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A new Max documentary titled They Called Him Mostly Harmless made its worldwide premiere on February 8, 2024, at the Hamptons International Film Festival. Emmy-winning director Patricia E. Gillespie created the film, which explores the mystery of the unidentified hiker who was found dead in a tent at Florida’s Big Cypress National Preserve in 2018.
he hiker nicknamed Mostly Harmless didn’t appear in any missing persons database, and no family members or friends came forward to claim his body. He was eventually identified as Vance John Rodriguez, who went by various trial names, including Ben Bilemy, Denim, and Mostly Harmless.
They Called Him Mostly Harmless: An Unidentified Hiker's Dead Body in the Woods: Explored
They Called Him Mostly Harmless is about the quest of hikers and internet sleuths to identify a body. It is believed that the hiker's trek began in April 2017, when he left New York and went south on the Appalachian Trail. He didn't bring a phone or credit card that would have shown his true identity.
Instead, hikers he met along the way recognized him by the strange things he was carrying: an overstuffed backpack and a notebook filled with code, which was later discovered to be designed for the online programming game Screeps. He never told anyone what his real name was.
Hiker's dead body was found by two hikers on July 23, 2018. The medical examiners weren't able to find the cause of death, so no one will ever know how he died. The Collier County Sheriff's Office looked for tattoos or other ways to identify him but couldn't find any. They put a sketch of his face on Facebook, which was widely shared. People who saw the hiker along the way sent in photos they had taken of him.
In 2020, an extended group of volunteer sleuths promptly began their efforts by disseminating a missing poster and accumulating photographs submitted by hikers, who had encountered the missing person while traveling the trail. After Nicholas Thompson's 2020 Wired article on the internet mystery went viral, their membership increased.
The Facebook moderators worked with the company Othram, which uses genetics to help crack the cold cases featured in They Called Him Mostly Harmless. They discovered it after spending two years searching for the identity of a John Doe who didn’t want to be found. The DNA test showed that he had ties to southern Louisiana, so Internet sleuths shared the news on any local Facebook groups they could.
People in Baton Rouge who knew him saw the pictures and called the Collier County Sheriff's Office to give them a name. The police contacted the suspect's family and gave them a DNA sample. The hiker's DNA matched the sample.
Wired journalist who appears in the documentary They Called Him Mostly Harmless delved deeper into Vance John Rodriguez's past, researching the past of Vance John Rodriguez for a follow-up story in 2021. He found that people who had been close to Rodriguez described him as a highly unhappy man. Women who dated him said he was violent, and an ex-roommate said he had mental health problems.
It was also revealed that the hiker had a huge scar on his stomach from a suicide attempt that he ended up surviving. A tragic story turned more serious.
They Called Him Mostly Harmless' director Gillespie stated:
“I really hope this film gets people interested in the issue of Jane and John Does and encourages them to share that missing persons flier or composite that they see online.”
She hopes that the movie will inspire viewers not to ignore information about missing people.
They Called Him Mostly Harmless, released on February 8, 2024, is now available to stream on Max.
