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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

#271

Post by geocrasher »

exogeny wrote: post #270
runjake wrote: post #261

I looked at this a year ago but unfortunately lost the note I kept. There was a fellow named Ben Bellamy, who was a software developer, on LinkedIn at one time with a photo that closely matched this guy. I believe he was, in fact, in the New York area but I cannot remember for sure, I did some poking around tonight but couldn't pull up his LI profile again.

Very interestingly, the PDF distributed by Collier County lists an alias of "Ben Bilemy". That simply cannot be just a coincidence.

I'd find it hard to believe that he's still a missing person if they already had his real name.

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

#272

Post by evan_ »

exogeny wrote: post #270
runjake wrote: post #261

I looked at this a year ago but unfortunately lost the note I kept. There was a fellow named Ben Bellamy, who was a software developer, on LinkedIn at one time with a photo that closely matched this guy. I believe he was, in fact, in the New York area but I cannot remember for sure, I did some poking around tonight but couldn't pull up his LI profile again.

Very interestingly, the PDF distributed by Collier County lists an alias of "Ben Bilemy". That simply cannot be just a coincidence.

I’m sure that’s how the other poster found the LinkedIn user...

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

#273

Post by naikrovek »

Serious_Cheese wrote: post #174
pulse7 wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And he mentions... Java... I hope he will not be downvoted on HN because of this...

What's wrong with Java?

Everything.

That doesn't make Java developers bad in any way, though.

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

#274

Post by dhosek »

stakkur wrote: post #93

The notebook is fascinating. The guy's hand-writing code in a small notebook.

I used to do that a lot when I was younger. I didn't have my own computer until I was out of college. I would write out 6502 assembler programs by hand on graph paper and then hand-assemble the code in the columns to the left of the assembly instructions. Then I'd enter the hex code in with the Apple ][ monitor.

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

#275

Post by AlphaWeaver »

jhardy54 wrote: post #27
thomasqbrady wrote: post #5

The Screeps detail seems like something that could be fairly easily pursued... there can't have been that many players of that game to begin with, let alone those that would care so much about it that they would journal their thoughts about it. A quick check of the GitHub repo doesn't show he contributed code, but might he have opened an issue, contributed to docs? Might there be someone who was active in the communi…

Required reading, IMO: https://screeps.com/forum/topic/2937/a-strange-request-for-h... I've spent a few days looking into this and haven't been able to find anything. There's also a big thing about "algae pools" "stock markets", etc, which didn't seem to be about Screeps. I tried to find games that had these mechanics, and ended up spending a bunch of time looking through Spacestation 13 forums, but I'm leaning towar…

I'm a Space Station 13 player - each server is very different, but there's nothing here I recognize from SS13.

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

#276

Post by brudgers »

almog wrote: post #102
tdons wrote: 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…

One of the photos shows him holding paper in a plastic bag. The headline mentions the Pinhoti Trail. It seeks to link the Florida Trail to the AT. It is far enough along to be a working route though there is still a lot of walking on paved roads.

http://www.pinhotitrailalliance.org/

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

#277

Post by runjake »

exogeny wrote: post #270
runjake wrote: post #261

I looked at this a year ago but unfortunately lost the note I kept. There was a fellow named Ben Bellamy, who was a software developer, on LinkedIn at one time with a photo that closely matched this guy. I believe he was, in fact, in the New York area but I cannot remember for sure, I did some poking around tonight but couldn't pull up his LI profile again.

Very interestingly, the PDF distributed by Collier County lists an alias of "Ben Bilemy". That simply cannot be just a coincidence.

I don’t recall exactly but I believe I was checking last name variances based off of the Bilemy alias.

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.

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

#278

Post by gfaure »

geocrasher wrote: post #271
exogeny wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very interestingly, the PDF distributed by Collier County lists an alias of "Ben Bilemy". That simply cannot be just a coincidence.

I'd find it hard to believe that he's still a missing person if they already had his real name.

Since he did modify the spelling, I don't think it's that hard to imagine.

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

#279

Post by reaperducer »

syndacks wrote: post #230
reaperducer wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how long it will be before someone truly cannot be anonymous in this country (or the world) This is why my favorite Max Headroom character was Blank Reg: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Headroom_(TV_series)#Blank... I have several relatives who live off the grid in remote places. They're not survivalists or militia folk or anything like that. They just like to maximize their privacy. The keys to survival a…

I've met similar folk through back roads travel. Something I can't ever put my finger on is the mild squalor (my opinion, not saying this is true for your relatives) people are willing to endure. Sure, they do it for "maximum privacy", but can't you achieve the same relative privacy in ways that might lead to a higher quality of life? Generating power, drilling wells, boss cashing checks, etc... I get the sense there…

I think it depends on what you're used to.

For example, drilling wells is very common, even in densely populated places like New Jersey. When I lived there, having municipal water was very unusual in some surprisingly populated counties.

I think what you're seeing isn't so much squalor in terms of poverty or dirt. I think what you see is the result of people doing things on their own. No one can be an expert at everything. No one can do as good a job as a professional. But if your value some other thing a little higher than the fit and finish of a professional job, DIY is good enough.

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

#280

Post by duxup »

kbos87 wrote: post #169

Not even a passing mention of the privacy questions at stake here. I don’t fault the police for seeking answers, but every self-nominated amateur sleuth isn’t due an answer about the identity of someone who in all likelihood wanted to live privately and never committed a crime.

Is finding out who this man was a privacy issue?

On his hike he was anonymous as far as his real name goes, but he shared some things with people, and I'm not convinced we know that we know what his wishes were as far as his death goes, if any family would ever hear of it, etc.

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