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

DNA Solves
DNA Solves
DNA Solves

New Posts

Status
Not open for further replies.
carbuff said:
One of the things that has stood out to me is that Denim never mentioned much about himself, but two places he did mention, Brooklyn and Baton Rouge, are both places with rather distinctive accents that might not be that familiar to people from the rest of the country. Which has always made me wonder whether he might have had some amount of accent. Not to the degree that somebody would remember an odd accent, but that he got asked, "I can't place your accent. Where are you from?" a lot. And might or might not have answered truthfully.
Click to expand...

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.
 
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.
Click to expand...

I grew up in Philly, and I can go pretty much anywhere on the east coast without anyone thinking I have an accent. As soon as I moved to Arizona, the questions started. Everyone here recognizes I have an accent, but they can't place it and always ask where I'm from. It might be the same for MH...depending on who he was talking to, they might not have considered him to have an accent.

I've been following this case since Day 1 and I really thought we would have a name by now. Someone out there has to be missing this poor man!
 
IIRC the other hikers who met MH and spent significant time speaking with him have said he had a neutral accent. He traveled up and down the US and met hikers from all over, so I think it's significant no one recognized an accent.

In regards to Aleh, I'm 100% sure it's not the same man. I don't see all that much of a resemblance (Aleh's ears are gauged, he has notable scars, his eyes are much more blue than gray) and his accent was too strong to have disappeared completely in 10 years. I have a friend who moved to the US from Ukraine in elementary or middle school. Her accent sounds American but her speech pattern doesn't and it's clear if you talk to her for more than a minute that she grew up somewhere else. I'm inclined to believe MH was telling the truth about where he was from since he was so consistent about it.

Personally, I still believe he hasn't been reported missing and we won't find him that way. I think tech conventions might be the way to go forward. Either looking up pictures from past ones, or figuring out how to get his flyer out to future ones.

By the way @alucardsdream I used to live in Philly, you have worse accents than we do here in Boston lol
 
@UnlicensedPI Agreed. I don't think MH was a missing person. I think he was a dude that led a simple and private life. Probably not unusual to only hear from him every so many years. I've always thought the key to identifying him would be his previous work life and a co-worker saying "hey, isn't that XX who worked in X department?"
 
I think he can be ruled out as foreign, not based on the accent, but based on the notebook. In it, only English is used. I have seen a copy of the entire thing, and I cannot remember if he used measurements. Measurements could be a clue, if he measured things in metric or imperial standards. If he used meters instead of feet, that is not too unusual as US soldiers measure map distances in meters (I am a former US soldier) but measuring temperatures or the width and height of things like a room could indicate what system he was more used to.
 
lonewanderer said:
I think he can be ruled out as foreign, not based on the accent, but based on the notebook. In it, only English is used. I have seen a copy of the entire thing, and I cannot remember if he used measurements. Measurements could be a clue, if he measured things in metric or imperial standards. If he used meters instead of feet, that is not too unusual as US soldiers measure map distances in meters (I am a former US soldier) but measuring temperatures or the width and height of things like a room could indicate what system he was more used to.
Click to expand...

That is a really good point!
 
branmuffin said:
The individuals who discovered his body in his tent mentioned how he looked like he was leaping toward them or frozen. That is a very strange position for a deceased individual to be in even taking in to account rigor which would have been long gone based on the time of death and ambient temperatures.
Click to expand...

This is what makes me think about the "knees gave out" theory. I think that if his knees had given out, he would have crawled or dragged himself eventually. In some reports (I owe a fact check) I read that there was food in the tent with him.

Between the position he was found in, and the food in the tent with him, I wonder if he suffered something that rendered him immobile and then died after days of malnourished. For instance, if he had a seizure, stroke, heart attack, etc then it could explain the face he was making as he was embracing the pain.

He was on his back, twisted like a pretzel, and appeared to be looking straight at the person who found him. I can imagine myself lying on my back and staring at the tent entrance as I tried with all of my might to get up and seek help, embracing a pain that would cause my face to be twisted and the position I would be in. In fact, this was the exact position I was in when I was rushed to the hospital with a very excruciating abdominal pain, which was later identified as two kidney stones that were so large they had to be surgically removed.

These are just ideas, thinking things through.
 
Admin Reminder:

Sleuthing random people on social media and posting your findings on this general discussion thread is not allowed.

Members can sleuth behind the scenes on their own, but don't post it here.
 
ChatteringBirds said:
Denim/ Mostly Harmless was featured on social media today. There are a lot of ideas in the comments regarding who people think he could be, if anyone has time to spend taking a look.

ETA: Someone there even posted a link to Websleuths. :D

Missing Persons Cases Network
Click to expand...
A woman is claiming he went by "Coyote" in Slidell and helped her out when she was homeless in New Orleans. She says he stayed at a homeless camp in Slidell 10 years ago. She seems pretty certain it's him, but I'm not 100% convinced the details fit. He would have had to have gone immediately from homeless in Slidell to tech industry employment in New York. It's not impossible but...Maybe someone should reach out to CCSO and/or Slidell PD with this info. It doesn't appear this woman has contacted the police about this tip.
 
UnlicensedPI said:
A woman is claiming he went by "Coyote" in Slidell and helped her out when she was homeless in New Orleans. She says he stayed at a homeless camp in Slidell 10 years ago. She seems pretty certain it's him, but I'm not 100% convinced the details fit. He would have had to have gone immediately from homeless in Slidell to tech industry employment in New York. It's not impossible but...Maybe someone should reach out to CCSO and/or Slidell PD with this info. It doesn't appear this woman has contacted the police about this tip.
Click to expand...

The condition of his teeth as described by authorities is my biggest problem with the homeless theory and the theory that he has been on the lamb for years.

Then again, someone else made a point that "perfect condition" teeth may be subjective to individual perspective. For instance, "perfect condition" to one person may mean that he never had any fillings, work, etc. For another person, it could mean that his teeth had minor or intensive work performed but were very well taken care of afterwards. This information is not provided in detail, to my knowledge.
 
I'm also stuck on the perfect teeth as a decent identifier. IMO - I'm almost certain in the Sheriff office released podcast, they stated he had perfect teeth, zero dental work. It was the reason they highlighted his teeth in such a strange way on the sketch they released. IMO
 
Not seeing anything in the comments other than the Slidell Coyote reference. If he was homeless I don’t expect it was for very long. I’m guessing his perfect teeth had very consistent routine dental cleanings and those aren’t very accessible to the homeless population.

I wonder if they’ve sent his dental Xrays to area NY dentists. I’m sure he had routine cleanings. Would they have also done the standard Xrays? There’d be no fillings but the shape of the teeth, root growth etc would be individual to him.

Just having a patient that age with no dental work would probably be memorable to a dentist.
 
Last edited:
Going back through the replies on the link I posted, it seems like comments are suggesting known missing persons, so they would have almost surely already been ruled out. And now I notice the case was originally posted months ago, so I'm not sure why it appeared on my feed suddenly today. But it's good to see many people care and want to help.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

DNASolves

Who is Escambia County John Doe (1989)?

Members online

... and 111 more.
Total: 2,822 (members: 112, guests: 2,710)

Online statistics

Members online
112
Guests online
2,710
Total visitors
2,822
Totals may include hidden visitors.

Forum statistics

Threads
599,925
Messages
18,101,704
Members
230,955
Latest member
ClueCrusader
Back
Top