26 ms·

A nameless hiker and the case the internet can’t crack

624 points by danso 6y ago

bitxbitxbitcoin 6y ago
Seems like a case of hasn't cracked yet, not can't crack.
- thom 6y ago
  Reminds me of the old adage that if you want to find out how to do something in Linux, it's quicker to make a post saying "Linux can't do X!" and watch the rebuttals roll in than ask the question "How do I do X?"
  - 1-more 6y ago
    haha very particular form of Cunningham's Law! Thank's I'd never heard that one before. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_Cunningham#Cunningham's_Law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_Cunningham#Cunningham's_L...
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- pixl97 6y ago
  DNA is our best bet, but as we see it's the missing part of the story. With this said, it makes for a decent fictional writing prompt. It's 2045, the cold case on Mostly Harmless has been reopened after 24 years. Advances in DNA matching technology beyond what we imagined possible in 2020 have occurred. Detective Williams submits the preserved DNA to the US National DNA Registry (DNAR). Within minutes an exceptionally high probability grandparent match is returned. The record had been added just 8 days previous, but was a sealed record. Inquisitive about the circumstances that would lead to the improbable events that a match existed, was only in the system for 8 days, and was sealed he put in a formal request for unsealing to DNAR. DNARs response was "Pursuant to USNADR Act 11A all juvenile records are sealed until the date of the records documented 18th birthday. A warrant must be issued by a judge for unsealing. Per subsection 15 of the act on permissible information release, the requested records year of birth is: 2045."
  - jariel 6y ago
    "DNA is our best bet" No, social networks are. More than likely there are people who absolutely know who he is, they just need to see the photo. DNA databases are not necessarily comprehensive, if there aren't people in his lineage who are both registered and who know about/of him, then it won't work.
    - wolco2 6y ago
      Put his dna into 23andme and a detailed family chart will emerge. This is the future of crime fighting, or if someone has lost memories.
      - giantg2 6y ago
        Sounds like a future rife for violation of people's rights in my opinion.
        pixl97 6y ago
        Doesn't sound much different from right now, and at our current rate we have no protections against it happening here in the US.
        giantg2 6y ago
        Yeah, there's a lot that needs to change in the system. Frankly, it's a terrifying joke at the moment.
    - lastofthemojito 6y ago
      It's possible that his family recognized him and just hasn't bothered to say anything publicly. Maybe he burned bridges in his previous life and folks would rather let it go than deal with interviews, etc.
  - microtherion 6y ago
    > It makes for a decent fictional writing prompt. Or maybe make it a prompt for GPT3. People impute all kinds of smarts to it, let's see whether it can deduct MH's identity.
- forinti 6y ago
  I guess the chances have gone way up now that there's a picture of him on Wired given that he said he had worked in IT.
nxthompson2 6y ago
I'm the author of the piece. I think the best clues are that the mystery hiker told people he was from Louisiana, and that he worked in the tech industry in NY. I suspect someone here might recognize him. I'm reachable at nxthompson at protonmail.
- mabbo 6y ago
  Just wanted to say that it's a really well written piece. Nothing over-dramatized, but the whole story is there.
- phreack 6y ago
  I just wanted to thank you for writing an engaging long form article that doesn't meander telling parallel stories jumbled together. I could draw a straight timeline from the first paragraph to the last and that's oddly something I don't see too often in this format anymore!
  - eganist 6y ago
    Perhaps some unexpected context: at least some authors of long-form pieces write with the objective of selling the rights to their works in mind. The more it feels like a screenplay, the more likely it is to attract a buyer who feels it has potential as one. I don't have numbers from you, just that bit of context and some supporting quotes off the record. Qualification: I tech-consult producers and writers on screenplays.
    - 0x1F8B 6y ago
      You probably know this but others might not: there are literally agencies that develop ideas through a tight lifecycle of inception, moderate form to long form market testing in publications like Wired and investment and film/podcast/TV development sourcing based on feedback from those market tests and brand sponsorship and alignment for the launch of the final product. Here is one agency in particular: https://www.epicdigital.com/ https://www.epicdigital.com/
  - mapgrep 6y ago
deleted 6y ago
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thomasqbrady 6y ago
The Screeps detail seems like something that could be fairly easily pursued... there can't have been that many players of that game to begin with, let alone those that would care so much about it that they would journal their thoughts about it. A quick check of the GitHub repo doesn't show he contributed code, but might he have opened an issue, contributed to docs? Might there be someone who was active in the community somehow (maybe showing up on leaderboards) until 2017?
- ColanR 6y ago
  If someone wants to check, I'd bet he at least forked or starred the github repo. A script to pull the list of those people, minus anyone whos been active since april 2017, would probably show his account.
  - Componica 6y ago
    Looking at https://imgur.com/a/eTphrRF https://imgur.com/a/eTphrRF The code that he writes is a blend of languages. The arrow operators -> is indicative of C/C++ but C/C++ doesn't use nil or function. It's like he thinks in C/C++ first which puts him at about my age mid-40s. Anyone younger than 40 would be using dots '.' due to Java/Javascript/Python instead of '->'. Does anyone else get that vibe?
    - gabereiser 6y ago
      PHP also uses -> and is still popular with those younger than 40. The lack of $ gives it away though. This is a very curious case indeed.
      - Componica 6y ago
        Definitely not drowning in $variables, he's 40 something.
        Piskvorrr 6y ago
_Microft 6y ago
Already submitted not even a day ago. By me - that's why I might have noticed ;) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24972365 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24972365 I'm starting to see a pattern in your submission list btw. Yours: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24941667 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24941667 Earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24931387 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24931387 Yours: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24931534 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24931534 Same day, but earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24924429 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24924429 Yours: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24652182 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24652182 A day before: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24641097 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24641097 You're simply reposting things that "sort of but not quite" catched on, aren't you?
- kick 6y ago
  Have curious conversation; don't cross-examine. Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html If you have concerns over someone's behavior, please just message the mods at hn@ycombinator.com. Pushing discussions into meta-arguments about reposting poisons threads.
- notsuoh 6y ago
  How else would one win the race to get the most Hacker News Karma? This person has over 131,000, so they seem to be winning. Have you considered also making targeted reposts of things like this to get your numbers up?
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- dang 6y ago
  I'm pretty sure that danso has submitted lots of really good articles that hadn't appeared on HN before. More generally, please don't post like this - it crosses into personal attack. Even if all the information is public, spending time and energy to put it together into a case against someone does more harm than good.
kick 6y ago
It's amazing how rude Facebook, reddit, and in this case, greedy companies, can be. If he cared enough about anyone knowing who he was, he'd have told someone. This is just blatant disregard for a man's privacy.
- gtsteve 6y ago
  Maybe he wanted privacy but didn't expect to die. He likely had someone in his life who is wondering what happened to him and I think it's good that people are trying to give them closure.
  - kick 6y ago
    Why do those people deserve to know anything? They obviously haven't sought it out, and given he hadn't contacted them in years, it's completely pointless to assume they were close. Answer: They don't. Privacy should be respected, even in death. Especially in a case like this.
    - Jtsummers 6y ago
      Having only read this article, is there somewhere else that you've read about the case to conclude that he has no family or friends who've been looking for him? It could be that they've been looking in the wrong place, or are older and not on the FB and other fora where this case is being discussed to connect the dots. And similarly, how can you conclude he hadn't contacted them in years (though it's obviously been years at this point), we know nothing of him prior to starting the hike in 2017.
    - ravendawn 6y ago
      How do you know? You didn’t know about MH case until now? 2years on. what’s not saying his parents are elderly and are not on the internet? That his friends are not recognising him due to the hiker association and maybe the beard and hat has altered his appearance a lot. Especially with the weight lost he would of experienced during the hike. He wrote whole notebooks, that doesn’t scream I’m walking into woods to die and don’t want anyone to know. It was the AT and then the FL that’s hardly the wilderness. He could of just been a private person and never thought he see the hikers again so didn’t give to much away. He could have experienced some sort of mental illness and wasn’t in his right mind to know what he wanted.
