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

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

#131
post #67

> 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…

Since you are here I want to mention how off-putting this rhetoric is to me... It just doesn't ring true to me

His story. His words. His choice.

He is under no obligation to cater to every "But what about me? I'm different!" navel-gazing edge case in the world.

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

#132
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Checking for users who forked the repo in 2017 and haven't been active since 2017 I got. - amidman - eqzus - Mike Hancoski (follows users from NY, wrote PHP code, his personal website domain wasn't renewed and is now available.)

Mike Hancoski as of 2018 was living in Denver, posted to Instagram and looks different than photos. I think you also missed Maxim2030 who is also in the list by momothereal. And also manhyper

We're hitting the end of the allowed reply indents but I think you're right modernerd. Looks like he's likely still active online.

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

#133
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Looking at 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?

On the 3. page of the scanned notebook [1] he mentions Java.

[1] https://www.colliersheriff.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=94010

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

#134
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article says he weighed 86 lbs, so it sounds like he died of starvation or malnutrition.

Which again is strange, since he was found with $3500 on him.

https://www.colliersheriff.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=94010

I wonder if he was fasting or starving himself and ran into unexpected trouble. For example pg 17 has some detailed nutritional data on something, maybe an idea for a protein bar?.

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

#135

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.

Question, in the first picture he is wearing a jacket with "BR" embroidered on left side, was that ever looked into if its not a brand name?

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

#136

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

Full-text transcription of individual notebook pages (annotated images + .json + .txt) generated with a combination of Handprint ( https://github.com/caltechlibrary/handprint ) and Microsoft's Read API: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hkpqsnk858pzu7f/AADnCzr7tabArQ_xq...

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.

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

#137

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.

What a great read — thank you!

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

#138
post #67

> 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…

I agree. When an author writes "Everyone has ..." we often learn more about the author than everyone.

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

#139
post #102
post #69

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...

> "was only able to hike 10 miles a day" Where is this quote from? It's not from the linked article. > "10 mi / day is absolutely abysmal for a normal thru hiker." To the best of my understanding, unless he flip-flopped, he was not a thruhiker as he started in NY. It is not clear either if he made his way south in a continuous footpath. Moreover, even for a thru-hiker, the 10 by 10 gold standard of hiking does not ap…

It's in an image so you can't text search :)

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!

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

#140
post #67

> 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…

But "getting away from it all" is such a common phrase I would say it is what most people are doing.

It's definitely what I do.

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