Revealed: Mysterious hiker dubbed 'Mostly Harmless' found dead in 2018 is unmasked as 'wicked smart and reclusive' Louisiana man who left behind his Brooklyn tech startup to wander the Appalachian trail because 'he was depressed with life'

The mysterious hiker who went by the moniker 'Mostly Harmless' and was found dead inside a tent in a Florida campground two years ago has finally been identified.

For years Collier County detectives and amateur internet sleuths have tried to crack the case of the hiker found in his yellow tent at Big Cypress National Preserve on July 23, 2018, emaciated and weighing just 83 pounds. 

He has been unmasked as Vance Rodriguez, a 44-year-old originally from Louisiana who had a tech startup called V-Tech in Brooklyn, New York, journalist Jason Nark with Adventure Journal reported. 

For two and a half years detectives were unable to uncover who the man was or explain how he died.  

It has been revealed that Rodriguez had left his passport, IDs, and old life behind to embark on a hike from New York to Florida without any technology because he was 'depressed with life' and wanted to start something new.

Some friends who knew him say Rodriguez was 'wicked smart', reclusive, and struggled with personal relationships. 

Some speculate he may have intentionally died, as he had attempted to take his own life before. He was found severely underweight despite having food with him and being near a busy highway.

The mysterious hiker dubbed 'Mostly Harmless' whose body was found in a Florida campground in 2018 has been identified as 44-year-old Vance Rodriguez

For years Collier County detectives and amateur web sleuths have tried to crack the case of the hiker found dead in his yellow tent at Big Cypress National Preserve on July 23, 2018, emaciated and weighing just 83 pounds

Mostly Harmless was first seen in the woods in the spring of 2017 near New York’s Harriman State Park and he continued southbound down Appalachian Trail, Pinhoti and Florida trails

Last week, several of Rodriguez’s friends saw photos of Mostly Harmless online and told the Collier County Sheriff’s Office that Rodriguez was the mystery hiker. However, Collier County is yet to comment on the findings. 

His body was discovered by day hikers after they perceived a foul smell coming from his tent. He was found with $3,500 in cash, notebooks filled with computer code, and food.

Police initially released a composite rendering of what he likely looked like before he died. 

Soon after hikers started sharing photographs of a hiker who went by 'Denim', 'Ben Bilemy,' and 'Mostly Harmless' they met on their treks who matched the rendering.  

The case puzzled police and detectives for years as examiners determined that he had no underlying health conditions and police ruled out any foul play after the money was found inside his tent. 

Further, there were no reports of missing persons who matched the man's description, and his DNA and fingerprints did not yield any results in database searches, leaving investigators stumped.

For months Nark dug into the mystery of the hiker and on December 16 was connected with Rodriguez’s former roommate, who was adamant that the hiker was Rodriguez.

Three other friends also say that the hiker was Rodriguez. 

A former girlfriend who goes by Tuggy said, 'I am 100 percent sure. I want to help put his identity and who he was to rest.'

Rodriguez was originally from Louisiana but most recently lived in Brooklyn, New York City where he ran a tech startup called V-Tech from his apartment. He was also active on the gaming website Screeps. In one Screeps comment from the end of January 2017 Rodriguez told another user: 'I’m mostly harmless (for now)', possibly for shadowing his hiker moniker

Rodriguez’s once worked at ShoppersChoice.com in Baton Rouge, now known as BBQguys. His then boss Corey Tisdale said Rodriguez was 'wicked smart' and was the company’s senior architect and developer for three years. 'He just kind of did his own thing. If you told me he decided he wanted to be alone in the woods and left his phone, I wouldn’t be surprised,' he said. Pictured left and right during his time at ShoppersChoice.com

'It did not surprise me to hear that he left everything behind, though I lost touch with him after we parted ways,' Tuggy, who dated Rodriguez for more than four years, said.

She described him as 'kind, quiet and intelligent' and says his 'reclusive' nature led him to go identified for so long.

'Even after we parted ways, and even today, I still love him very much,' Tuggy said. 

Only recently did friends and family of Rodriguez find a massive Facebook Group dedicated to finding Mostly Harmless, which has nearly 7,000 members worldwide.

Natasha Teasley, the administrator of the group, had built a website about the case, creating a timeline of every recorded stop or run in with other hikers Mostly Harmless had made.