cocktailpeanuts 6y ago
Maybe he’s a time traveler who hasn’t been born yet, and that’s why he’s not registered anywhere.
- ThisIsTheWay 6y ago
  Wann ist Mostly Harmless?
  - geluso 6y ago
    It's not about what time. but from what world?
jariel 6y ago
Young men don't die for 'no reason'. It's odd that they couldn't find some cause of death, I assumed that in 2020 we'd be able to make a rough estimate. If there's no obvious foul play then statistically the obvious one would be suicide, but that should narrow only to a few specific things. How many ways are there for one to 'just die' while lying in a tent.
- bastawhiz 6y ago
  I'm not sure the article said...is it known how long he was dead for before the body was discovered? After enough time has passed, it becomes impossible to reliably determine whether certain factors played a role in the death. Underlying health issues and infection can be hidden by decomposition.
  - TranquilAvocado 6y ago
    I don't think it was in the article, but I read somewhere that they believe, based upon the little external decomposition, that the body was found perhaps a day after he passed.
- ThePadawan 6y ago
  "Young men dying for no reason" is not totally uncommon. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myocarditis#Epidemiology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myocarditis#Epidemiology.
- victor9000 6y ago
  The article says he weighed 86 lbs, so it sounds like he died of starvation or malnutrition.
  - ColanR 6y ago
    Which again is strange, since he was found with $3500 on him.
    - manicorganic 6y ago
paxys 6y ago
I wonder how long it will be before someone truly cannot be anonymous in this country (or the world). Whenever I come across a book/movie about someone traveling to the future and trying to blend in, my immediate thought is that they will instantly be flagged as suspicious by a hundred different automated systems (where is your advertising profile, credit history, location history, iris scan, microchip??) There probably are already enough biometrics, digital records etc. today that can accomplish this given the right incentives for everyone involved.
- dheera 6y ago
  I'm slightly less concerned about being anonymous from the government and far more concerned about being anonymous from businesses. How is it that every time I move, they still figure out where I live and continue to send me junk mail? I'm extremely concerned about the ease of arbitrary businesses finding out where some person lives. I want this to be unethical to the point that whoever leaked my address without my consent to be arrested and fined.
  - roywiggins 6y ago
    USPS sells change-of-address data. https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamtanner/2013/07/08/how-the-post-office-sells-your-new-address-with-anyone-who-pays-and-the-little-known-loophole-to-opt-out/?sh=1861328439f3 https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamtanner/2013/07/08/how-the-p...
    - dheera 6y ago
      Yeah, I hate those assholes for that, that's why I don't tell the USPS anymore when I move. Whenever I give my address to a business for shipping, DMV, voter registration, etc. I also tack on a code to my address so that if they leak it as-is, they'll have blood on their hands, and I can publicly shame them for it. But that hasn't yet seemed to successfully track down the source.
      - znpy 6y ago
Raphmedia 6y ago
Could it be a Canadian that drove to NY and then hiked west? That's a pretty common thing to do. I have a bunch of friends from college that are bouncing around the globe travelling on foot, picking fruits and doing farm-work when they run out of funds. Or are the databases / missing persons agencies communicating with each others?
- gabereiser 6y ago
  Clues here are: he’s from Louisiana, worked in NY in tech, liked screeps. Coder from the looks of his notes. Mid 30s to late 40s.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - hated 6y ago
    Those first two are claims not facts.
    - sebmellen 6y ago
      Perhaps his suspected Louisiana ancestry is Cajun/Acadian, and he is actually from Quebec?
      - Raphmedia 6y ago
        I'm from French Canada and I could easily imagine someone being in the US and saying "I am from Louisiana" while actually meaning "my ancestors are in Louisiana".
    - gabereiser 6y ago
      correct, it's from his own words. Nothing listed was fact.
- pvaldes 6y ago
  He talked with several people. A canadian accent would be noticed.
jennyyang 6y ago
Here is a link to his notebook that they found on him: https://www.colliersheriff.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=94010 https://www.colliersheriff.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=94010
- bigtones 6y ago
  From reading the notebook he may be a game developer. Quite a few of the pages look like notes from algorithms on rendering a game, maybe an FPS or RTS game, and he talks about outputting to the console and sprites.
  - dzdt 6y ago
    Yes, though I would say amateur game developer. Like the kid who always wanted to build a game but never did, got a "real job" doing some kind of much more boring programming. There is one point where he is musing about mapping commands to hex values within a single byte which makes me think he started programming in the 8bit era.
- Cook4986 6y ago
  Full-text transcription of individual notebook pages (annotated images + .json + .txt) generated with a combination of Handprint (https://github.com/caltechlibrary/handprint https://github.com/caltechlibrary/handprint) and Microsoft's Read API: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hkpqsnk858pzu7f/AADnCzr7tabArQ_xqi1udPOPa?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hkpqsnk858pzu7f/AADnCzr7tabArQ_xq...
  - CortexM4 6y ago
    This tool is good. We could also use Google Lens to extract text from the document, I tried on a few pages it captures a some more text than Handprint.
- lunch 6y ago
  Many of these pages look to me like he was designing a game. - p2p, client-server notes - Class definitions and implementation notes - Source code doing position calculations
0x1F8B 6y ago
> IN APRIL 2017, a man started hiking in a state park just north of New York City. He wanted to get away, maybe from something and maybe from everything. > Everyone who goes into the woods is trying to get away from something. > Everyone, at some point, has wanted to put their phone in a garbage can and head off with a fake name and a wad of cash. Since you are here I want to mention how off-putting this rhetoric is to me, a person who likes being outdoors, who doesn't have problems around spend all day refreshing the NYT or twitter or instagram, a person who genuinely likes solitude. It's almost as if urbanity is now synonymous with a neurotic steady state of over-exposure and any act of finding a moment of peace in the outdoors is itself a futile act of desperation -- an attempt to flee modernity. It just doesn't ring true to me.
- grecy 6y ago
  I agree 100%. I've chosen a life of less work, less stuff and therefore less money. I spend a lot of my time alone on big trips around the world, and out in the wilderness. I'm immensely more happy than I was sitting at a desk watching my life go by without really being alive. I get a lot of this attitude about how I must be "running from something" or I'm "throwing my life away". I think it's a symptom of our modern "society" that it needs to put down anyone who chooses not to be drowning in it. Which, of course, makes me want to distance myself from it even more.
  - spazx 6y ago
    Must be easy to feel that way when you can afford to make that choice. It's something most of us 9-to-5 drones only dream of. edit: lol wow downvoted? smug much? I never even said I disagreed.
    - grecy 6y ago
      I choose to look at it the other way around and say I can't afford NOT to make this choice. But I don't have a lot of money, in fact my last few years of tax returns I've barely earned more than the tax free threshold. So it's not about having tons of money to escape the 9-to-5, it's about realizing you can find happiness with a lot less.
tdons 6y ago
The police poster mentioned "was only able to hike 10 miles a day". Makes me think it's health related, 10 mi / day is absolutely abysmal for a normal thru hiker. Most aim to do that amount by 10 in the morning...
- giantg2 6y ago
  I thought the same thing when they mentioned he was emaciated with food near by. I would rather die doing something enjoyable than sitting at a desk at work, so maybe a terminal diagnosis prompted his trek. I would assume they would have found most health issues in an autopsy, unless maybe it was something very unusual or difficult to identify after decomposition.
  - crdrost 6y ago
    That doesn’t fit. You don’t discover you’re terminally ill and then brainstorm a game while you're out trying to find yourself. If you think you're terminally ill then your notebook is likely to be full of meditations on the day's endeavors and thoughts about your legacy, and your mortality, maybe even your family. You write about a game when you're nowhere near a computer, it's because you're imagining eventually being back at a computer. Or if you have the hubris to think someone will type your ideas into a computer and this game is gonna be your enduring legacy, then you write with an audience and try to tell people what they are reading -- not a private notebook. But I think you're onto something. Non-terminally ill could be a different story. This is almost certainly not what happened, being hyperspecific, but let me tell you a compelling possibility. If you were a programmer with a really mild form of epilepsy that was slowly getting worse and worse, you could imagine thinking that it was related to all of your time playing games and staring at screens, like you find that your eyes just kind of lock on a screen where action is happening and your heart starts beating too fast as your brain goes into overdrive processing too much action and you know you have to tear your eyes away but your eyes are not cooperating. Really uncomfortable and after a really bad episode you will probably feel like your brain is out-of-joint and any encounter with the wrong stimulus might send you back into an "acid flashback" type of situation. Possibly that sort of situation includes hiking for too long or so. Supposing you were of that mindset you might be thinking that this was environmental and, “I am going to get out in nature and these things will quiet down and I will plan my follow-up game." Mild recurrences on the trail are explained as just "no I haven't finished healing yet." Then triggered by heat and being lost and stressed in a Florida swamp, maybe you have another really big one. Zapping in and out of consciousness, maybe you don't have the mental wherewithal to figure out where you are and how to get to safety. Something like that. Again, that particular scenario is deeply unlikely, but it shows off the basic features: he's writing in his notebook because he expects to return to work, he's taking an extended vacation in nature because he cannot stand to keep working in his current situation. Maybe. I am really reluctant to post this, something about joining the internet's quest to solve this guy's case seems... I dunno. Fetishistic. I don't really have much to contribute except that I wish the scans were better so I could read this guy's notebook more clearly.
