Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/12/03/the-mysterious-case-of-the-dead-hiker-whose-body-cant-be-identified-by-anyone.html
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Maybe he is someone who had already “died” so no one thinks he was still alive to end up actually dead in Florida.
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I’d say he was a nice kook who knew how to stay off the grid, wanted to keep off the grid, and perhaps suffered from an unknown heart defect. I know it doesn’t sound very dramatic, but this sort of stuff does happen.
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If you’re willing to make sacrifices it doesn’t seem that difficult to drop off the grid. Particularly if you decide to spend your time traversing what basically amounts to the middle of nowhere.
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D B Cooper really got around after he leapt out of that plane. He looks good for 90.
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That seems reasonable except why would he let himself waste away to 80lbs before succumbing to a heart defect? Don’t get me wrong; I’m sure starvation would have a chance at triggering sudden death of that sort, but apparently this dude had food at hand. It’s almost as though he either chose to pursue starvation / death by starvation, or there was some other medical issue going on that caused him to rapidly lose weight. [Stephen King joke redacted.]
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Oh, that guy.
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Several years from now I used this husk for time travel related purposes. Sorry to cause such a stir.
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He was “Denim” at first, because he had started his trek in jeans. Later, it became “Mostly Harmless"… Maybe, too, it was a reference to Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy . Early in the series, a character discovers that Earth is defined by a single word in the guide: harmless . Another character puts in 15 years of research and then adds the adverb. Earth is now “mostly harmless.”
any chance you are originaly from beteigeuze, denim? seems you covered your tracks well.
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Shaved sasquatch.
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I know I’m not exactly at my target BMI but 83 pounds sounds dangerously underweight for someone who was 5’-8". My first guess would have been starvation or hypothermia due to lack of body fat.
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I just want to rant that this paraphrasing of the ‘mostly’ addition is a bit annoying in that it leads you to believe it’s the character doing the researching who only adds only a single word, while the fact of the matter is he submitted a much longer article that got edited down.
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The Appalachian Trail tends to take a lot of weight off hikers, even under normal circumstances. I will admit losing 80 lbs is extreme for the loss averages (30 lbs is considered normal), but it is not at all out of range. Dude could’ve liked not having to haul the extra weight on the trail, and just took it too far.
Edit: hanni5 is correct, he was 83 pounds at the end, I did not read the linked article slowly enough.
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He did not lose 80 pounds…he was eighty pounds when found dead. See photo.
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That’s why there are no more Geico cavemen ads. He’s dead.
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And that’s supposed to make me feel better is it??
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Pretty sure I’ve seen him before. I think his name was Cornelius. Or maybe Galen?
When his body was found, there was no evidence of … chemical substances
That someone was somehow able to remove all chemicals from his body sounds hugely suspicious. What would even be left?
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You are correct. I didn’t read slowly enough. 83 pounds is shocking, even for 5’8". What the hell happened in those six months?
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Cancer will do that, and some cancers might be hard to detect if his body was in a bad shape when found.
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