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

[K9Enzo]

While it may seem his info was spread around a lot I don’t think it really has been. Sure sleuth and hiking forums have it all BUT what about everyday folks? He had neighbors and coworkers. He bought food and day to day needs somewhere. Did he go out to lunch during the work week? Go to a certain dry cleaner? Where was his “ real” life?
I think his ID is out there in his every day world and the info isn’t reaching it.

I agree with you completely. IMO His pic and trail name is well known in the hiking community and on-line forums where missing and unidentified people are discussed. Outside of that, I think there's been minimal attention. I'm assuming those that did know him, are not connecting him to hiking at all. IMO

 

[acutename]

RA is not remitting, the joint damage is permanent. If it were RA it would be obvious on the autopsy photos and it is clearly not, as posted by Branmuffin.

sometimes when out exerting yourself in the heat, your hands and feet swell- it happens. certainly makes your winter-right-sized shoes tight in the summer. it would abate when you rested of course. no one has said "gout" about his toe, so maybe I will just toss that in.

 

[acutename]

Unsure if it was credible. Early on in the very beginning there was talk about how Ben told someone at the beginning of his hike that he had lost a substantial amount of weight. I haven't looked at the p.m. photos. But I have wondered if the scar is from a "body lift or skin removal surgery" I also wonder if the weight loss is why there was such a focus on nutrition from Ben.

most people who through hike are sort of starving- if you have to carry all your food with you, there is the payload problem that you need calories just to lug the food. also there are spots on the trail far from supplies so there is a lot of info on line about planning where and how to get food. many hikers have supplies mailed to them by an outside person and pick up packages along the way- or I guess these days you could pre-mail yourself stuff from Amazon at intervals- obviously not what MH was doing. in itself, it would not be unusual to calculate how you would be getting enough calories per day to keep on going. I am curious- did anyone determine if MH really was doing about 10miles/day? Without more information, that seems "tough" because in real life, the camp site, the water, the food is often not just 10 miles away.... it is further, or you take a wrong turn and need to back track and 10 miles turns into 15 or 20 before you know it. JMHO

 

[throwaway crush]

FWIW- possibly not much, when I looked at the photos of the notebook pages, it seemed as if he was writing very small mostly without margins. the writing seems distinctive- someone who knew him would recognize it if they ever saw it, IMO. his handwritten signature does not look like the printing in his notebooks either, IMO.

This link doesn't work for me- am I the only one?

 

[deadfoot13]

While it may seem his info was spread around a lot I don’t think it really has been. Sure sleuth and hiking forums have it all BUT what about everyday folks? He had neighbors and coworkers. He bought food and day to day needs somewhere. Did he go out to lunch during the work week? Go to a certain dry cleaner? Where was his “ real” life?
I think his ID is out there in his every day world and the info isn’t reaching it.

I've often thought that maybe he was just an introvert and preferred to keep to himself in real life. It may be nothing more nefarious than him being comfortable with his own company and not having a need to seek out social interaction. It's quite possible to go through life just blending in with the scenery while doing your own thing, especially if you live in a big city where people tend to focus on their own selves rather than the people around them.

 

[Laughing]

sometimes when out exerting yourself in the heat, your hands and feet swell- it happens. certainly makes your winter-right-sized shoes tight in the summer. it would abate when you rested of course. no one has said "gout" about his toe, so maybe I will just toss that in.

A British podiatrist suggested some possibilities for MH's feet, and was pretty well flamed. Hasn't been back.

ymmv lrr

 

[AliceInPain]

A British podiatrist suggested some possibilities for MH's feet, and was pretty well flamed. Hasn't been back.

ymmv lrr

Was that here or in the FB group?
I'd like to read their posts.

 

[SugarQueen]

I've often thought that maybe he was just an introvert and preferred to keep to himself in real life. It may be nothing more nefarious than him being comfortable with his own company and not having a need to seek out social interaction. It's quite possible to go through life just blending in with the scenery while doing your own thing, especially if you live in a big city where people tend to focus on their own selves rather than the people around them.

