Identified! FL - Big Cypress Natl Preserve, Male hiker, "Denim" & "Mostly Harmless", Jul 2018 - Vance Rodriguez

[Startropic1]

RSBM

Welcome to Websleuths and thank you for your insights @Startropic1. It's good to have a fresh analysis of the notebooks. I'm especially curious about the couple of pages with tables of numbers if you can figure those out. I'm stumped. It looks like line numbers on the left but then deviates.

FWIW there are already transcripts of much of the notebooks available and there has been a lot of research already on the Screeps angle (just search this forum for "Screeps").

But I like your pointing out the "slash zero". I agree with you that it's most probably the sign of a disciplined and experienced programmer. It also may suggest MH anticipated others might read or use his notes. That's typically when I now use it, although I first learned to use it as an undergrad in chemistry, not from programming. It's also used in medicine, ham radio, etc. (Slashed zero - Wikipedia). TBH, it's so familiar in science that I didn't even think about it.

Yes, they appear to be line numbers. There is another page that looks like it has line numbers as well, but you can tell the number sequence in that page that they aren't line numbers.
From the pdf, there are two documents: a notepad and a notebook. The notebook has a section that explains things like letters and circled characters in his diagrams.

The way he arranged numbers in groups of 3x3 digits is interesting, but that's where we need an expert in applied mathematics. We can solve part of it with the information provided in the notebook, but with raw numbers--you need a mathematician. I am also familiar with hexadecimal code, (which he actually does use on at least one page), but I can tell you this page in particular is not hex. Hexadecimal is 16 digits, from 0-9 and A-F, and these are strictly numeric values. If you see any letters outside A-F, it's not hex. As far as I know the only other way to interpret raw numbers from a programming perspective is raw machine code. However, to be able to do machine code in handwriting is a bit of a feat. Before I would explore that avenue, I'd rather have a mathematician analyze it first.

When I first saw the other diagrams, I knew what they were but did not have enough information at first to know the specifics of each character/symbol. They are examples of level maps that can be generated by his code. (This is what you see in the page immediately following the one that you posted.) The symbols are specific objects available to the program to place for the layout of the maps, and the notebook has a section that tells you what these objects are and which characters/symbols represent them. The diagrams are some examples of what can be generated.

I will have to review that section of the notebook, I should be able to at least decipher the portions of that page with letters. Since these 3x3 sequences of numbers also appear on the following page with a map diagram, there might be a direct connection. One of his variables is a numeric amount of "energy", which does use 3 digit values so there could be something there. That diagram I can definitely explain in full. So, I'll review the notebook section that explains it and put together a clearer graphical diagram.

 

[fred&edna]

Yes, they appear to be line numbers. There is another page that looks like it has line numbers as well, but you can tell the number sequence in that page that they aren't line numbers.
From the pdf, there are two documents: a notepad and a notebook. The notebook has a section that explains things like letters and circled characters in his diagrams.

The way he arranged numbers in groups of 3x3 digits is interesting, but that's where we need an expert in applied mathematics. We can solve part of it with the information provided in the notebook, but with raw numbers--you need a mathematician. I am also familiar with hexadecimal code, (which he actually does use on at least one page), but I can tell you this page in particular is not hex. Hexadecimal is 16 digits, from 0-9 and A-F, and these are strictly numeric values. If you see any letters outside A-F, it's not hex. As far as I know the only other way to interpret raw numbers from a programming perspective is raw machine code. However, to be able to do machine code in handwriting is a bit of a feat. Before I would explore that avenue, I'd rather have a mathematician analyze it first.

When I first saw the other diagrams, I knew what they were but did not have enough information at first to know the specifics of each character/symbol. They are examples of level maps that can be generated by his code. (This is what you see in the page immediately following the one that you posted.) The symbols are specific objects available to the program to place for the layout of the maps, and the notebook has a section that tells you what these objects are and which characters/symbols represent them. The diagrams are some examples of what can be generated.