ngokevin 6y ago
Sounds like it'll be a future Serial podcast or something.
stakkur 6y ago
The notebook is fascinating. The guy's hand-writing code in a small notebook.
- pulse7 6y ago
  And he mentions... Java... I hope he will not be downvoted on HN because of this...
  - Serious_Cheese 6y ago
    What's wrong with Java?
    - naikrovek 6y ago
      Everything. That doesn't make Java developers bad in any way, though.
- dhosek 6y ago
  I used to do that a lot when I was younger. I didn't have my own computer until I was out of college. I would write out 6502 assembler programs by hand on graph paper and then hand-assemble the code in the columns to the left of the assembly instructions. Then I'd enter the hex code in with the Apple ][ monitor.
  - mark-r 6y ago
    I used to use graph paper too. Had to transcribe everything to a teletype that only had 72 columns.
spicyramen 6y ago
Great story, perfectly written, I read it all.
almog 6y ago
I love how sometimes worlds collide and thruhiking related stories make it to HN. It is however sad for it to be in this context. If anyone reading this consider getting into long distance hiking, I'd encourage you to do so. While it is always best to avoid getting into dangerous situations rather than finding your way out of there, getting yourself either: 1. A subscription based satellite messenger (Garmin Mini is only 100g/3.5oz and is backed by Iridium. Globalstar is the other big network). 2. Personal Locator Beacon (COSPAS-SARSAT backed device) that has no subscription fee and is backed by better availability guarantees (Resqlink is only 4.6 oz) but has no messaging capabilities other than an "SOS signal". If the above story didn't do enough to convince you that such device could have been helpful, please do yourself or your loved ones a favor and read what had became of Otter when he got trapped on the Continental Divide Trail — "Snowbound", Outside Online: https://www.outsideonline.com/2336896/snowbound https://www.outsideonline.com/2336896/snowbound
- Hnrobert42 6y ago
  I travel abroad a lot. I always wear my roadid bracelet. It is stylish enough that folks think it is for looks, but cheap enough that it won’t get stolen off my body (like a wallet might).
- dmckeon 6y ago
  If you travel to places where you might want people searching for you from the air to notice you amid many square miles of search area, a signal mirror is remarkably effective. https://adventure.howstuffworks.com/survival/gear/use-signal-mirror.htm https://adventure.howstuffworks.com/survival/gear/use-signal...
  - almog 6y ago
    The key thing about a signalling mirror is that it can be useful _if someone is searching for you_ (and provided that you have clear sky above you). PLB or satellite messengers will not only let the first responders know where you are (both by transmitting your location via satellite distress signal as well as using 121.5 MHz 'homing signal' in the case of PLBs to help first responders find your exact location), but also trigger the SAR operation rather than waiting for someone to notice you've been gone for too long.
pvaldes 6y ago
Micrurus?
- pvaldes 6y ago
  mmmhnot... too fast.
newguysofly 6y ago
Pretty sure I found him in like ten seconds. I just searched NAMUS for people matching his characteristics, and I found a Joseph Wayne McCartan from Louisiana. MH claimed to be from there. They also look strikingly similar. Further, JWC was suspected to have been a cancer survivor. This could explain the large abdominal scar—and, if the cancer recurred, the wasting. Check this reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/MostlyHarmlessHiker/comments/jnixu7/new_possibility_joseph_wayne_mccartan_very/ https://www.reddit.com/r/MostlyHarmlessHiker/comments/jnixu7...
- sebmellen 6y ago
  I took a look at the picture of JWC, and I can't quite see the resemblance, but maybe I'm missing something. Is there any mention of JWC working in tech? Edit: From the missing persons website: > Last seen on shrimping boat in the Texas area in the Gulf of Mexico. Seems somewhat unlikely that's him.
  - newguysofly 6y ago
    Maybe someone more savvy than me with this could age him ten years to get to get a better comparison... As for working in tech, yeah you'd think there'd be some record. But then again, tech is a great place to work if you want to be anonymous. E.g. could have been a contractor.
    - sebmellen 6y ago
      Fair enough. Quite hard to age him plus the beard.
- notsuoh 6y ago
  Reoccurring cancer could also be an explanation for taking the step of getting rid of your digital lifelines and walking down the Appalachian Trail.
- jakehop 6y ago
  I know you're only trying to help, but they look nothing alike. And going missing on a shrimp boat leaving Texas, to then hike from up north seems too odd for Occam's Razor.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
kbos87 6y ago
Not even a passing mention of the privacy questions at stake here. I don’t fault the police for seeking answers, but every self-nominated amateur sleuth isn’t due an answer about the identity of someone who in all likelihood wanted to live privately and never committed a crime.
- birdyrooster 6y ago
  In any context I can think of privacy only exists while someone is alive. Once you are dead your life history sort of exists in the public domain.
  - robocat 6y ago
    Except that the privacy of a bunch of “suspects” is also being broken, who are definitely still alive.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
  - redvenom 6y ago
    What about respect for the dead? I for one would like to live in a society that tries to honor my last wishes.
    - kjaftaedi 6y ago
      Circle it back around. There are no last wishes here. It is not reasonable to assume that this person's family does not want to be informed of his passing.
  - irthomasthomas 6y ago
    Tell that to Scotland Yard, who have pledged to never publish the Jack The Ripper files. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2011-sep-20-la-fg-britain-jack-the-ripper-20110921-story.html https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2011-sep-20-la-fg-br...
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
sudosteph 6y ago
Well, this was quite the rabbit hole for me. Great article, btw. Here's my best candidate from some internet sleuthing: https://imgur.com/EMPKO2V https://imgur.com/EMPKO2V . I do definitely see some resemblance, but interested if others do too. I have a possible name, but no evidence that anyone with that name has been reported missing. The only contact point I found is a twitter profile that I think could be a brother, but I'm not about to message that person and open that door b/c I could be way off track.
- pvaldes 6y ago
  Those are different men to me. Check against the photo with the shorter beard. Is more easy to verify.
  - sudosteph 6y ago
    Thanks for the sanity check. I'll keep one of those pics the with shorter beard close at hand if I resume down the rabbit hole later.
- ehsankia 6y ago
  I always found it fascinating how different people see faces very differently. I think the dead giveaway here is the nose. I remember actually seeing a video where an expert in facial recognition talks about how you can practice telling faces apart by looking at very specific things. I know ears and nose are definitely key. I wonder what ClearviewAI has to say about this :)
rawoke083600 6y ago
Do they not do DNA testing to determine best treatment for cancer ? Tumor and patient. Maybe there is value in trying first to match his first illness(sic?) or origin of scar ?
- pvaldes 6y ago
  Depends a lot of the type and position of the scar Updated: Vertical, abdominal and old, almost fainted. I wonder if BLL means blood lead levels. Kidneys were correct. Maybe the scar could be a liver laparoscopy?. The authopsy is interesting... he was eating but not recently and despite that, he was seriously cachectic. And was taking ibuprophen for the pain.
brailsafe 6y ago
If there's one takeaway from this thread, it's that HN folks are great at recognizing code scribbled in a notebook, but not so good at faces ;)
- simiones 6y ago
  Are you implying that the face is recognizable?
  - griffoa 6y ago
    Your comment proves his point.
    - degrews 6y ago
      I still don't get it. How are we supposed to recognize his face?
      - pulse7 6y ago
        He was "in tech for about a decade". During this decade he most probably had tech coworkers who are maybe on HN. But we don't "recognize his face" here on HN... we don't know him...
        travmatt 6y ago
        I suspect the large beard and cap in his pictures are hindrances in recognizing him.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
- deleted 6y ago
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aaron695 6y ago