He could have been an introvert but he still had to have worked at some point, had a girlfriend, shopped, etc.
His info needs to get out more.

 

[Laughing]

Here, a few weeks or months ago, but within 2020 IIRC.

Don't remember the username, if I find posts I'll bring one forward.

ymmv lrr

 

[Laughing]

Hey man thank you. Sorry for the delay in responding. Right here is a summation, which would be obvious to anyone with a background in foot and ankle disorders or rheumatology.

<modsnip>

>Hurr durr the PM photos don't show it.

His right foot is literally worse than the example I've posted below.

Ok, so here is a pic of MH tentatively checking out his right foot.

View attachment 264059

Now, we can't see the foot here unloaded, i.e. similar to the PM photos where he is on his back and not weightbearing. But even here (if we discount the fact that he clearly looks like he's inspecting it) the "big toe" and the bone (metatarsal) look relatively fine.

In contrast, if you haven't seen them, his post mortem photo of his right foot, the same as above (and I am more than willing to send the one in question if allowed and by request) looks almost identical to this...

If you notice, the "big toe" here, is noticeably riding on a lower "level" than the rest of the toes.

View attachment 264063

For context, this is the pic I clipped this from. It's from the radiological report of a rheumatoid arthritis patient.

https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S187705681630189X-gr9.jpg

This is his right hand obviously, when in Georgia just after he'd bought his new camping gear. Note middle finger. Not normal by an stretch of any imagination when under load i.e. he's holding something.

View attachment 264060

And here's his left...

View attachment 264062

Note the deviation of the far joint of the index finger.

Here's a comparison pic from the NHS website here in the UK for Psoriatic arthritis joint destruction. Rheumatoid left unchecked is similar however.

Psoriatic arthritis

Now if we compare the timeline from the very first pic, where he's looking at his right foot, to the PM photo, that shows a marked increase in the amount his 1st MTPj has dropped. Within just over a year basically. The degree to which his foot had deformed (actually worse than the photo I posted above) would have made even putting his foot to the floor excruciating, let alone walking and let alone walking with weight.

My take on his ability to endure the hike was that MH was probably fairly recently diagnosed or had just begun to experience the symptoms of whatever auto-immune arthritis he was suffering from. I believe, as evidenced by his blood results, that he was basically living on ibuprofen and whatever other analgesics.

It's my firm belief (having studied his notes extensively over the last few weeks) that MH simply found the diagnosis/advance of the condition too much to deal with, given he was clearly someone who very much liked to be in control to quite an extreme degree. Also, psoriatic or rheumatoid arthritis would very much have started to impede on his ability to use a computer mouse.

In regards to whether the hike caused it, this is an excellent question. This would take us away from the realms of auto-immune arthritis and into mechanical damage. Repeated heavy trauma can cause the foot deformity he had.

If he didn't have the finger joints as per Georgia photo, I would be tempted to err with that, and still don't discount it. The point still remains however, the destruction Mostly Harmless had in his foot joint would have been disabling.

Again, I am more than happy to send the PM photo of his foot, for people to compare.

Hope this helps folks!

@AliceInPain , @acutename ,here you go!

 

[AliceInPain]

@AliceInPain , @acutename ,here you go!

Thanks!

eta: I used to hitchhike in my youth and damaged my feet due to improper shoes and coupled with walking in damp/rainy weather.
I had bunions when I was 20 due to this.
So this adds up with witness statements he wasn't an experienced hiker.
However, looks like the soles of his feet doesn't have much hardened skin.
Hm...

 

[Curious_in_NC]

trying to read over the sources again.... was he last seen 3 or 4 weeks prior to being found or 3 or 4 months? big difference and more time for illness.