I will have to review that section of the notebook, I should be able to at least decipher the portions of that page with letters. Since these 3x3 sequences of numbers also appear on the following page with a map diagram, there might be a direct connection. One of his variables is a numeric amount of "energy", which does use 3 digit values so there could be something there. That diagram I can definitely explain in full. So, I'll review the notebook section that explains it and put together a clearer graphical diagram.

Geometric sequencing (& CMM) comes to mind but it also makes my mind hurt

 

[reasypeasy]

Most of the terms in Project 2 match D&D
Stub - D&D Wiki

Edit: @lonewanderer great minds, eh?

If he's into D&D then he might be known at one of the stores that sells such games or by one of the meetup groups that gathers about such games or by people posting to one of the local facebook groups that exist to help people find other players or by posters on a topic related forum or subreddit. Might be worth some sort of outreach?

 

[UnlicensedPI]

If he's into D&D then he might be known at one of the stores that sells such games or by one of the meetup groups that gathers about such games or by people posting to one of the local facebook groups that exist to help people find other players or by posters on a topic related forum or subreddit. Might be worth some sort of outreach?

I agree! The D&D community in NY must be pretty big, though. We should also be looking in NJ since he told someone he lived there and commuted.

I asked my friend who plays a lot of fantasy-based games if she could decipher his notebook. She agrees he wasn't playing, rather designing a game. I think it would be logical to draw the conclusion he was designing based on D&D, given the significant overlap of "races" and "roles" between the D&D world and his game. He must have had a lot of experience with it if he could do all he did in that notebook without any references but the ones in his head.

 

[Curious_in_NC]

They are examples of level maps that can be generated by his code. (This is what you see in the page immediately following the one that you posted.)
RSBM.

Thanks. I'm not sure about any page sequence. I think this was one of the pages from the small notepad that were found separate from the notebooks. They were either found loose in the tent or were in the trash bag. The person who did the transcription didn't transcribe them. I was curious about these pages because they were obviously discarded, whereas the main notebooks were in comparably pristine condition. I had considered they might be related to nutrition calculations but I got nowhere with that idea. You're right, we need a math expert to analyze these.

 

[Faith08]

Another unidentified doe officially getting their name back.. With Othram& DNA for the win again! I have a feeling our mostly harmless hiker will get his turn soon! After 38 years, Delta Dawn is finally identified!

 

[Startropic1]

Quick update on the number pages: I reviewed the pages that explain the diagrams, (these are marked 4-9 and 4-10 by the author, pages 27-28 of the pdf.) The letters that appear on the numbers pages don't match anything in those 2 pages. One thing those pages do mention are rotations, which have values that go up to 3-digit numbers. Also, the first numbers page uses line numbers, so we can break it down for better analysis. You want to examine numbers as separate groups, as defined by the line numbers, (actually 2 lines per line number due to small notepad.)
Ok, let's take a closer look at two lines we can see pretty clearly:



I see a pattern. The sequences always start with 3 lines of 0 then 3 lines of 12. In the image above you only see 2 lines each of 0s and 12s, but the second page of numbers shows 3 lines of each. I think it's safe to infer that there should be 3 lines each in this page as well. Beyond that the numbers do increase in each column. (also, yes that's a 12 in the first line. The mark that makes it look like a 5 actually belongs to the line above it.) This would be easy to decipher if the idea of rotations fit, but you may notice that the numbers actually go above 360. Technically you can have values above 360, (which would mean a full rotation plus more), but I don't think that works here.

I think what needs to be done is I need to review the equations in his code. "Energy" is a variable that might produce numbers like this, although there are also a couple other things. The one small problem here is that, as I already mentioned previously, handwritten code probably doesn't work. Therefore it is reasonable that the equations might not calculate correctly. I'll still give it a shot. As long as we get reasonably close to the number pattern, it will at least make things a little clearer.

 

[Narkj]

@UnlicensedPI I've heard New Jersey brought up a bit, I'm not sure if I've ever seen the source of that. Hard to keep track of everything. If he lived in NJ and commuted, Jersey City or Hoboken are popular. Also enormous places with huge populations.

