Destination Known | Hiker Doe Known As "Mostly Harmless" Identified As Vance Rodriguez | MPCN - a podcast by Missing Persons Cases Network

A hiker who was found dead in a tent in Florida was identified two years later as a New York man who was originally from Lafayette.
Vance Rodriguez was found by two hikers on July 23, 2018, inside a tent deep within Big Cypress National Preserve. He went by the trail names "Denim" and "Mostly Harmless."
"Although an autopsy did not indicate foul play in his death, our detectives worked tirelessly to identify him," the Collier County Sheriff's Office wrote in a Facebook post.
He interacted with others along the Appalachian and Florida trails and detectives even had clear photos of him along the way, but Rodriguez did not have a cellphone, credit cards or any form of identification.
Detectives found hiking gear, two notebooks and about $3,640 in his tent, about 5 miles north of Interstate 75 in Collier County
The IT worker who lived in New York had set out to hike the Appalachian Trail in 2017, according to the sheriff's office. Rodriguez spent several months hiking south toward Florida and only used paper maps.
The sheriff's office tried to identify Rodriguez through traditional methods, combing missing person databases for matching fingerprints or dental records. When the department posted a composite photo to Facebook, fellow hikers sent in dozens of photos and reported meeting him.
The story of the unidentified hiker was aired on the sheriff's office's podcast. Wired magazine wrote about "Mostly Harmless" and more than one and a half million people read the story, the publication reported. Facebook groups popped up with the purpose of combing through clues to identify him.
The sheriff's office started working with Othram, a DNA lab in Texas that works with law enforcement to solve cases - both identifying unknown persons and people who may have been involved in crimes - through forensic genealogy.
But a former co-worker of Rodriguez saw his photo online and reached out to the Collier County Sheriff's Office and provided information about him. The Collier County Sheriff's Office, the Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Office and Othram worked together to test a familial DNA sample to positively identify Rodriguez
Rodriguez was born in February 1976. He emancipated at 17 with the consent of his parents, according to Lafayette Parish court records. He attended the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He eventually moved to Baton Rouge, where he worked at Shoppers Choice, and then moved to New York in 2013, Wired magazine reported.
You can read the rest here:
https://www.theadvertiser.com/story/news/2021/01/14/mostly-harmless-hiker-found-dead-florida-identified-lafayette/4144419001/
Youtube Video Version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgBHt4QtLq0&t=680s

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