It’s something of humanitarian value.”
Since 2018, the uncharted landscape of forensic genealogy has also become a bit clearer, paving the way for Othram to offer its services to law enforcement who were otherwise finding it difficult to work with commercial testing sites whose priority was the privacy of their customers.
The Golden State Killer case in California, made famous again after forensic genealogy led to a suspect who has since been convicted, also laid a foundation for approved methods law enforcement can use when considering forensic genealogy. As a result, members of the public submitting their DNA from places like Ancestry.com or 23andMe, can choose to opt into helping law enforcement when they upload their results to the third-party databases such as GEDMatch or DNASolves.com.
CCSO detectives first sent samples of Mostly Harmless’ DNA to the University of North Texas. Then in March of this year, after DNA was extracted and compared to national databases of missing persons, it was determined after several searches that there were no hits, meaning no one had reported Mostly Harmless missing and uploaded his information to these databases. Cherian said the next step would have been to send a sample of the hiker’s DNA to a lab in Florida for forensic genealogy testing when Othram offered to use a new technique at no charge to the agency.
Mittelman said it will take about 12 weeks to sequence Mostly Harmless’ DNA – a process much different than that done by the University of North Texas – before a genealogist will use the sequence to build out a family tree using a public database.
Mittelman said the process of mapping a family tree can take days, weeks or months to produce a possible, distant relative.
“Then, we’ll have an investigative lead at that point,” Cherian said.
Click to expand...
Wonderful news. I’ll have to go add my DNA and that of my family to their website DNASolves
 
GatorFL said:
I am not sure about lost/stolen wallets.

If he lost his wallet in Big Cypress he may not have reported it. Why? I know from my own personal correspondence with the detective on the case that MH was in Big Cypress without the required backcountry permit. These are available on the trailhead and there is typically a dropbox. You complete two, drop one in the box and keep the other on your person. All the paperwork they found from MH was either his trail name or the alias.
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Maybe someone else on the trail came across him sooner and stole his wallet. Seems they would have just taken cash though. Wait, didn’t they say they found a substantial amount of cash among his belongings?
 
leilarose68 said:
Othram is doing the genealogy; they have a genealogy team and the Redgraves are the team leads I believe. They're top notch!
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You’re right -

The Woodlands, Texas (October 2019)– Othram announced the formation of an in-house forensic genealogy research team, including Anthony Lukas Redgrave and Lee Bingham Redgrave, pioneers in the emerging field of forensic genetic genealogy. This team, along with data scientists and software developers, completes Othram’s full-service forensic DNA sequencing program enabling law enforcement agencies to work with a single vendor to extract, enrich, test, and analyze DNA not amenable to other approaches.
Othram Launches Forensic Genealogy Service for Law Enforcement - Laura Burgess Marketing
 
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