Occam's razor he had a mental illness. Reading the notebooks I'd guess although in tech, not a programmer. It's all on designing the one game (based on Screeps), except one page on food. (I think BLL is business logic layer, p2p.bak is the servers to run it, blockchain-ish) Personally I guess religious and gay. Just current intuition. I haven't read all the forums. The ex-girlfriend claim doesn't seem cited. Reading his notebook was really sad. His private thoughts on show for the world to see. Being a quite person it's not something I'd guess he'd have liked. I know the dead are dead, but I also won't piss on a friends grave, so I don't practice what I believe. This photo top left is the best I think, but it might be CGI enhanced. The original floating around is really low rez. https://whoismostlyharmless.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/IMG-6574.jpg https://whoismostlyharmless.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/I...
paul7986 6y ago
Been following this since 2017 via a hiking in Pennslyvania Facebook group. Interesting years later its here on HN. I guess the guy didnt have anyone cause if he did his friends or family would have known by now.
ngcc_hk 6y ago
It is a sad case. But even more sad is our desire to know but the guy may be trying to escape from us all. The problem of madness is you know your desire to know is not right but still you go on. Whilst I understand the argument in the article someone love him may want to know what happened. Still, should we respect his seemingly intent to avoid all theses. Or are we all mad in a sense. P.S. finally nailed it why china want dna so much. No need all but if have sufficient database the match to one’s relatives is sufficient.
fernly 6y ago
Probably not helpful, but "Mostly Harmless" is also the title of Rob Rhinehart's personal blog[1]. Rhinehart's 2013 posts about his nutrition experiments under the "Mostly Harmless" title, led to the founding of Soylent.com and the modern meal replacement industry. So just possibly MH was a fan of Soylent, or of DIY Soylent. [1] https://www.robrhinehart.com/ https://www.robrhinehart.com/ Edit: on this notebook page[2] are the words Algae Pool and Nutrigs (nutrients?) The pages[3]-[4] seems devoted to planning or documenting an energy-bar recipe. Similar fascination with the nutritional details of artificial foods are expressed by hobbyists who dabble in DIY Soylent recipes, see for example [5], [6]. On this basis I think it at least credible that MH was aware of Soylent and DIY attempts at complete-nutrition foods, so might have learned the "Mostly Harmless" title from Rhinehart's blog. Which is no help whatever in identifying him, but interesting. [2] https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hkpqsnk858pzu7f/AADnCzr7tabArQ_xqi1udPOPa?dl=0&preview=EPODCASThikerupdatemostlyh_Page_11.handprint-microsoft.txt https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hkpqsnk858pzu7f/AADnCzr7tabArQ_xq... [3] https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hkpqsnk858pzu7f/AADnCzr7tabArQ_xqi1udPOPa?dl=0&preview=EPODCASThikerupdatemostlyh_Page_11.handprint-microsoft.txt https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hkpqsnk858pzu7f/AADnCzr7tabArQ_xq... [4] https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hkpqsnk858pzu7f/AADnCzr7tabArQ_xqi1udPOPa?dl=0&preview=EPODCASThikerupdatemostlyh_Page_11.handprint-microsoft.txt https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hkpqsnk858pzu7f/AADnCzr7tabArQ_xq... [5] https://www.reddit.com/r/soylent https://www.reddit.com/r/soylent [6] https://www.completefoods.co/ https://www.completefoods.co/
- kevinmchugh 6y ago
  As noted elsewhere on the thread, it's originally a Hitchhiker's Guide joke, a description of humans. It was also used as the title for one of the later books in the series. I wouldn't discount your explanation, but Rhinehart pulled that name from a very popular source.
- fred_is_fred 6y ago
  Remember that he didn't name himself. Mostly Harmless is a trail name - which other through hikers gave him - so I don't think this is related.
  - 6y ago
mikedelfino 6y ago
When my time comes, I hope I realize it soon enough and healthy enough to go on a journey and die peacefully in a tent somewhere beautiful.
runjake 6y ago
I looked at this a year ago but unfortunately lost the note I kept. There was a fellow named Ben Bellamy, who was a software developer, on LinkedIn at one time with a photo that closely matched this guy. I believe he was, in fact, in the New York area but I cannot remember for sure, I did some poking around tonight but couldn't pull up his LI profile again.
- exogeny 6y ago
  Very interestingly, the PDF distributed by Collier County lists an alias of "Ben Bilemy". That simply cannot be just a coincidence.
  - geocrasher 6y ago
    I'd find it hard to believe that he's still a missing person if they already had his real name.
    - gfaure 6y ago
      Since he did modify the spelling, I don't think it's that hard to imagine.
  - evan_ 6y ago
    I’m sure that’s how the other poster found the LinkedIn user...
  - runjake 6y ago
    I don’t recall exactly but I believe I was checking last name variances based off of the Bilemy alias. So, not a coincidence. Sorry for the hazy memory. It was a while ago and was not super important to me. It was just one of my many random OSINT exercises I like to do. Hopefully my comment might spur somebody on HN with more time to locate the LI profile.
    - ficklepickle 6y ago
      I found a reddit post[0] linking the LI profile[1] of Ben Bellamy. Can't get past the login-wall right now but I will check later. 0 -https://www.reddit.com/r/AppalachianTrail/comments/970h8f/comment/e49r2th https://www.reddit.com/r/AppalachianTrail/comments/970h8f/co... 1 - https://goo.gl/images/8dALKK https://goo.gl/images/8dALKK (Actually a google images link that redirects to LinkedIn)
magneticnorth 6y ago
There's a lot more detail, including many photos and the full autopsy report, at this site [WARNING - includes photos from the scene of death (not gory)]: https://truecrimesociety.com/2019/08/22/unidentified-and-mostly-harmless/ https://truecrimesociety.com/2019/08/22/unidentified-and-mos... There are two remarkable things that I saw in the autopsy report - First, there were "abundant" feces in his intestines, which suggests to me (though I am not a doctor) that he didn't starve to death. Second, he had an abdominal scar, which might be pretty identifying to someone who knew him, and also supports the theory of a recurring cancer or similar illness.
- mechanicum 6y ago
  Eating after a prolonged period of starvation can itself be very dangerous, and even fatal. It’s called refeeding syndrome.
stana 6y ago
"One person remembered that he ate a lot of sticky buns; another said that he loved ketchup." Searching github for 'sticky buns' reveals what seems to be unused account - ghostmachina "dna. deep learning. info theory. sticky buns. the joys of life."
kevmo 6y ago
I posted the article on the screeps subreddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/screeps/comments/jngr0b/a_nameless_screeps_player_and_the_case_the/ https://www.reddit.com/r/screeps/comments/jngr0b/a_nameless_...
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
chemeng 6y ago
Having done a bit more reading through other sources. There should be more focus on his abdominal scar, reduced teste size and cachexia (wasting). This is a very common symptom pattern for cancer. A large portion of cancer patients die from cachexia. HIV, or a chronic disease of heart/liver/kidney are other possibilities but would have left other evidence that would have certainly been noted in the autopsy. My guess is there are some oncologists and surgeons (probably in NY) who know who this person was, but cannot say anything due to confidentiality.
- csunbird 6y ago
  Don't they have a legal requirement to disclose the identity of this person to the police for identification purposes? I understand that they can not do a public reveal, but I think the state has an obligation to keep record on who is alive and dead.
- pvaldes 6y ago
  Yes, is a pattern. You don't became cachectic by a acute poisoning. I checked the authopsy but did not claim obvious tumors, tymus anomalies, no obvious signs of kidney or liver diseases. And I didn't find anything about the heart that would support a heart attack, but is soon to discard that. If it was a poison is not a haemotoxic one in my stupid opinion. (No petechias or inner bleeding, all correct in the circulatory system and most of all all apparently correct in the liver). If it was a drug it did not appeared in the analytics, so either it does not leave trace after a while or is not a common one. There was not specific medication against cancer or hypotiroidism found in the backpack. Only ibuprophen and antihistaminics I think [1]. [1] I think that is reasonable to explore at least the possibility of an Ibuprophen overdose, just to discard options. > My guess is there are some oncologists and surgeons (probably in NY) who know who this person was Agree.
ComodoHacker 6y ago
Looks like his strived escape from our digital, all-tracking society was successful.
brylie 6y ago
Might someone at Steam consider taking an inside-look at the financial transactions for the player account mentioned in the Screeps forum? https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198004426967/ https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198004426967/ If there are financial details, such as a PayPal account or credit card, and the above-mentioned Steam profile seems likely to be connected with the hiker, it might be worth considering providing some small amount of information to the authorities responsible for the missing person's case.
- brylie 6y ago
  Hmm, it seems also the profile may have been active more recently than would be the case if it were Mostly Harmless's account > However, I have to inform you that the "Ben2" that MrFaul is talking about is very unlikely your victim, as his steam profile shows he unlocked a number of badges in the last year
yodelinghambone 6y ago
Terminal illness and just wanting to enjoy his last days on his own terms?
trickster_ 6y ago
Regarding his identity; I used to hang out on #coders on IRCNet from the mid 90's to the early 2000's. There was a guy there called MostlyHarmless and I think both the age and nationality checks out. I haven't been there for ages and I am pretty sure that the channel was password protected but it would probably take somebody just a few minutes to check around there amongst the regulars to see if they're the same guy. Right now there isn't a user online called MostlyHarmless, which there always was back then.