She also organized a fundraising effort to bring in Othram, a Texas-based DNA lab, into the case that found he had Cajun ancestry, which originates in the bayou areas of southern Louisiana.

Mostly Harmless told one hiker in Pennsylvania he went to the woods because he was 'depressed with his life and needed a complete change.'

One hiker shared this snap of Mostly Harmless in Damascus, Virginia, in October 2017

Mostly Harmless was first seen in the woods in the spring of 2017 near New York’s Harriman State Park and he continued southbound down Appalachian Trail, Pinhoti and Florida trails.

Mostly Harmless had also told at least one hiker he was from Baton Rouge. Rodriguez lived and worked there for many years.

In January 2018 Gary Hoffman, the owner of the Brooklyn building where Rodriguez rented a small one-bedroom apartment, finally got a warrant to enter the home after his rent had gone unpaid for more than half a year.

Inside he found computers, monitors, and 'video game things' everywhere. The home was stocked with food, the bedroom with clothes, and he found Rodriguez’s wallet, credit cards, passport, New York State ID and Louisiana driver’s license.

'We had no idea what happened to him. It was like he had just disappeared,' Hoffman said.  

Rodriguez’s family has not commented on his death.

Rodriguez’s parents are alive, as is his twin sister and older brother and he was included in his grandfather’s obituary from this past summer.

One woman who once lived with Rodriguez in the Brooklyn apartment said that efforts to identify Mostly Harmless were 'misguided'.

'There’s a reason no one reported him missing,' another former roommate of Rodriguez named Randall who he lived with in Baton Rouge, said. 

They met at the University of Southwest Louisiana, now called the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, in 1994 and the two played computer games together.

'We were both in computer science and we didn’t have a lot of friends. We spent a lot of time in the computer lab,' Randall said.

'He never wanted to talk about his family. Ever,' he added.

Rodriguez pictured above during his younger days when he was still living in Louisiana. Pictured right in 2007 with his ex-girlfriend Tuggy

Friends from Louisiana said Rodriguez was very intelligent but struggled with personal relationships, especially with his family.

One friend from Baton Rouge named Marie described him as 'hot and cold' and said he had 'outages' or depressive episodes where he could be mean and shut people out of his life.

'He was deeply kind and caring and a bit of a d***,' Marie said. 

Friends said he liked to travel and go on walks, but none recalled him having an affinity for long-distance hiking.

Seeing photos of Rodriguez on the trail led friends to say he looked happy and healthy. 

Rodriguez’s once worked at ShoppersChoice.com in Baton Rouge, now known as BBQguys. His then boss Corey Tisdale said Rodriguez was 'wicked smart' and was the company’s senior architect and developer for three years.

'He just kind of did his own thing. If you told me he decided he wanted to be alone in the woods and left his phone, I wouldn’t be surprised,' he said. 

When the body was first found Collier County Sheriff's Office appealed to the public for help in identifying him and shared this rendering of what he could have looked like

Before Rodriguez left everything to go hiking he played the online game Screeps, where computer programmers control their 'colony' by writing Javascript.

He used the game name Vaejor and was active in message boards on the game’s Slack Channel. Notebooks of code found in Mostly Harmless' tent were traced to the game.

In one message on the Screeps Slack channel he joked no one would notice if he lost his voice.

In one Screeps comment from the end of January 2017 Rodriguez told another user: 'I’m mostly harmless (for now),' possibly foreshadowing his hiking moniker.

Friends of Rodriguez said he left for the trail without technology or identifiable information on purpose. He was known to be reclusive and struggled with personal relationships 

Marie said she believes Rodriguez saw the trail as another game, heading from shelter to hostel on daily missions. His trail name was also similar to online user names, where no one needed to know your true identity.

By April Rodriguez stopped appearing on Screeps and the game's Slack Channel. 

Marie and Tuggy both believe he died with intent.

'I think he faced some very impossible monsters internally and his self isolation only added to that,' Tuggy said.

Furthermore, he had a scar on his abdomen from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, his friends said.

Randall noted Rodriguez was very open about his suicide attempt and he always donated blood, remembering the time he once needed it desperately in his recovery.

'It was one of the more charitable things I recall him doing,' Randall said.  

'I regret that he passed alone out there but I hope he is at peace,' Tuggy said.