The story of the "Mostly Harmless" hiker

Question

There is an article that goes into the story of Vance Rodriguez, a hiker found dead in the Florida Wilderness. The article also is somewhat connected to a documentary about the man on HBO, called "They Called Him Mostly Harmless." The problem is, the story revolves around how much of a mystery Vance is, yet the article states many things about him as a fact, even some very small details. Plus, the person doing the research about the man isn't usually involved in that kind of work. So, I'm bringing this article here to see how much of the story is true and accurate, or what has been embellished or even left out entirely.

Answer 1

The documentary “They Called Him Mostly Harmless” is based on the true story of Vance John Rodriguez and how they found his name and past. The FOX article focuses more on the documentary itself than the actual story behind it. It also has far less details about things such as his family, nicknames, and mentions Christie Harris, however, she wasn’t an important contributor to the finding of Rodriguez than the HBO documentary makes out. The links from Time, Wired, and the Adventure Journal goes more into depth on the process of how people from the internet figured it out. The Reddit link is someone who was trying to find out more of the Screeps code Rodriguez wrote in 2019. All the articles have the same details and include official reports showing that they are accurate.

https://time.com/6692516/mostly-harmless-max-documentary-true-story/ (Time)

https://www.wired.com/story/unsettling-truth-mostly-harmless-hiker/ (Wired)

https://www.adventure-journal.com/2020/12/the-mystery-of-deceased-hiker-mostly-harmless-is-at-long-last-solved/ (Adventure journal)

https://www.reddit.com/r/screeps/comments/fnwhvr/who_is_this_screeps_player_a_man_without_an/ (Screeps Reddit)