624 points by danso 6y ago

bitxbitxbitcoin 6y ago

Seems like a case of hasn't cracked yet, not can't crack.

thom 6y ago
Reminds me of the old adage that if you want to find out how to do something in Linux, it's quicker to make a post saying "Linux can't do X!" and watch the rebuttals roll in than ask the question "How do I do X?"
- 1-more 6y ago
  haha very particular form of Cunningham's Law! Thank's I'd never heard that one before. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_Cunningham#Cunningham's_Law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_Cunningham#Cunningham's_L...
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
pixl97 6y ago
DNA is our best bet, but as we see it's the missing part of the story. With this said, it makes for a decent fictional writing prompt. It's 2045, the cold case on Mostly Harmless has been reopened after 24 years. Advances in DNA matching technology beyond what we imagined possible in 2020 have occurred. Detective Williams submits the preserved DNA to the US National DNA Registry (DNAR). Within minutes an exceptionally high probability grandparent match is returned. The record had been added just 8 days previous, but was a sealed record. Inquisitive about the circumstances that would lead to the improbable events that a match existed, was only in the system for 8 days, and was sealed he put in a formal request for unsealing to DNAR. DNARs response was "Pursuant to USNADR Act 11A all juvenile records are sealed until the date of the records documented 18th birthday. A warrant must be issued by a judge for unsealing. Per subsection 15 of the act on permissible information release, the requested records year of birth is: 2045."
- jariel 6y ago
  "DNA is our best bet" No, social networks are. More than likely there are people who absolutely know who he is, they just need to see the photo. DNA databases are not necessarily comprehensive, if there aren't people in his lineage who are both registered and who know about/of him, then it won't work.
  - wolco2 6y ago
    Put his dna into 23andme and a detailed family chart will emerge. This is the future of crime fighting, or if someone has lost memories.
    - giantg2 6y ago
      Sounds like a future rife for violation of people's rights in my opinion.
      - pixl97 6y ago
        Doesn't sound much different from right now, and at our current rate we have no protections against it happening here in the US.
        giantg2 6y ago
        Yeah, there's a lot that needs to change in the system. Frankly, it's a terrifying joke at the moment.
  - lastofthemojito 6y ago
    It's possible that his family recognized him and just hasn't bothered to say anything publicly. Maybe he burned bridges in his previous life and folks would rather let it go than deal with interviews, etc.
- microtherion 6y ago
  > It makes for a decent fictional writing prompt. Or maybe make it a prompt for GPT3. People impute all kinds of smarts to it, let's see whether it can deduct MH's identity.
forinti 6y ago
I guess the chances have gone way up now that there's a picture of him on Wired given that he said he had worked in IT.

nxthompson2 6y ago

I'm the author of the piece. I think the best clues are that the mystery hiker told people he was from Louisiana, and that he worked in the tech industry in NY. I suspect someone here might recognize him. I'm reachable at nxthompson at protonmail.

mabbo 6y ago
Just wanted to say that it's a really well written piece. Nothing over-dramatized, but the whole story is there.
phreack 6y ago
I just wanted to thank you for writing an engaging long form article that doesn't meander telling parallel stories jumbled together. I could draw a straight timeline from the first paragraph to the last and that's oddly something I don't see too often in this format anymore!
- eganist 6y ago
  Perhaps some unexpected context: at least some authors of long-form pieces write with the objective of selling the rights to their works in mind. The more it feels like a screenplay, the more likely it is to attract a buyer who feels it has potential as one. I don't have numbers from you, just that bit of context and some supporting quotes off the record. Qualification: I tech-consult producers and writers on screenplays.
  - 0x1F8B 6y ago
    You probably know this but others might not: there are literally agencies that develop ideas through a tight lifecycle of inception, moderate form to long form market testing in publications like Wired and investment and film/podcast/TV development sourcing based on feedback from those market tests and brand sponsorship and alignment for the launch of the final product. Here is one agency in particular: https://www.epicdigital.com/ https://www.epicdigital.com/
- mapgrep 6y ago

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

thomasqbrady 6y ago

The Screeps detail seems like something that could be fairly easily pursued... there can't have been that many players of that game to begin with, let alone those that would care so much about it that they would journal their thoughts about it. A quick check of the GitHub repo doesn't show he contributed code, but might he have opened an issue, contributed to docs? Might there be someone who was active in the community somehow (maybe showing up on leaderboards) until 2017?

ColanR 6y ago
If someone wants to check, I'd bet he at least forked or starred the github repo. A script to pull the list of those people, minus anyone whos been active since april 2017, would probably show his account.
- Componica 6y ago
  Looking at https://imgur.com/a/eTphrRF https://imgur.com/a/eTphrRF The code that he writes is a blend of languages. The arrow operators -> is indicative of C/C++ but C/C++ doesn't use nil or function. It's like he thinks in C/C++ first which puts him at about my age mid-40s. Anyone younger than 40 would be using dots '.' due to Java/Javascript/Python instead of '->'. Does anyone else get that vibe?
  - gabereiser 6y ago
    PHP also uses -> and is still popular with those younger than 40. The lack of $ gives it away though. This is a very curious case indeed.
    - Componica 6y ago
      Definitely not drowning in $variables, he's 40 something.
      - Piskvorrr 6y ago

_Microft 6y ago

Already submitted not even a day ago. By me - that's why I might have noticed ;) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24972365 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24972365 I'm starting to see a pattern in your submission list btw. Yours: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24941667 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24941667 Earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24931387 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24931387 Yours: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24931534 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24931534 Same day, but earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24924429 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24924429 Yours: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24652182 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24652182 A day before: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24641097 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24641097 You're simply reposting things that "sort of but not quite" catched on, aren't you?

kick 6y ago
Have curious conversation; don't cross-examine. Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html If you have concerns over someone's behavior, please just message the mods at hn@ycombinator.com. Pushing discussions into meta-arguments about reposting poisons threads.
notsuoh 6y ago
How else would one win the race to get the most Hacker News Karma? This person has over 131,000, so they seem to be winning. Have you considered also making targeted reposts of things like this to get your numbers up?
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
dang 6y ago
I'm pretty sure that danso has submitted lots of really good articles that hadn't appeared on HN before. More generally, please don't post like this - it crosses into personal attack. Even if all the information is public, spending time and energy to put it together into a case against someone does more harm than good.

kick 6y ago

It's amazing how rude Facebook, reddit, and in this case, greedy companies, can be. If he cared enough about anyone knowing who he was, he'd have told someone. This is just blatant disregard for a man's privacy.

gtsteve 6y ago
Maybe he wanted privacy but didn't expect to die. He likely had someone in his life who is wondering what happened to him and I think it's good that people are trying to give them closure.
- kick 6y ago
  Why do those people deserve to know anything? They obviously haven't sought it out, and given he hadn't contacted them in years, it's completely pointless to assume they were close. Answer: They don't. Privacy should be respected, even in death. Especially in a case like this.
  - Jtsummers 6y ago
    Having only read this article, is there somewhere else that you've read about the case to conclude that he has no family or friends who've been looking for him? It could be that they've been looking in the wrong place, or are older and not on the FB and other fora where this case is being discussed to connect the dots. And similarly, how can you conclude he hadn't contacted them in years (though it's obviously been years at this point), we know nothing of him prior to starting the hike in 2017.
  - ravendawn 6y ago
    How do you know? You didn’t know about MH case until now? 2years on. what’s not saying his parents are elderly and are not on the internet? That his friends are not recognising him due to the hiker association and maybe the beard and hat has altered his appearance a lot. Especially with the weight lost he would of experienced during the hike. He wrote whole notebooks, that doesn’t scream I’m walking into woods to die and don’t want anyone to know. It was the AT and then the FL that’s hardly the wilderness. He could of just been a private person and never thought he see the hikers again so didn’t give to much away. He could have experienced some sort of mental illness and wasn’t in his right mind to know what he wanted.

cocktailpeanuts 6y ago

Maybe he’s a time traveler who hasn’t been born yet, and that’s why he’s not registered anywhere.

