In the past 10-15 years, true-crime has become so popular with podcast, most notably Serial, that even a popular comedy series Only Murders in the Building works both as a criticism of the fans as well as a clever appreciation. What is it that makes us search for clues and think we know more than law enforcement investigating it? Part of it is that fiction writers have planted this idea in us dating back to Edar Allen Poe with C. Augustine Dupin.
I think it’s only been further escalated by the Covid-19 pandemic when people found themselves marathon watching TV more than they used to. They Called Him Mostly Harmless, a documentary on HBO Max directed by Patricia E. Gillespie, looks at the fascination we have and hopes that there’s more to a case than it lets on. Cutting to the chase, on July 23, 2018, hikers along the Appalachian Trail in Collier County, Fla., came upon a tent where there was a body inside of a very thin and emaciated man. It was described as looking a skeleton with just skin on the bones.
No identification was found on his person and no cause of death could be determined. In 2020, when the pandemic had started, a Facebook group was formed to search for the hiker’s identity. Over the course of two years, it led to outrageous speculations that pointed to the wrong people. Those in the groups began to fight amongst themselves and starting different groups. You almost wonder what purpose are they really trying to serve. Did they really want to find the identity of the hiker? Or did they, themselves, want to become famous?
Only Murders in the Building looked at the latter to great and hilarious extremes. At some points, it seems it’s almost too real to be funny. Colorado Springs Police Lt. Joe Kenda became a minor celebrity with his show Homicide Hunter but he had a deadpan delivery of the facts that showed you he meant business. But there was also a little bit of an attitude to his voice and body language were he didn’t want to part of the show that made you like him more. You almost forget with true-crime, there are actually friends and family of the departed watching their loved ones being exploited for entertainment.
The hiker, who was referred to as “Mostly Harmless” from a way he greeted people as well as “Denim” from his jeans, was built up as a tortured soul that the reality is more damaging. His real identity was Vance John Rodriguez and he had a history of mental health issues as well as domestic abuse reports. You can’t help but see the parallels with Chris McCandless, the subject of Into the Wild, the book and Oscar-nominated movie directed by Sean Penn with Emile Hirsch as McCandless.
It’s hard in 2018 to live off the grid as much as Rodriguez did. It might have been easier for McCandless but living in the wild can be dangerous. Everyone can’t be Jeremiah Johnson. And with the recent AT&T incident where phones crashed in the early morning hours, a lot of people who think they can live a more simple, primitive lifestyle even for a week, can’t even last half a day.
It’s possible Rodriguez thought he could. But even Cheryl Strayed suffered setbacks when she hiked the Pacific Crest Trail almost 30 years ago. If you’re not prepared, then you’re not going to make it. It’s possible the elements got to him and he got sick from eating something and lain in the tent for a while. Because it was the summer in Florida, maybe not a lot of people were hiking along the path of the tent. Or others that passed by just assumed it was empty and went on their ways.
But any scientist or journalist can tell attest that you must deal with disappointment in your findings. Things won’t always end up the way you want. And there’s really no mystery sometimes. People don’t ransack homes to burglarize them and then kill a resident. A lot of times, it’s a spouse/partner or family member. And people just disappear hoping to start over anew somewhere not wanting others to know where they’re moving. As long as your birthday makes you over 18, you can pretty much go just about anywhere you want at any time without people kicking up too much of a fuss.
One thing I used to sometimes deal with as I worked at the Night Supervisor Program at Georgia Southern University’s Housing Department was letting university police into dorms to conduct welfare checks. A lot of times it was just a student who was working on a term paper at the library or getting drunk as their parents hadn’t heard from them. That was 25 years ago when not a lot of students had cell phones so their parents couldn’t contact them anytime. You had to share a phone line with your roommates. And usually, it was parents who couldn’t cut the apron strings worried when their kids don’t call every day so they’re asking for welfare checks.
Gillespie said she hopes the documentary encourages people to become more interested in missing person fliers and contacting authorities. There’s about 600,000 people reported missing each year. With Amber Alerts and missing children, we should keep our eyes and ears open. However, I think people should do the right thing and no get too involved because some people may just want to be left alone.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 