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

* starred any screeps repo before May 2017, and no other screeps repo since then

* no public contributions or events since April 2017

If someone has some time to do further filtering, ensure the users have not starred any GitHub repo since May 2017

I didn't go through forks but that would also be an avenue.

[1] https://gist.github.com/aramperes/2363dc3434de6b494b28b5a658...

- amidman

- eqzus

- Mike Hancoski (follows users from NY, wrote PHP code, his personal website domain wasn't renewed and is now available.)

Edit: I know that folks thought this was a red herring. Checked the steam profile, power player badge was unlocked on 10/23 but Recently Played shows nothing (might be privacy settings) and last review was 3 years ago. Do badges ever auto-unlock, or could this person have shared a steam account?

Is relevant because the man has been most probably poisoned. It was not a fast poison and it was painful but not too alarming. Not a bee, a wasp or a Bothrops. A plant or fungus, yes, could fit.

Is not suicide and terminal illness in my opinion. Nobody dies by starvation in presence of food.

But there is a third category that I was missing. Your own food. A too old Spirulina package can be contaminated and lead to slow poisoning. Emaciated in the context of plenty of food around and plenty of money means that he was deliberately refusing to eat while resting in the tent, this is a common effect of food poisoning.

[1] Speculating "Roach motel" can be an humorous surname for their tent. Nanites could be some kind of "armour", clothes or boots maybe.

Here’s a link to the transcript of the notes typed out

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.

I’ve posted up above, but just incase you’ve missed them here’s a the transcript of his his notebook typed up

My guess is his choice of phrasing was influenced by Adams, given he was reportedly an sf/f enthusiast, but it's a pretty standard sort of geeky small talk reply.

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.

Google also informed me that "Benemy" (or "Benami") means "no name" in Urdu, so if one was into word games then "Bill Benemy" could be "Bill No-Name".

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.

https://media.wired.com/photos/5fa04a3d8239757e365803ec/mast...

Bottom right under 'additional information'.

I had heard that the AT wasn't as well graded, but I wasn't aware the difference was this big, thanks!

http://www.pinhotitrailalliance.org/

The assumption that he must have died purely by accident is absurd; or, if not, that he must have been mentally ill. I could absolutely see myself doing this in another 5-15 years. There's so very little worth living for, but I learned 10 years ago I'm not willing to off myself in the ways people normally do. Heading out into nature and lasting as long as I can on my own seems like the workaround to "being ready to die", but "not willing to hang, shoot, or poison myself".

No, I don't need help. Tried the suicide route 10 years ago (very seriously, not as a call for help), and discovered that I'm not quite that fed up with life yet; and when I am, that's not how I want to go. This story is exactly the kind of method I'd use if the desire to fade from the world resurfaces.

"He did bring a giant backpack, which his fellow hikers considered far too heavy for his journey."

This was without any real special training.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamtanner/2013/07/08/how-the-p...

The direct mail business has this “public records” part figured out pretty well and they gather the data from anywhere they can. Wouldn’t be surprised if utility bills factor in as well.

My mom called me the other week and told me that a recruiter was looking for me. She gave me their name and number, but I was stumped. How the hell did: 1. They know that was my mother 2. How did they know her number 3. How did they know she would be able to reach me?

I've subsequently determined that my ICE information was leaked somehow. This is the only piece of information, other than life insurance, where my mother and I would be positioned as related. I do not have a Facebook, Twitter, or Reddit. I have this profile, which is my average online profile, and I have a professional one. Neither has ties back to my family, much less phone numbers. We also live in totally different states and they were calling her about a job for me in my current state and city.

I would say it is already unethical to dox someone, just if you do it in the name of sales or "connecting people" Americans somehow sweep it under the rug.

This is just a matter of correcting societal expectations.

Even that would be tough, since I'd guess facial recognition would detect that.

I'm not American and don't live there, but I have an LLC in a particular US state that owns a vehicle I keep stashed in the US (in a different state).

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.

https://www.themanual.com/outdoors/best-down-jackets-2017/

(Second one down.)

1. collecting a DNA sample from a corpse is more difficult than having someone spit in a tube and drop it in the mail. It takes tools and a specialist

2. they want to compare with lots of different databases. Most GEDMatch data comes from genotyping arrays, that look at ~500k variants on the genome. However, different companies use different sets of single-nucleotide variants. Meanwhile, law enforcement databases look at microsatellites, which can't be assayed easily with an array. Sequencing someone to be able to use all the different databases would be on the order of a thousand dollars

3. The genetic testing companies do things in bulk. Your cousin's spit was run though the various steps (like PCR) with 100s of other samples. Doing it for a single sample is going to be more expensive

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.

With the beacon they'll know exactly who and where you are (but nothing about the nature of the problem) and it also transmits a homing signal for aircraft. With the inReach if you just trip the SOS they only get who and where, but you also have text messaging so that you can communicate how urgent the situation is and what it will take to get you out. (Safe but unable to extract won't get anything like the response that femoral artery severed, tourniquet applied gets.)

As to his distance from civilization, I'm assuming you refer to Lagunitas Campground to hwy 285. That is around 20 miles as the crow flies, more like 30 miles on trail from what I see on CalTopo, but with thick fresh layer of snow covering the trail, he'd have had to find his own way (assuming he knew hwy 285 was there). Navigation in a snow covered land that is high in elevation yet hilly but flat enough to hide what's coming ahead can make 30 miles be very very challenging even without the mental challenge of coping with being wet and cold every day. He was also hoping, at least at the beginning, that they'll find him, and that must have been a consideration for staying in the same place rather than risking losing the trail.

By the way, they also have an API you can hook into. I once was toying with the idea of implementing a compact language to help me with resupplying between towns: Lets say that my flashlight breaks or my mattress gets a hole that I cannot fix, I could have a list of all my items (it's rather short - for example here is my '19 HRP thruhike gear list: https://lighterpack.com/r/rbjo9d). For every item I can maintain let's say an amazon product page (with some price bound probably), as well as the list of towns I'll be visiting.

A single text message that says "ORDER 1 flashlight to Bridgeport" could trigger an order to the General Delivery address which I already have in my Amazon account.

This could even work as a service that possibly pays itself using just Amazon's referral fees.

I never got to actually testing their API since you have to manually apply to their business plan which cost significantly more than the regular plan. But it could really be useful and save you a lot of time and money while thruhiking, when you really need to get a replacement item while out there between towns with no signal and your next town only has a general store.

And yes, Otter's story is so crazy, sad and depressing. Being there so long and slowly realizing that there is no way out feels so difficult to process. I can easily see how it could have been adapted to a film.

Not sure about stroke.

edit: lol wow downvoted? smug much? I never even said I disagreed.

Looking like someone that has to stay in hostels, versus someone that likes the inherently more social aspect of hostels are very different things.

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.

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.

Answer: They don't.

Privacy should be respected, even in death. Especially in a case like this.

The idea that privacy can be violated like this solely because random Facebook users are interested in it and on the off-chance that family he hadn't interacted with in years might find some abstract comfort despite not being close at all is just incredibly bizarre.

Are there better ways to slip into the void than going into the wilderness without even a phone?

Subject to copyright, of course.

the rules around publishing (and reading) private diaries are the same for dead people as they are for living people, aren't they?