ThisIsTheWay 6y ago
Wann ist Mostly Harmless?
- geluso 6y ago
  It's not about what time. but from what world?

jariel 6y ago

Young men don't die for 'no reason'. It's odd that they couldn't find some cause of death, I assumed that in 2020 we'd be able to make a rough estimate. If there's no obvious foul play then statistically the obvious one would be suicide, but that should narrow only to a few specific things. How many ways are there for one to 'just die' while lying in a tent.

bastawhiz 6y ago
I'm not sure the article said...is it known how long he was dead for before the body was discovered? After enough time has passed, it becomes impossible to reliably determine whether certain factors played a role in the death. Underlying health issues and infection can be hidden by decomposition.
- TranquilAvocado 6y ago
  I don't think it was in the article, but I read somewhere that they believe, based upon the little external decomposition, that the body was found perhaps a day after he passed.
ThePadawan 6y ago
"Young men dying for no reason" is not totally uncommon. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myocarditis#Epidemiology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myocarditis#Epidemiology.
victor9000 6y ago
The article says he weighed 86 lbs, so it sounds like he died of starvation or malnutrition.
- ColanR 6y ago
  Which again is strange, since he was found with $3500 on him.
  - manicorganic 6y ago

paxys 6y ago

I wonder how long it will be before someone truly cannot be anonymous in this country (or the world). Whenever I come across a book/movie about someone traveling to the future and trying to blend in, my immediate thought is that they will instantly be flagged as suspicious by a hundred different automated systems (where is your advertising profile, credit history, location history, iris scan, microchip??) There probably are already enough biometrics, digital records etc. today that can accomplish this given the right incentives for everyone involved.

dheera 6y ago
I'm slightly less concerned about being anonymous from the government and far more concerned about being anonymous from businesses. How is it that every time I move, they still figure out where I live and continue to send me junk mail? I'm extremely concerned about the ease of arbitrary businesses finding out where some person lives. I want this to be unethical to the point that whoever leaked my address without my consent to be arrested and fined.
- roywiggins 6y ago
  USPS sells change-of-address data. https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamtanner/2013/07/08/how-the-post-office-sells-your-new-address-with-anyone-who-pays-and-the-little-known-loophole-to-opt-out/?sh=1861328439f3 https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamtanner/2013/07/08/how-the-p...
  - dheera 6y ago
    Yeah, I hate those assholes for that, that's why I don't tell the USPS anymore when I move. Whenever I give my address to a business for shipping, DMV, voter registration, etc. I also tack on a code to my address so that if they leak it as-is, they'll have blood on their hands, and I can publicly shame them for it. But that hasn't yet seemed to successfully track down the source.
    - znpy 6y ago

Raphmedia 6y ago

Could it be a Canadian that drove to NY and then hiked west? That's a pretty common thing to do. I have a bunch of friends from college that are bouncing around the globe travelling on foot, picking fruits and doing farm-work when they run out of funds. Or are the databases / missing persons agencies communicating with each others?

gabereiser 6y ago
Clues here are: he’s from Louisiana, worked in NY in tech, liked screeps. Coder from the looks of his notes. Mid 30s to late 40s.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- hated 6y ago
  Those first two are claims not facts.
  - sebmellen 6y ago
    Perhaps his suspected Louisiana ancestry is Cajun/Acadian, and he is actually from Quebec?
    - Raphmedia 6y ago
      I'm from French Canada and I could easily imagine someone being in the US and saying "I am from Louisiana" while actually meaning "my ancestors are in Louisiana".
  - gabereiser 6y ago
    correct, it's from his own words. Nothing listed was fact.
pvaldes 6y ago
He talked with several people. A canadian accent would be noticed.

jennyyang 6y ago

Here is a link to his notebook that they found on him: https://www.colliersheriff.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=94010 https://www.colliersheriff.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=94010

bigtones 6y ago
From reading the notebook he may be a game developer. Quite a few of the pages look like notes from algorithms on rendering a game, maybe an FPS or RTS game, and he talks about outputting to the console and sprites.
- dzdt 6y ago
  Yes, though I would say amateur game developer. Like the kid who always wanted to build a game but never did, got a "real job" doing some kind of much more boring programming. There is one point where he is musing about mapping commands to hex values within a single byte which makes me think he started programming in the 8bit era.
Cook4986 6y ago
Full-text transcription of individual notebook pages (annotated images + .json + .txt) generated with a combination of Handprint (https://github.com/caltechlibrary/handprint https://github.com/caltechlibrary/handprint) and Microsoft's Read API: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hkpqsnk858pzu7f/AADnCzr7tabArQ_xqi1udPOPa?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hkpqsnk858pzu7f/AADnCzr7tabArQ_xq...
- CortexM4 6y ago
  This tool is good. We could also use Google Lens to extract text from the document, I tried on a few pages it captures a some more text than Handprint.
lunch 6y ago
Many of these pages look to me like he was designing a game. - p2p, client-server notes - Class definitions and implementation notes - Source code doing position calculations

0x1F8B 6y ago

> IN APRIL 2017, a man started hiking in a state park just north of New York City. He wanted to get away, maybe from something and maybe from everything. > Everyone who goes into the woods is trying to get away from something. > Everyone, at some point, has wanted to put their phone in a garbage can and head off with a fake name and a wad of cash. Since you are here I want to mention how off-putting this rhetoric is to me, a person who likes being outdoors, who doesn't have problems around spend all day refreshing the NYT or twitter or instagram, a person who genuinely likes solitude. It's almost as if urbanity is now synonymous with a neurotic steady state of over-exposure and any act of finding a moment of peace in the outdoors is itself a futile act of desperation -- an attempt to flee modernity. It just doesn't ring true to me.

grecy 6y ago
I agree 100%. I've chosen a life of less work, less stuff and therefore less money. I spend a lot of my time alone on big trips around the world, and out in the wilderness. I'm immensely more happy than I was sitting at a desk watching my life go by without really being alive. I get a lot of this attitude about how I must be "running from something" or I'm "throwing my life away". I think it's a symptom of our modern "society" that it needs to put down anyone who chooses not to be drowning in it. Which, of course, makes me want to distance myself from it even more.
- spazx 6y ago
  Must be easy to feel that way when you can afford to make that choice. It's something most of us 9-to-5 drones only dream of. edit: lol wow downvoted? smug much? I never even said I disagreed.
  - grecy 6y ago
    I choose to look at it the other way around and say I can't afford NOT to make this choice. But I don't have a lot of money, in fact my last few years of tax returns I've barely earned more than the tax free threshold. So it's not about having tons of money to escape the 9-to-5, it's about realizing you can find happiness with a lot less.

tdons 6y ago

The police poster mentioned "was only able to hike 10 miles a day". Makes me think it's health related, 10 mi / day is absolutely abysmal for a normal thru hiker. Most aim to do that amount by 10 in the morning...

giantg2 6y ago
I thought the same thing when they mentioned he was emaciated with food near by. I would rather die doing something enjoyable than sitting at a desk at work, so maybe a terminal diagnosis prompted his trek. I would assume they would have found most health issues in an autopsy, unless maybe it was something very unusual or difficult to identify after decomposition.
- crdrost 6y ago
  That doesn’t fit. You don’t discover you’re terminally ill and then brainstorm a game while you're out trying to find yourself. If you think you're terminally ill then your notebook is likely to be full of meditations on the day's endeavors and thoughts about your legacy, and your mortality, maybe even your family. You write about a game when you're nowhere near a computer, it's because you're imagining eventually being back at a computer. Or if you have the hubris to think someone will type your ideas into a computer and this game is gonna be your enduring legacy, then you write with an audience and try to tell people what they are reading -- not a private notebook. But I think you're onto something. Non-terminally ill could be a different story. This is almost certainly not what happened, being hyperspecific, but let me tell you a compelling possibility. If you were a programmer with a really mild form of epilepsy that was slowly getting worse and worse, you could imagine thinking that it was related to all of your time playing games and staring at screens, like you find that your eyes just kind of lock on a screen where action is happening and your heart starts beating too fast as your brain goes into overdrive processing too much action and you know you have to tear your eyes away but your eyes are not cooperating. Really uncomfortable and after a really bad episode you will probably feel like your brain is out-of-joint and any encounter with the wrong stimulus might send you back into an "acid flashback" type of situation. Possibly that sort of situation includes hiking for too long or so. Supposing you were of that mindset you might be thinking that this was environmental and, “I am going to get out in nature and these things will quiet down and I will plan my follow-up game." Mild recurrences on the trail are explained as just "no I haven't finished healing yet." Then triggered by heat and being lost and stressed in a Florida swamp, maybe you have another really big one. Zapping in and out of consciousness, maybe you don't have the mental wherewithal to figure out where you are and how to get to safety. Something like that. Again, that particular scenario is deeply unlikely, but it shows off the basic features: he's writing in his notebook because he expects to return to work, he's taking an extended vacation in nature because he cannot stand to keep working in his current situation. Maybe. I am really reluctant to post this, something about joining the internet's quest to solve this guy's case seems... I dunno. Fetishistic. I don't really have much to contribute except that I wish the scans were better so I could read this guy's notebook more clearly.