I'm glad some of you have really dug into the notebooks. I certainly can't make any sense of them as a layman. I was just surprised there was nothing like a diary entry, zero personal words, unless of course there was an it wasn't released.

 

[lonewanderer]

Quick update on the number pages: I reviewed the pages that explain the diagrams, (these are marked 4-9 and 4-10 by the author, pages 27-28 of the pdf.) The letters that appear on the numbers pages don't match anything in those 2 pages. One thing those pages do mention are rotations, which have values that go up to 3-digit numbers. Also, the first numbers page uses line numbers, so we can break it down for better analysis. You want to examine numbers as separate groups, as defined by the line numbers, (actually 2 lines per line number due to small notepad.)
Ok, let's take a closer look at two lines we can see pretty clearly:

View attachment 274391

I see a pattern. The sequences always start with 3 lines of 0 then 3 lines of 12. In the image above you only see 2 lines each of 0s and 12s, but the second page of numbers shows 3 lines of each. I think it's safe to infer that there should be 3 lines each in this page as well. Beyond that the numbers do increase in each column. (also, yes that's a 12 in the first line. The mark that makes it look like a 5 actually belongs to the line above it.) This would be easy to decipher if the idea of rotations fit, but you may notice that the numbers actually go above 360. Technically you can have values above 360, (which would mean a full rotation plus more), but I don't think that works here.

I think what needs to be done is I need to review the equations in his code. "Energy" is a variable that might produce numbers like this, although there are also a couple other things. The one small problem here is that, as I already mentioned previously, handwritten code probably doesn't work. Therefore it is reasonable that the equations might not calculate correctly. I'll still give it a shot. As long as we get reasonably close to the number pattern, it will at least make things a little clearer.

For a while, I thought the numbers could be macronutrients for a diet. Those are typically named in the order like a Nutritional Fact label; fat, carbs, protein (Although the calculator I used does these numbers backwards). The numbers run somewhat, sorta, kinda a little bit like someone counting macros. Besides three entries that appear to be "0, 0" "12,12" and "32,72". There is also about 30 entries once those three entries are subtracted, which could mean days of a month. I have attached an example of a macros count for someone around his age and potential goals of weight loss with high activity from hiking (though when I want to lose weight I change the settings to barely active and goal to extreme weight loss) and the numbers are similar to what is seen in the log.

This is merely an observation, and I DO NOT think it was a macro log. Just jogging ideas and expressing interest in the case.

 

[lonewanderer]

@UnlicensedPI I've heard New Jersey brought up a bit, I'm not sure if I've ever seen the source of that. Hard to keep track of everything. If he lived in NJ and commuted, Jersey City or Hoboken are popular. Also enormous places with huge populations.

I'm glad some of you have really dug into the notebooks. I certainly can't make any sense of them as a layman. I was just surprised there was nothing like a diary entry, zero personal words, unless of course there was an it wasn't released.

I have three of four notebooks I use for different purposes. One of them is for "to-do" lists, one is for sleuthing brainstorms, and one is for self-expression. I do have a notebook for when I would study certain subject in college, or when I am studying for an IT certification. MH's notebook reminds me a lot of some of the notebooks I have had in the past, especially when he is differentiating encryption types, connection protocols, and network security.

Of all these notebooks, I have never written my name in any of them, nor anyone's names in my family or identifying information. Just for some perspective.

There where two names in MH's notebook (a male and female name I don't recall at the moment) but I think they where supposed to be names of fictional "shopkeepers" for a proposed game idea, or at least that is what I understood from it.

 

[UnlicensedPI]

@UnlicensedPI I've heard New Jersey brought up a bit, I'm not sure if I've ever seen the source of that. Hard to keep track of everything. If he lived in NJ and commuted, Jersey City or Hoboken are popular. Also enormous places with huge populations.

I'm glad some of you have really dug into the notebooks. I certainly can't make any sense of them as a layman. I was just surprised there was nothing like a diary entry, zero personal words, unless of course there was an it wasn't released.

I'm not sure if I can find it again, but I think it was the same guy who originally brought up Baton Rouge and an abusive family. I think he commented in a hiker group when the original post was going around in the first few months of the investigation.

