doug howser, howser ’bout i tip my hat to you? Maybe that’s what he’d been seeking. I’m not sure that the name in the movie was ever spelled out (it’s been a while), but I’ve only seen it as V’Ger. Investigators from the Collier County sheriff’s department catalogued the man’s belongings. The key is, and everyone in the depressed world knows this…you NEVER go anywhere alone for long periods of time. i know i have them in my life. Later, he would tell friends that he wanted to be buried in that field. Mostly Harmless weighed just 83 pounds. Although the death is painful, when you don’t eat, it’s not as bad for depressers as one might think. Harmless had hiked from New York to Florida and there was food and money in his tent, but no identification, and neither Collier County detectives nor amateur web sleuths could figure out his real name, find his family, or uncover friends. He seems to have left in a hurry. Barb J, Keith….What a beautifully written tribute! do you think it’s justified? Terabyte Buddhist monks actually walk the forest as part of awake walking meditation. Friends said it was from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Mostly Harmless told other hikers he worked in information technology and based on his notebooks that seems likely. “I don't think I was committed to Vance as a human. As I tried to make sense of Rodriguez, I thought about a man I know named Jesse Cody who I had raced against in high school cross country. I see some of each of us in MH. if i’out’ this well-spoken ‘J’ character as the author (strong hunch), what level of backlash should i expect? Having worked as a nurse in long term care for 25 years, when people are impacted by stool, they get very sick. I was so much more suicidal while on those. He gave up everything to be lost and remain unknown, and all the “detectives” pretty much ruined it all for him. “And I would have paid him literally anything he asked. He was alone in a vast, unfamiliar city. Vance Rodriguez was found by two hikers on July 23, 2018, inside a tent deep within Big Cypress National Preserve. are you trolling? i’m not in any way attempting to excuse or minimize abuse. And no matter if he had a troubled past or if he didn’t mean to take his own life accidentally or however and what happened, it’s a sad story, he is no longer in this world. it’s also clear that sustained emotional and/or verbal abuse can be incredibly debilitating to the sufferer. When I don’t take them, I will sleep for days or weeks, and only get up to use the bathroom sometimes. so that slows it down even more. His willpower in that endeavor was unassailable. They all knew his trail name, but no one could figure out his real one. I’m guessing that is why Vince wrote the code in his book, it makes your brain stop hurting for a while. Both had bad knees and hiked slowly. He was in jeans and had no equipment. The landlord should have notified the authorities that his tenant seemed to be missing. I see him as the ideal of William Hazlitt’s 1821 essay “On Living to One’s Self.”, “He reads the clouds, he looks at the stars, he watches the return of the seasons, the falling leaves of autumn, the perfumed breath of spring, starts with delight at the note of the thrush in a copse near him, sits by the fire, listens to the moaning of the wind, pores upon a book, or discourses the freezing hours away, or melts down hours to minutes in pleasing thought. I read the beginning, the middle somewhat and the end. those seeking to gatekeep this information and it’s flow were not successful, an outcome we should celebrate. this is not driven by an overly intrusive community, but rather by someone from vance’s set of family, friends, associates and loved ones. Two days later, the District 20 medical examiner’s office performed an autopsy. He gobbled M&Ms, obsessed over distances between destinations, and longed to see a bear. “But he would go to holiday parties and not look miserable.”, He ate once a day, often pizza from Walmart or lasagna from Pasta Kitchen. The surgeries that followed were the cause of the scar that had so intrigued the Facebook group. i’m wondering about your thoughts on the matter,? To all who wil read this. Below is our original story (“Part 1”), the first of our print stories we’ve put online, followed by Nark’s updated reporting (“Part 2”) on how he found Rodriguez—and who this mystery man was. “We were just hiking,” she said. why? Exercise gives you boosts but you’d have to exercise daily and rapidly several times a day to keep it going to build it back up and you’d have to keep that up for life. Through DNA, they identified Mostly Harmless as Vance Rodriguez, and his family is in Lafayette. He and K went out maybe once a month, she recalls. The photos show his gear, too: His clothes and boots, his odd habit of keeping the rain cover over his pack at all times. it should not be tolerated. At first, he was romantic and sweet. He had been found by deceased in Big Cypress National Preserve by two hikers on July 28, 2018. “The people who cared about him and even the people who felt hurt by him all deserve to have that closure,” she said. The way you wrote this piece is so intriguing. You look at the facts of this and assume he didn’t want to be identified. Why? Someone on the trail who met him said he said, ‘”He fought with his father. Also to his many trail friends along the way who answered the same questions from many of us over and over. And then, as he traversed the mountains, walking through sugar maple and oak, hickory and poplar, stepping