I’ve been thinking about this case for the past week or so and typically would not post private thoughts to a public forum, but here are some observations.
Tom Hughes’ Facebook page indicates that he lives in Ridgeway, PA, but he is from Pittsburgh, PA. The discrepancy between the two stands out. Ridgeway is a town of about 4100 people in Elk county, 120 miles to the northeast. The entire county has a population of 29,000.
His social media posts portray a very rural life and include many conservative political videos and memes. I scrolled through deer hunting pictures, elk sparring videos, re-posts of dudes drinking beer, and a survivalist training video. On January 2, he talks about packing everything up and starting fresh. His last post is a video of workers dislocated by the closure (presumably) of the Keystone XL Pipeline.
In contrast to his home town, Pittsburgh is a dense metropolitan area that is hilly and tricky to navigate, especially for a newcomer. While the South Hills communities of Brookline and Beechview are slightly more conservative than other parts of the City, they are still fairly liberal, urban neighborhoods. Someone without a mask in public would undoubtedly draw attention.
Compared with Dakota James or Paul Kochu whose work and education histories were highlighted in the media, Tom’s family and police have been very tight-lipped about what exactly he was doing at his sister’s house. His Mom makes mention of “finding himself.” A quote from the newspaper (later amended) says that he told a friend the night of his disappearance that he loved his girlfriend and her children.
This raises the question of whether Tom intended to stay in Pittsburgh and ran into trouble, or whether he wanted to disappear and start over. Perhaps, Pittsburgh wasn't the best fit.
