The “friendly but reserved” man dozens of hikers spent time with while on the Appalachian Trial has been identified more than two years after his body was found on that same trail. The man originally known by his trail name, Mostly Harmless, has been identified as Vance Rodriguez, an IT worker in New York with roots in Louisiana. Tireless detective work by the Collier County Sheriff’s Office, social media and a new kinship test from Othram ultimately pieced together the hiker’s life.
On July 23, 2018, two hikers stumbled upon the body of a man at a small campsite deep within Big Cypress National Preserve. He was not found with a driver's license, cell phone, credit card or any other identifying information. His only possessions were notebooks, hiking gear and cash. The Collier County Sheriff’s Office first combed missing persons databases for matching fingerprints or dental records, but quickly came up empty.
Later that summer, investigators posted a composite photo to Facebook. Within minutes, fellow hikers had sent dozens of photos of the deceased and reported meeting him along the trail. Despite spending time with him on the trails, no one was able to provide his real name, with most calling his Mostly Harmless, as well as Ben Bilemy and Denim. Rallied by the dozens of tips submitted by the public, Collier County investigators were able to piece together a timeline.
It turns out Rodriguez set out to hike the Appalachian Trail in 2017. He spent several months hiking south toward Florida using only paper maps. In the fall of 2017, Rodriguez checked into the Top of Georgia Hostel and Hiking Center, but did so under the name Ben Bilemy. He paid for items using cash and didn’t leave any contact information. Rodriguez reached Southwest Florida by April 2018, which was the last time a witness reported seeing him on the trail. A few months later, his body and his belongings were found in a tent at Noble’s Camp Ground in Ochopee, Florida.
Despite establishing his whereabouts in the year prior to his death, investigators were no closer to identifying him. Having exhausted their options, in July 2020, the sheriff’s office partnered with Othram. Othram’s scientists extracted DNA from bone and produced a SNP profile using their proprietary Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing.
After initial sequencing and while Othram was still conducting genealogy research, the company announced that the hiker was likely Cajun with family in Louisiana, specifically pointing to an area known as Assumption Parish. With a location narrowed down, Othram, journalists and many others began sending a 2019 bulletin from the Collier County Sheriff’s Office to people in the area. Othram and a journalist from WIRED even ran sponsored, targeted Facebook ads.
Within weeks, a former coworker of Rodriguez's saw the ads and came forward. He was able to provide Rodriguez’s real name and photos.
“Sometimes, even before genealogy is done, just knowing something or anything about a person can help focus tips from the crowd,” David Mittelman, CEO of Othram, told Forensic.
With the help of the Lafayette Parish County Sheriff’s Office (LA), Rodriguez’s family agreed to provide a DNA sample for comparison. Using their new KinSNP rapid relationship testing technology, Othram was able to quickly make a positive identification. KinSNP enables rapid confirmation or exclusion of candidate relationships between an unknown subject and potential relatives. The entire process is performed offline and there is no interaction with public genealogical databases.
“When target tests take months, investigators are compelled to test several potential relatives in parallel, but if it’s quicker, the tests can be done in series, with the selection of each candidate informed by the results for the others, leading to fewer tests overall to get to a solve,” said Mittelman. The priority service launches publicly in the United States and Canada on Feb. 1, 2021, and Mittelman told Forensic they plan to use KinSNP on more cold cases going forward.
The Collier County Sheriff’s Office confirmed foul play was not suspected in Rodriguez’s death.
“We are glad to have solved this case. And we want to thank the community for their interest and for circulating the information that eventually reached the right person,” the department said in a statement.
“DNA testing can help in many ways and it’s not always genealogy. [The] lesson is to get as much data as you can from DNA evidence because you don't know what information will ultimately drive the solve,” Mittelman concluded.
Photo credit: Othram