over roots and rocks, he tamed his demons too. When someone does long hikes to clear their mind, yet months later still sees nothing to return to, and does not wish to go on, passive starvation hidden in a tent in the woods is one way to end the absence of any appealing path out of the woods. Marie, who lived with him as a friend for several years in his twenties, says he was angry that his parents had institutionalized him after the near suicide. i love a good troll. When he was about 15, according to friends, Rodriguez headed off into a field with a gun, intending to kill himself. They had been lighting candles in an effort to bring someone back to his family—only to learn that he had completely cut himself off from them. absent truly persuasive proof of egregious behavior, i feel that engaging in this level of scrutiny within this forum is where we really start crossing lines that perhaps should not be crossed. A smart, adventurous guy (he has a PhD and has run 100+ mile races locally and around the world), he is missed by all of us. It was well over eighty degrees that day, and Mostly Harmless was carrying a pack that weighed more than fifty pounds. Why not just jump off a bridge if you want to end it all ?? The manager let me in that apartment. honestly not trying to be obnoxious. You choose it. I’m so sorry for your troubles. The man was five feet, eight inches tall and “markedly cachectic,” meaning his muscle had all but wasted away. But when the sheriff’s department posted a sketch of his thin, bearded face on its Facebook page, the case suddenly came to life. She liked him enough to stay with him those 100 miles and that likely saved his life for that period of time. I’ll always remember the strange looks we got leaving the office together to get lunch and countless hours of epic online adventures we shared. so what’s the damn problem? “He would go through huge bouts of depression. He was so open to the new experience. you’re likely a pretty good judge of vance’s wishes in life, at least what they might have been when you knew him well. I smoke too much, drink too much and don’t exercise at all. we’ll never know for sure. Where is now? I enjoy writing because it lets me carry through thoughts completely, it must use a different part of the brain. From Hawaii to the mainland trustee. May he rest in peace! That was great… it gave me insight. For more than a year, I told myself to stop investigating Mostly Harmless and start writing, that my role is to tell a story, not solve the case. She trashed the entire house and left my parents to clean it up. In January 2017, Rodriguez wrote, in a Slack channel for Screeps users, “I'm mostly harmless (for now).” In mid-April, he posted his last message in the Screeps Slack … Kindly written and answers so many questions in a thoughtful, meaningful manner. he looks so friggin’ self-assured and content in those trail pics. “He self-medicated with drinking and chocolate,” she says. The thing about mysteries is that they are most exciting when you’re still trying to solve them, when you can write in your own theories, fantasies, or fears. Update 1/12/2020 at 11:28a: Today, Sheriff Kevin Rambosk is pleased to announce that after more than two years, thanks to the great work of our detectives, tips from the public and the use of DNA technology, we now know the identity of the deceased hiker who went by the trail name Mostly Harmless. K recalls, “He did open up to me about previous women that he knew and how he treated them. Beautiful eulogy to a man that went to the wood to find peace. Is this the same gentleman whose sister worked at Dollar General. do you believe the forum admins might bear some responsibility to vet allegations that could arise about vance – before allowing them to be posted or to remain so? jason, if i might ask you directly, to what do you attribute the petty squabbling? Nature has ways of helping people that no amount of drugs can. Rodriguez during his Shopper’s Choice days. Incredible journalism, Jason. After reaching my late 30s, I finally found medication that alleviated the depression. seems to be more of a holier-than-thou self-elevating proclamation than any kind of demonstrable reality. K, who asked for anonymity because of the public obsession about the hiker, was then finishing college in upstate New York. Godso remembers his roommate playing games for 18 hours a day and shutting everything else out. Depressed connections aren’t “felt” by depressers, We don’t “feel”. A man was able to disappear in no small part because no one was looking for him. McKenzie had just four Facebook friends and his only posts were photos of the wilderness. The long term care facilities I worked in were filled with mentally ill people who had refused to take care of themselves on the outside and take their medicine. And why, when things started to go wrong, didn’t he walk out?”, Rodriguez’s friends have a theory about the second question. Rodriguez lived and labored there for lots of decades. He thru-hiked from New York to Florida. most of MH’s younger self pictures seem more like his strange twin brother – the candle burning depressed goth sabbath playing future serial killer. And beautiful. i hope i have not offended you nor made you feel uncomfortable, unsafe or unfairly challenged in any manner. “I became immediately engaged in the case and started to get a feeling that Mostly Harmless was a kind person, probably otherwise lonely as everyone else assumed. From what I understand, it requires years of therapy, which I can’t afford.