Not sure you got an answer, but it was closer to 3 months. His tent was seen at Nobles Camp a month earlier and in the same spot where he was found. It seems plausible he was camped there or in the Big Cypress area for most of, if not all of, the 3 months. Could he have hitchhiked to Naples or Miami from the I-75 rest stop during some of that time and returned? Perhaps, but it seems unlikely to me. My hunch is that he tried proceeding farther south of I-75 on the FT, but encountered rising water levels, got lost, and/or starting suffering from ill health and returned to Nobles until things improved.

 

[acutename]

I am asking myself isn't it unbearably hot in central FL in July, so google provides me
with this advice:

Florida Trail, Big Cypress South

 

[inmyhumbleopinion]

This link doesn't work for me- am I the only one?

Try this one:
https://www.colliersheriff.org/home/showdocument?id=94010

And here for the transcribed version:
imgur.com

 

[GatorFL]

sorry- not "trying to discredit the whole document." I know the body was not seriously decomposed when it was examined, but it was not fresh either, so maybe not so easy to analyze. also not sure how much time any examiner has for any one body. I was really trying to comprehend losing about half your body weight in three weeks- I do not think that most people would shrink that fast. the healthy person cannot lose 5 lbs after the holidays - it is something to lose 70 lbs in three weeks if the last person who saw MH was correct in his timing/assessment.

He was last seen about 3 months before he was found. So he lost the weight over 3 months.

 

[GatorFL]

I am asking myself isn't it unbearably hot in central FL in July, so google provides me
with this advice:

Florida Trail, Big Cypress South

The heat you can live with as long as you can hydrate. When he was in Big Cypress there were fires and then torrential rains. Those could have been more difficult to deal with than the heat, IMO.

I live about 2 hours from Nobles. I planned way back in June to go. It has rained so much since I made plans I have not been able to go. There is no worse hiking than hiking in the rain. Even camping in the rain is miserable.

 

[JenJenJenJen]

Sorry, I'm new to this thread and have tried to read through all the posts regarding MH but there's been a lot over the years - apologies if this has been suggested before.

I have been wondering whether the surname he used can be looked at as 'my bile' and indicative of a bile duct disease. Symptoms of such include rapid weight loss, lack of appetite, dark urine. It's possible he had surgery in his youth for this, hence the scar. It can cause a swollen liver but whether that effect would be negated by the severe weight loss, I don't know. I've tried to find whether it would have been obvious in the autopsy but I've not found much.

Secondly, I've seen it mentioned in an article that he had friends put his stuff in storage (though I've only seen this mentioned in one article so I'm not sure of the validity of this claim). With the time that has passed, it is likely his payment lapsed and his locker has been auctioned off. Has anyone contacted the locker auction community in New York? He mentioned he had harddrives full of Doctor Who and with any luck, with all of his possessions in there, there were photos. It's possible it may jog the memory of someone who can identify which locker it was and provide a trail to go back on.

 

[donnydonowitz]

While it may seem his info was spread around a lot I don’t think it really has been. Sure sleuth and hiking forums have it all BUT what about everyday folks? He had neighbors and coworkers. He bought food and day to day needs somewhere. Did he go out to lunch during the work week? Go to a certain dry cleaner? Where was his “ real” life?
I think his ID is out there in his every day world and the info isn’t reaching it.

Wired magazine wrote an article about him and it's what actually led me here wanting to know more.
https://www.wired.com/story/nameless-hiker-mostly-harmless-internet-mystery/#intcid=_wired-homepage-right-rail_641c1289-8b97-4444-9e22-aa109219c8fc_popular4-1

 

[Laughing]

Wired magazine wrote an article about him and it's what actually led me here wanting to know more.
A Nameless Hiker and the Case the Internet Can’t Crack

Yes! Welcome to Websleuths!

 

[SugarQueen]

Wired magazine wrote an article about him and it's what actually led me here wanting to know more.
A Nameless Hiker and the Case the Internet Can’t Crack

I do understand his story is out is select places but again it hasn’t really been spread the day to day world. The hiking and tech community hasn’t given him a name. I don’t think his info spread to the general population. Someone knows him. Even an introvert has had a job, a friend, a schoolmate, something.