Mostly Harmless: The internet mystery of a dead man, the Appalachian Trail, and $3.5K in cash

Kim Komando Today

WestStar Multimedia Entertainment, Inc

News, Tech News, Technology

4.8 • 770 Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2020

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Two years ago, hikers found a dead man in a tent. A year before that, he had left his tech job, with no phone or identification, to find peace on the Appalachian Trail. To this day, nobody knows who he is or why he died. In this episode, Kim dives into the mystery that captivated the internet. One day, the man called himself Denim for his jeans; the next, he introduced himself as "Mostly Harmless." This is his story.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	A mystery is totally taking over the internet.
0:08.4	A backpacker who's found dead in his tent in July 2018 remains unidentified to this day.
0:15.8	The John Doe started hiking south on the Appalachian Trail from Harriman State Park in
0:20.5	New York in April of 2017.
0:23.7	On the trail, he was known as denim because he wore jeans while hiking.
0:28.4	Later, he called himself mostly harmless, and he sometimes used the name Ben Billamy at the Hiker Hostels.
0:35.5	Two hikers found the man dead in his tent in the Big Cyprus National
0:39.7	Preserve on the Florida Trail on July 23, 2018. The campsite held few clues. He didn't carry his
0:48.1	cell phone. He didn't have any credit cards. He didn't have any identification on him. but he had about $3,500 in cash.
0:57.9	Facebook groups are sharing clues and Reddit users are doing the same. And I read a great piece
1:03.6	that Wired About Mostly Harmus. I was just fascinated that here we are in 2020, when there is
1:09.7	no way to have any real privacy, a man can go for a hike
1:13.9	from New York to Florida for 15 months on the sometimes very busy Appalachian Trail. He meets a lot of
1:20.2	people along the way, has his picture taken, and no one has any idea who he is when he dies.
1:26.3	But perhaps new DNA sequencing will be able to help out,
1:30.7	but I'm getting ahead of myself. So joining us here on this Tech You Should Know podcast is the
1:35.8	editor-in-chief of Wired, and he's the writer of the piece that's called A Nameless Hiker
1:40.7	in case the Internet can't crack. His name is Nicholas Thompson. And you don't
1:46.6	want to miss this podcast. It's so fascinating about what's going on with this case and how people are
1:52.7	sometimes sending him like 20, 30 clues a day. But again, we still have no idea who he is. Perhaps we will soon because of this high-tech DNA sequencing that we're going to get into.
2:06.0	So stay right where you are because when we come right back from this quick message and a special thank you to our partners who make this podcast possible, we're going to dive right into the case.
2:21.2	Luke. dive right into the case. Looking to bring back that natural glow, you know, the one that you had when you're
	...

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