Identified! FL - Big Cypress Natl Preserve, Male Hiker, Denim & “Mostly Harmless” July 2018 - Vance Rodriguez#4

[MichelleBlue]

WHEN he is identified, and he will be, there won’t be any doubt when we see a picture of him. He has a very distinctive face.

I hope we someday get to hear his story, whatever it may be!

 

[gfinale]

I can't remember now how I found this out but I believe it was someone's comment pages and pages ago about a hiking group or hiking game. I went to this Appalachian hiking game which was completed around the time MH went on his AT hike. My first thought was maybe MH played that AT game, possibly researching maps beyond the game and had memorized the trail so well, he didn't feel he needed GPS and all of that. Indeed, nobody has ever discussed him saying he got lost at any point. My second thought was who developed it. Turns out a guy not so different from MH and, at a time when MH started hiking! I found him and his pic though, they don't look anything like each other...and he's alive! I sent him to ask if he may have run into MH somehow.

 

[moonriverfarm]

I am reading a book called The Stranger in the Woods - The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit. There are sooooo many similarities between Christopher Knight and MH that is is uncanny. I encourage all to read it.

 

[gfinale]

I have seen a picture of MH with a Pinhoti Trail map. Did he have a Florida Trail map on him when he died? I don't think I've seen that mentioned.

 

[moonriverfarm]

Thanks for posting the video. How far is this from where he was found? It looks a lot different than I imagined. A lot less trees and shade than I pictured. IMO

I did not see a picnic table at the site where they camped.

 

[moonriverfarm]

Another man whose identity has never been found.
The unsolved mystery of Peter Bergmann

 

[GatorFL]

I did not see a picnic table at the site where they camped.

In the camp scene photos the police took you can see the picnic table. I believe these guys were camped behind the area where MH was camped so that is why you don't see the table in the video.

 

[gfinale]

Knee braces pulled up. There are many pics of him with them properly deployed.

People have said he looked fine around the last time he was seen. I'm thinking he got sick with something else such as bad water. Maybe something like Giardia infection from water? That this led to the starvation.

 

[gfinale]

I can't remember now how I found this out but I believe it was someone's comment pages and pages ago about a hiking group or hiking game. I went to this Appalachian hiking game which was completed around the time MH went on his AT hike. My first thought was maybe MH played that AT game, possibly researching maps beyond the game and had memorized the trail so well, he didn't feel he needed GPS and all of that. Indeed, nobody has ever discussed him saying he got lost at any point. My second thought was who developed it. Turns out a guy not so different from MH and, at a time when MH started hiking! I found him and his pic though, they don't look anything like each other...and he's alive! I sent him to ask if he may have run into MH somehow.

I figured out it was whosbobby on July 7, 2020 providing a link to a forum where a hiking game is mentioned. I went from there.

 

[GatorFL]

People have said he looked fine around the last time he was seen. I'm thinking he got sick with something else such as bad water. Maybe something like Giardia infection from water? That this led to the starvation.

He would not have had feces in his colon if he had giardiasis. It makes you have diarrhea. He would not have had a full bladder either.

 

[GatorFL]

I have seen a picture of MH with a Pinhoti Trail map. Did he have a Florida Trail map on him when he died? I don't think I've seen that mentioned.

Kelly Fairbanks said he had a 8.5 x 11 paper map of the trail on the podcast.

For what it is worth I have not needed a map on the FT either. We have the Florida Trail Association and they perform year-round volunteer trail maintenance. Part of what they do is blaze the trail, basically a paint mark on a tree. The FT is almost overmarked you're literally seeing a blaze every 100-500 feet. So when you go off trail it is pretty easy to see.

The AT is a different story, not as well marked where I have hiked.

 

[GatorFL]

Another man whose identity has never been found.
The unsolved mystery of Peter Bergmann

Yes, this is another good one.

 

[GatorFL]

I was going to drive over to Big Cypress this weekend and hike out to Nobles. Tropical Storm Isaias has other plans for me this weekend so I have to delay those plans. When I make it out there I will take some pictures and post them, with the picnic table. I think an aerial view would be best for this to show where MH was camped in relation to the hikers in the video but I do not own a drone.

 

[gfinale]

From many pages back, I don't agree with the comment that MH was not using the notebooks while on his hikes, only at hostels, etc. When you're hiking hundreds of miles, I don't think you buy or bring things you're not going to use on the hike because you must carry them all that way.

Question: Did MH have the ability to start a fire when he died? Would it be important to boil water and/or food before having it?

 

[GatorFL]

From many pages back, I don't agree with the comment that MH was not using the notebooks while on his hikes, only at hostels, etc. When you're hiking hundreds of miles, I don't think you buy or bring things you're not going to use on the hike because you must carry them all that way.

Question: Did MH have the ability to start a fire when he died? Would it be important to boil water and/or food before having it?

Well, he wasn't exactly the best at weight management because we know he carried a lot of stuff he did not need to be carrying, specifically winter gear and he did not take up offers to ship that stuff home.

