In a recent post, I briefly mentioned an unidentified hiker known as “Mostly Harmless” who had been found dead in a tent in Florida in the summer of 2018. He had a fat wodge of cash in his pocket, a very distinctive scar, and some kind of connection to an online game called Screeps.
As I posted, it seemed highly likely to me that he had been a programmer (Screeps is that kind of a thing), and I fleetingly wondered if his online identity could be worked out via a digital forensic analysis of posts to the r/screeps Reddit channel. In fact, a fair few other people had had exactly the same idea, and they soon narrowed him down to a user called ‘vaejor‘.
Anyway, Mostly Harmless has now been identified as Vance John Rodriguez (who was indeed a programmer), and the – not very happy – details of his life have been put together by Nicholas Thompson in a Wired article.
As closure goes, I have to say it makes for pretty miserable reading: but perhaps that inevitably goes with the territory. Just so you know! :-/
This well written but incomplete story line reminds me of bipolar relatives . Self medication may kill them all. One is in prison for knifing a drinking friend over an imagery argument. Another is a binge eater , and weight lifter when eating well. Others die alone with perfect teeth. Relationships were and are hard for them all. A half dozen other family stories can be lined up to match the elusive medical sides of Mostly Harmless. A deeper story calls out to be told .
I’m amazed at how much information the DNA analysis yielded.
They even got the last name right!
I got a big paywall when I first tried to read this story. and still half the page is blocked when I do now. Can anyone summarize why he left/was lost to begin with?
Does anyone think its still mysterious? I certainly don’t want to try to usurp Wired’s “content”.