ngokevin 6y ago

Sounds like it'll be a future Serial podcast or something.

stakkur 6y ago

The notebook is fascinating. The guy's hand-writing code in a small notebook.

pulse7 6y ago
And he mentions... Java... I hope he will not be downvoted on HN because of this...
- Serious_Cheese 6y ago
  What's wrong with Java?
  - naikrovek 6y ago
    Everything. That doesn't make Java developers bad in any way, though.
dhosek 6y ago
I used to do that a lot when I was younger. I didn't have my own computer until I was out of college. I would write out 6502 assembler programs by hand on graph paper and then hand-assemble the code in the columns to the left of the assembly instructions. Then I'd enter the hex code in with the Apple ][ monitor.
- mark-r 6y ago
  I used to use graph paper too. Had to transcribe everything to a teletype that only had 72 columns.

spicyramen 6y ago

Great story, perfectly written, I read it all.

almog 6y ago

I love how sometimes worlds collide and thruhiking related stories make it to HN. It is however sad for it to be in this context. If anyone reading this consider getting into long distance hiking, I'd encourage you to do so. While it is always best to avoid getting into dangerous situations rather than finding your way out of there, getting yourself either: 1. A subscription based satellite messenger (Garmin Mini is only 100g/3.5oz and is backed by Iridium. Globalstar is the other big network). 2. Personal Locator Beacon (COSPAS-SARSAT backed device) that has no subscription fee and is backed by better availability guarantees (Resqlink is only 4.6 oz) but has no messaging capabilities other than an "SOS signal". If the above story didn't do enough to convince you that such device could have been helpful, please do yourself or your loved ones a favor and read what had became of Otter when he got trapped on the Continental Divide Trail — "Snowbound", Outside Online: https://www.outsideonline.com/2336896/snowbound https://www.outsideonline.com/2336896/snowbound

Hnrobert42 6y ago
I travel abroad a lot. I always wear my roadid bracelet. It is stylish enough that folks think it is for looks, but cheap enough that it won’t get stolen off my body (like a wallet might).
dmckeon 6y ago
If you travel to places where you might want people searching for you from the air to notice you amid many square miles of search area, a signal mirror is remarkably effective. https://adventure.howstuffworks.com/survival/gear/use-signal-mirror.htm https://adventure.howstuffworks.com/survival/gear/use-signal...
- almog 6y ago
  The key thing about a signalling mirror is that it can be useful _if someone is searching for you_ (and provided that you have clear sky above you). PLB or satellite messengers will not only let the first responders know where you are (both by transmitting your location via satellite distress signal as well as using 121.5 MHz 'homing signal' in the case of PLBs to help first responders find your exact location), but also trigger the SAR operation rather than waiting for someone to notice you've been gone for too long.

pvaldes 6y ago

Micrurus?

pvaldes 6y ago
mmmhnot... too fast.

newguysofly 6y ago

Pretty sure I found him in like ten seconds. I just searched NAMUS for people matching his characteristics, and I found a Joseph Wayne McCartan from Louisiana. MH claimed to be from there. They also look strikingly similar. Further, JWC was suspected to have been a cancer survivor. This could explain the large abdominal scar—and, if the cancer recurred, the wasting. Check this reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/MostlyHarmlessHiker/comments/jnixu7/new_possibility_joseph_wayne_mccartan_very/ https://www.reddit.com/r/MostlyHarmlessHiker/comments/jnixu7...

sebmellen 6y ago
I took a look at the picture of JWC, and I can't quite see the resemblance, but maybe I'm missing something. Is there any mention of JWC working in tech? Edit: From the missing persons website: > Last seen on shrimping boat in the Texas area in the Gulf of Mexico. Seems somewhat unlikely that's him.
- newguysofly 6y ago
  Maybe someone more savvy than me with this could age him ten years to get to get a better comparison... As for working in tech, yeah you'd think there'd be some record. But then again, tech is a great place to work if you want to be anonymous. E.g. could have been a contractor.
  - sebmellen 6y ago
    Fair enough. Quite hard to age him plus the beard.
notsuoh 6y ago
Reoccurring cancer could also be an explanation for taking the step of getting rid of your digital lifelines and walking down the Appalachian Trail.
jakehop 6y ago
I know you're only trying to help, but they look nothing alike. And going missing on a shrimp boat leaving Texas, to then hike from up north seems too odd for Occam's Razor.

deleted 6y ago

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kbos87 6y ago

Not even a passing mention of the privacy questions at stake here. I don’t fault the police for seeking answers, but every self-nominated amateur sleuth isn’t due an answer about the identity of someone who in all likelihood wanted to live privately and never committed a crime.

birdyrooster 6y ago
In any context I can think of privacy only exists while someone is alive. Once you are dead your life history sort of exists in the public domain.
- robocat 6y ago
  Except that the privacy of a bunch of “suspects” is also being broken, who are definitely still alive.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- redvenom 6y ago
  What about respect for the dead? I for one would like to live in a society that tries to honor my last wishes.
  - kjaftaedi 6y ago
    Circle it back around. There are no last wishes here. It is not reasonable to assume that this person's family does not want to be informed of his passing.
- irthomasthomas 6y ago
  Tell that to Scotland Yard, who have pledged to never publish the Jack The Ripper files. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2011-sep-20-la-fg-britain-jack-the-ripper-20110921-story.html https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2011-sep-20-la-fg-br...

deleted 6y ago

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sudosteph 6y ago

Well, this was quite the rabbit hole for me. Great article, btw. Here's my best candidate from some internet sleuthing: https://imgur.com/EMPKO2V https://imgur.com/EMPKO2V . I do definitely see some resemblance, but interested if others do too. I have a possible name, but no evidence that anyone with that name has been reported missing. The only contact point I found is a twitter profile that I think could be a brother, but I'm not about to message that person and open that door b/c I could be way off track.

pvaldes 6y ago
Those are different men to me. Check against the photo with the shorter beard. Is more easy to verify.
- sudosteph 6y ago
  Thanks for the sanity check. I'll keep one of those pics the with shorter beard close at hand if I resume down the rabbit hole later.
ehsankia 6y ago
I always found it fascinating how different people see faces very differently. I think the dead giveaway here is the nose. I remember actually seeing a video where an expert in facial recognition talks about how you can practice telling faces apart by looking at very specific things. I know ears and nose are definitely key. I wonder what ClearviewAI has to say about this :)

rawoke083600 6y ago

Do they not do DNA testing to determine best treatment for cancer ? Tumor and patient. Maybe there is value in trying first to match his first illness(sic?) or origin of scar ?

pvaldes 6y ago
Depends a lot of the type and position of the scar Updated: Vertical, abdominal and old, almost fainted. I wonder if BLL means blood lead levels. Kidneys were correct. Maybe the scar could be a liver laparoscopy?. The authopsy is interesting... he was eating but not recently and despite that, he was seriously cachectic. And was taking ibuprophen for the pain.

brailsafe 6y ago

If there's one takeaway from this thread, it's that HN folks are great at recognizing code scribbled in a notebook, but not so good at faces ;)

simiones 6y ago
Are you implying that the face is recognizable?
- griffoa 6y ago
  Your comment proves his point.
  - degrews 6y ago
    I still don't get it. How are we supposed to recognize his face?
    - pulse7 6y ago
      He was "in tech for about a decade". During this decade he most probably had tech coworkers who are maybe on HN. But we don't "recognize his face" here on HN... we don't know him...
      - travmatt 6y ago
        I suspect the large beard and cap in his pictures are hindrances in recognizing him.

deleted 6y ago

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aaron695 6y ago

Occam's razor he had a mental illness. Reading the notebooks I'd guess although in tech, not a programmer. It's all on designing the one game (based on Screeps), except one page on food. (I think BLL is business logic layer, p2p.bak is the servers to run it, blockchain-ish) Personally I guess religious and gay. Just current intuition. I haven't read all the forums. The ex-girlfriend claim doesn't seem cited. Reading his notebook was really sad. His private thoughts on show for the world to see. Being a quite person it's not something I'd guess he'd have liked. I know the dead are dead, but I also won't piss on a friends grave, so I don't practice what I believe. This photo top left is the best I think, but it might be CGI enhanced. The original floating around is really low rez. https://whoismostlyharmless.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/IMG-6574.jpg https://whoismostlyharmless.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/I...