 

[wardo27]

I'm not sure if I can find it again, but I think it was the same guy who originally brought up Baton Rouge and an abusive family. I think he commented in a hiker group when the original post was going around in the first few months of the investigation.

It wasn't that hiker; the hiker who met with MH and with whom MH shared the abusive father data, was at Springer Mtn. It was later that month on Dec 29 at Salem Church Rd, the hiker "HW" claimed that MH said he was living in NJ. They took a photo of him in front of the Nissan truck. There was confusion, however: at first HW said MH stated he was living in NYC, but then he and his colleague went over their notes and stated that MH said he was living in NJ. So...it sounds a little messy.

 

[Sine]

I have three of four notebooks I use for different purposes. One of them is for "to-do" lists, one is for sleuthing brainstorms, and one is for self-expression. I do have a notebook for when I would study certain subject in college, or when I am studying for an IT certification. MH's notebook reminds me a lot of some of the notebooks I have had in the past, especially when he is differentiating encryption types, connection protocols, and network security.

Of all these notebooks, I have never written my name in any of them, nor anyone's names in my family or identifying information. Just for some perspective.

There where two names in MH's notebook (a male and female name I don't recall at the moment) but I think they where supposed to be names of fictional "shopkeepers" for a proposed game idea, or at least that is what I understood from it.

Bob and Jenny. They were NPC characters in MH's Nanites Guild game/level. I read that part of the notebook with an eye toward trying to pick out certain cultural references or markers that might help point in new directions.

For example, I think the name Bob, in some ways, has become a placeholder for any NPC character. The software development company Bungie introduced "BoB" as an acronym for NPC characters who were "born on board" in their game series Marathon originally developed for Apple Macintosh. After they were purchased by Microsoft, Bungie carried Bob forward into their super mega XBox 360 hit Halo.

In the mid-1990s Marathon had a small but very active map building community that would that would share maps with each other. Some of the room diagrams in the notebook remind me of the way rooms in these maps would be planned (also, like Screeps, with "spawns, terminal, and storage"). These maps were built for network play (players competing with each other).

Marathon also nods to the Hitchhiker's Guide, where one of the game's protagonists (an AI computer) communicates to the player in a terminal screen:

By the way, I had an accident with some defense drones while you were away. You might bump into a few of them here. Don't worry, they're mostly harmless; I don't think I gave them any ammunition for those grenade launchers.​

The concept of nanites as something in popular science fiction seems to date to at least a 1989 episode of Star Trek the Next Generation. Not difficult to think a Dr. Who and Hitchhiker's Guide fan would be into Star Trek! There are a number of Star Trek RPGs. One of the longest running is StarBase 118 founded in 1994. Nanites figure into that game.

As other have mentioned, much of MH's game design is clearly RPG/MMORPG type stuff. These are, by design, intensely social but possibly anonymous experiences where you create and play other characters. Given his interest and apparent skills, it's hard to imagine MH didn't participate in and contribute to other MMORPG communities. I've wondered if the trail wasn't just a real world MMORPG for MH?

I work in IT and took programming classes is college. It has been many years since I did any real programming, however. But, FWIW, I agree with @Startropic1 that much of the code has a very C or C++ feel to it. I attended college in the mid 1990s and intro computer science courses at my school learned C++ which was a popular teaching language at that time. But, as also noted by @Startropic1, most computer language syntax is similar. This and all of the above seems consistent with estimates of MH's age range and what would have been his formative years culturally for a computer geek and sci-fi fan.

 

[Startropic1]

Bob and Jenny. They were NPC characters in MH's Nanites Guild game/level. I read that part of the notebook with an eye toward trying to pick out certain cultural references or markers that might help point in new directions.

There's one other proper name in the Nanite Guild section, a company name: {illegible} Technology Industries. (Unfortunately I couldn't quite make out that most important first word.) If we c0uld get that first word, that's a key piece of information--even though it's most likely fictional.