Obsidian never saw him journaling. But I agree he was writing on the trail. You get bored. Especially if he was hiking only 10 miles a day, lots of daylight even after you make camp.

They investigated the notebooks and could not find a location where he bought them, but they were from Dollar General. He could have bought them south of where he hiked with Obsidian.

Other hikers saw him filtering his water, on the AT, which he obtained from a creek.

Obsidian said he could not make a fire. He was found with a camp stove and fuel canister but it did not appear like he was using it. The fuel canister was rusted in the police photos.

@gfinale have you listened to the CCSO podcasts? A lot of what you are bringing up is covered in them, I recommend you listen if you have not yet.

 

[Bellaplutt]

I have a degree in nutrition and looked at his protein bar calculations - they’re both thorough and somewhat correct but they’re also flawed - like a gram of protein and a gram of carbs equals 4 calories each (and one gram of fat equals 9 calories) but that doesn’t always add up in his calculations so I wonder what he was basing it on.

And another thing - IMO he probably got sick at the Nobles campsite which is why he didn’t manage to leave, but why didn’t he put up a note on his tent or on the trail asking for help? He must have realized he was just getting worse at some point?

I was also thinking of what small snippets of his life/background we have. He walked with someone (Obsidian?) for a month, surely they must have gotten to know each other a bit more than the facts we have? Everything is just so barely scratched on the surface - like abusive father, had ex-girlfriend a.s.o, nothing deeper. Maybe people he talked to just don’t remember more than the very tiny details :/

 

[gfinale]

So many times it has been mentioned that he said he visited his sister but what the hikers discussed him saying is that he stayed with his sister before he started the FT. Stayed, not visited. They didn't just have coffee.

I believe its pretty well accepted that he was living in the park until he died. I take that to mean at Nobles. So then, I'm not sure where the theories about him not being there for at least the few weeks before his death come from.

What could have happened, as one reasonable guess, is that, in the 3 months between him being seen last and his death, he went to stay with his sister again, they had a fight and she told him she never wanted to see him again. Maybe she talked to their parents in between and the parents said don't see him or we won't talk to you anymore and she told him that. So then he went to Nobles and maybe did the old nobody loves me, I might as well die. If she did say that, she wouldn't be wondering where he was, maybe ever.

This is just one guess but it serves to say there are logical reasons for all of his actions the entire way through.

I've mentioned my other favorite theory that sounds reasonable that he got sick with something like Giardia infection from water, a bad flu or whatever and kept thinking he would recover while getting worse and worse. He may have realized he would never get better too late.

 

[GatorFL]

I have a degree in nutrition and looked at his protein bar calculations - they’re both thorough and somewhat correct but they’re also flawed - like a gram of protein and a gram of carbs equals 4 calories each (and one gram of fat equals 9 calories) but that doesn’t always add up in his calculations so I wonder what he was basing it on.

And another thing - IMO he probably got sick at the Nobles campsite which is why he didn’t manage to leave, but why didn’t he put up a note on his tent or on the trail asking for help? He must have realized he was just getting worse at some point?

I was also thinking of what small snippets of his life/background we have. He walked with someone (Obsidian?) for a month, surely they must have gotten to know each other a bit more than the facts we have? Everything is just so barely scratched on the surface - like abusive father, had ex-girlfriend a.s.o, nothing deeper. Maybe people he talked to just don’t remember more than the very tiny details :/

I think the evidence we have shows mania or an eating disorder. He got there and shut down. He was so close to help and even had people come through but did not ask for-or receive-help.

I think he hiked with Obsidian for a week, not a month. Still, a long time to know somebody and only find out snippets. The detective thinks he was actively hiding his identity and giving generalizations to fellow hikers is one way to do that.

It is also hard to recall specifics months later. You can't blame the people who interacted with him for that.

 

[gfinale]

Well, he wasn't exactly the best at weight management because we know he carried a lot of stuff he did not need to be carrying, specifically winter gear and he did not take up offers to ship that stuff home.

Obsidian never saw him journaling. But I agree he was writing on the trail. You get bored. Especially if he was hiking only 10 miles a day, lots of daylight even after you make camp.

They investigated the notebooks and could not find a location where he bought them, but they were from Dollar General. He could have bought them south of where he hiked with Obsidian.

Other hikers saw him filtering his water, on the AT, which he obtained from a creek.

Obsidian said he could not make a fire. He was found with a camp stove and fuel canister but it did not appear like he was using it. The fuel canister was rusted in the police photos.

@gfinale have you listened to the CCSO podcasts? A lot of what you are bringing up is covered in them, I recommend you listen if you have not yet.

I was thinking same about only 10 miles and lots of daylight while bored. Will do about podcasts.

 

[GatorFL]

I've mentioned my other favorite theory that sounds reasonable that he got sick with something like Giardia infection from water, a bad flu or whatever and kept thinking he would recover while getting worse and worse. He may have realized he would never get better too late.

Giardiasis is not a reasonable theory. We know he did not die from that because as I said, he would not have solid feces in his colon and he would not have had urine in his bladder. He died from starvation. Maybe he died from refeeding disease, which is a result of starvation.