paul7986 6y ago

Been following this since 2017 via a hiking in Pennslyvania Facebook group. Interesting years later its here on HN. I guess the guy didnt have anyone cause if he did his friends or family would have known by now.

ngcc_hk 6y ago

It is a sad case. But even more sad is our desire to know but the guy may be trying to escape from us all. The problem of madness is you know your desire to know is not right but still you go on. Whilst I understand the argument in the article someone love him may want to know what happened. Still, should we respect his seemingly intent to avoid all theses. Or are we all mad in a sense. P.S. finally nailed it why china want dna so much. No need all but if have sufficient database the match to one’s relatives is sufficient.

fernly 6y ago

Probably not helpful, but "Mostly Harmless" is also the title of Rob Rhinehart's personal blog[1]. Rhinehart's 2013 posts about his nutrition experiments under the "Mostly Harmless" title, led to the founding of Soylent.com and the modern meal replacement industry. So just possibly MH was a fan of Soylent, or of DIY Soylent. [1] https://www.robrhinehart.com/ https://www.robrhinehart.com/ Edit: on this notebook page[2] are the words Algae Pool and Nutrigs (nutrients?) The pages[3]-[4] seems devoted to planning or documenting an energy-bar recipe. Similar fascination with the nutritional details of artificial foods are expressed by hobbyists who dabble in DIY Soylent recipes, see for example [5], [6]. On this basis I think it at least credible that MH was aware of Soylent and DIY attempts at complete-nutrition foods, so might have learned the "Mostly Harmless" title from Rhinehart's blog. Which is no help whatever in identifying him, but interesting. [2] https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hkpqsnk858pzu7f/AADnCzr7tabArQ_xqi1udPOPa?dl=0&preview=EPODCASThikerupdatemostlyh_Page_11.handprint-microsoft.txt https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hkpqsnk858pzu7f/AADnCzr7tabArQ_xq... [3] https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hkpqsnk858pzu7f/AADnCzr7tabArQ_xqi1udPOPa?dl=0&preview=EPODCASThikerupdatemostlyh_Page_11.handprint-microsoft.txt https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hkpqsnk858pzu7f/AADnCzr7tabArQ_xq... [4] https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hkpqsnk858pzu7f/AADnCzr7tabArQ_xqi1udPOPa?dl=0&preview=EPODCASThikerupdatemostlyh_Page_11.handprint-microsoft.txt https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hkpqsnk858pzu7f/AADnCzr7tabArQ_xq... [5] https://www.reddit.com/r/soylent https://www.reddit.com/r/soylent [6] https://www.completefoods.co/ https://www.completefoods.co/

kevinmchugh 6y ago
As noted elsewhere on the thread, it's originally a Hitchhiker's Guide joke, a description of humans. It was also used as the title for one of the later books in the series. I wouldn't discount your explanation, but Rhinehart pulled that name from a very popular source.
fred_is_fred 6y ago
Remember that he didn't name himself. Mostly Harmless is a trail name - which other through hikers gave him - so I don't think this is related.
- 6y ago

mikedelfino 6y ago

When my time comes, I hope I realize it soon enough and healthy enough to go on a journey and die peacefully in a tent somewhere beautiful.

runjake 6y ago

I looked at this a year ago but unfortunately lost the note I kept. There was a fellow named Ben Bellamy, who was a software developer, on LinkedIn at one time with a photo that closely matched this guy. I believe he was, in fact, in the New York area but I cannot remember for sure, I did some poking around tonight but couldn't pull up his LI profile again.

exogeny 6y ago
Very interestingly, the PDF distributed by Collier County lists an alias of "Ben Bilemy". That simply cannot be just a coincidence.
- geocrasher 6y ago
  I'd find it hard to believe that he's still a missing person if they already had his real name.
  - gfaure 6y ago
    Since he did modify the spelling, I don't think it's that hard to imagine.
- evan_ 6y ago
  I’m sure that’s how the other poster found the LinkedIn user...
- runjake 6y ago
  I don’t recall exactly but I believe I was checking last name variances based off of the Bilemy alias. So, not a coincidence. Sorry for the hazy memory. It was a while ago and was not super important to me. It was just one of my many random OSINT exercises I like to do. Hopefully my comment might spur somebody on HN with more time to locate the LI profile.
  - ficklepickle 6y ago
    I found a reddit post[0] linking the LI profile[1] of Ben Bellamy. Can't get past the login-wall right now but I will check later. 0 -https://www.reddit.com/r/AppalachianTrail/comments/970h8f/comment/e49r2th https://www.reddit.com/r/AppalachianTrail/comments/970h8f/co... 1 - https://goo.gl/images/8dALKK https://goo.gl/images/8dALKK (Actually a google images link that redirects to LinkedIn)

magneticnorth 6y ago

There's a lot more detail, including many photos and the full autopsy report, at this site [WARNING - includes photos from the scene of death (not gory)]: https://truecrimesociety.com/2019/08/22/unidentified-and-mostly-harmless/ https://truecrimesociety.com/2019/08/22/unidentified-and-mos... There are two remarkable things that I saw in the autopsy report - First, there were "abundant" feces in his intestines, which suggests to me (though I am not a doctor) that he didn't starve to death. Second, he had an abdominal scar, which might be pretty identifying to someone who knew him, and also supports the theory of a recurring cancer or similar illness.

mechanicum 6y ago
Eating after a prolonged period of starvation can itself be very dangerous, and even fatal. It’s called refeeding syndrome.

stana 6y ago

"One person remembered that he ate a lot of sticky buns; another said that he loved ketchup." Searching github for 'sticky buns' reveals what seems to be unused account - ghostmachina "dna. deep learning. info theory. sticky buns. the joys of life."

kevmo 6y ago

I posted the article on the screeps subreddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/screeps/comments/jngr0b/a_nameless_screeps_player_and_the_case_the/ https://www.reddit.com/r/screeps/comments/jngr0b/a_nameless_...

deleted 6y ago

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chemeng 6y ago

Having done a bit more reading through other sources. There should be more focus on his abdominal scar, reduced teste size and cachexia (wasting). This is a very common symptom pattern for cancer. A large portion of cancer patients die from cachexia. HIV, or a chronic disease of heart/liver/kidney are other possibilities but would have left other evidence that would have certainly been noted in the autopsy. My guess is there are some oncologists and surgeons (probably in NY) who know who this person was, but cannot say anything due to confidentiality.

csunbird 6y ago
Don't they have a legal requirement to disclose the identity of this person to the police for identification purposes? I understand that they can not do a public reveal, but I think the state has an obligation to keep record on who is alive and dead.
pvaldes 6y ago
Yes, is a pattern. You don't became cachectic by a acute poisoning. I checked the authopsy but did not claim obvious tumors, tymus anomalies, no obvious signs of kidney or liver diseases. And I didn't find anything about the heart that would support a heart attack, but is soon to discard that. If it was a poison is not a haemotoxic one in my stupid opinion. (No petechias or inner bleeding, all correct in the circulatory system and most of all all apparently correct in the liver). If it was a drug it did not appeared in the analytics, so either it does not leave trace after a while or is not a common one. There was not specific medication against cancer or hypotiroidism found in the backpack. Only ibuprophen and antihistaminics I think [1]. [1] I think that is reasonable to explore at least the possibility of an Ibuprophen overdose, just to discard options. > My guess is there are some oncologists and surgeons (probably in NY) who know who this person was Agree.

ComodoHacker 6y ago

Looks like his strived escape from our digital, all-tracking society was successful.

brylie 6y ago

Might someone at Steam consider taking an inside-look at the financial transactions for the player account mentioned in the Screeps forum? https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198004426967/ https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198004426967/ If there are financial details, such as a PayPal account or credit card, and the above-mentioned Steam profile seems likely to be connected with the hiker, it might be worth considering providing some small amount of information to the authorities responsible for the missing person's case.

brylie 6y ago
Hmm, it seems also the profile may have been active more recently than would be the case if it were Mostly Harmless's account > However, I have to inform you that the "Ben2" that MrFaul is talking about is very unlikely your victim, as his steam profile shows he unlocked a number of badges in the last year

yodelinghambone 6y ago

Terminal illness and just wanting to enjoy his last days on his own terms?

trickster_ 6y ago

Regarding his identity; I used to hang out on #coders on IRCNet from the mid 90's to the early 2000's. There was a guy there called MostlyHarmless and I think both the age and nationality checks out. I haven't been there for ages and I am pretty sure that the channel was password protected but it would probably take somebody just a few minutes to check around there amongst the regulars to see if they're the same guy. Right now there isn't a user online called MostlyHarmless, which there always was back then.