A quick note about the Marathon games you mentioned: In those days Bungie made their games exclusively for Mac computers. (Eventually the Marathon games did get ported over to PC.) Generally speaking Macs are not really the platform for programming and gaming, especially back then.

Also about the NY/NJ thing. It is actually common practice for many people to live in northern NJ and commute to work in the neighbouring region of NY. So both statements could very well be true.

 

[wardo27]

There's one other proper name in the Nanite Guild section, a company name: {illegible} Technology Industries. (Unfortunately I couldn't quite make out that most important first word.) If we c0uld get that first word, that's a key piece of information--even though it's most likely fictional.

A quick note about the Marathon games you mentioned: In those days Bungie made their games exclusively for Mac computers. (Eventually the Marathon games did get ported over to PC.) Generally speaking Macs are not really the platform for programming and gaming, especially back then.

Also about the NY/NJ thing. It is actually common practice for many people to live in northern NJ and commute to work in the neighbouring region of NY. So both statements could very well be true.

If memory serves, another sleuther on another forum made out that it was "Global Technology Industries"...which is actually a real company and has Brooklyn office. But I don't believe anything came of that.

Having lived in NYC for years, it's quite common for people to commute to Manhattan from NJ. A little less common to commute from NJ to Brooklyn, the place where MH most commonly referenced as his work/home. Getting from Brooklyn to NJ during afternoon rush hour using public transportation is hellacious, but you never know.

 

[WitchHearse]

Where are you from?

There was a teen murder victim in the UK named Ben Bellamy.

The middle of nowhere Kansas. Usa.

You maybe right though I read about alot of crimes and mysteries. I will Google it and see if it is familiar. Unless it isn't well known.

 

[Bethan]

It wasn't that hiker; the hiker who met with MH and with whom MH shared the abusive father data, was at Springer Mtn. It was later that month on Dec 29 at Salem Church Rd, the hiker "HW" claimed that MH said he was living in NJ. They took a photo of him in front of the Nissan truck. There was confusion, however: at first HW said MH stated he was living in NYC, but then he and his colleague went over their notes and stated that MH said he was living in NJ. So...it sounds a little messy.

Pleased I’m not the only one remembering the ‘abusive father’ story....I was beginning to think I’d imagined it & couldn’t remember if it was specified as ‘father’ or ‘family’.

( & If ‘father’ then yes, there may well be other family members who have sadly missed their son, brother, nephew)

 

[fred&edna]

O/T somewhat but I think anyone interested in Namus and identifying unknowns, should read.

UNTCHI/NamUs operations to cease Jan. 1, 2021

 

[newyooper]

There's a difference between being somewhat slack in personal admin details, and deliberately heading out into the wilderness with no phone, no electronics, no credit cards, no identification of any kind, and no in-case-of-emergency contact. All I'm saying is that it seems like an intentional choice by MH, and not just sloppiness. I could well be wrong, but to me it indicates that he did not want to be identified no matter the circumstances.

And yes, I'm aware that it's speculation of a sort, as is a great deal of what is posted here, and also that it isn't (directly, anyway) helping to identify Mostly Harmless. I'm just throwing the *possibility* out there that that identification isn't in fact what he wanted, and that maybe we're pursuing it as much for us as for him. (Or for his family, the existence of which is also pure speculation after this long). But I hope not. I hope that finding out who he was is what he would have wanted, and that it brings some comfort, or at least closure, to those who knew or loved him, wherever they are.

When I first heard his trail name I immediately thought he was being ironic, as though he said he was "MOSTLY Harmless" which led me to believe he might have caused harm of some sort, inadvertently or not.

 

[WitchHearse]

I don't know why i feel compelled to post this but i just want to say why i am obsessed with this case.

My husband is an IT guy and we also do alot of camping.

I spent a huge chunk of my life in FL specifically Crestview. My Dad lives there still.

I have a random thought just throwing this out there what if MH was misdiagnosed with a terminal illness or covinced himself he had one? Maybe after time he convinced himself he was dying and that is why he kind of sat there in the end to die? That would explain the lack of one mentioned in the autopsy.