Thread by @WIRED

In April 2017, a hiker going by the name “Mostly Harmless” started hiking south from New York. He carried no ID and no phone.

He made it to Florida, where, in 2018, he was found dead in his tent. No one’s been able to figure out who he was. 1/ wired.trib.al/4s2CpNg

Mostly Harmless’ fingerprints didn’t show up in any law enforcement database; his DNA didn’t match any in the Department of Justice’s missing person database; a picture of his face didn’t turn up anything in a facial recognition database. Investigators couldn’t find a thing. 2/

They don’t even understand how or why he died. There were no indications of foul play and, despite the fact that he had food nearby, he weighed just 83 pounds at the time of his death. The only substances Mostly Harmless tested positive for were ibuprofen and an antihistamine. 3/

He left vague clues about who he was in interactions with other hikers. He said that he’d worked in tech and wanted to detox from digital life. People remembered him talking about a sister in either Sarasota or Saratoga. They thought he had said he was from near Baton Rouge. 4/

A Facebook group formed to figure out his identity. Reddit threads popped up to analyze the notes in his notebook. Amateur detectives tracked down leads and tried to match photographs in missing persons databases. A timeline was constructed on Websleuths.com. 5/

The founder of a DNA testing company took interest in the story and the Facebook group raised money to pay for an analysis. Now, three of the great trends of modern technology—crowdfunding, amateur sleuthing, and cutting-edge genomics— are combining to solve the case. 6/

Will it be enough? 7/ wired.trib.al/4s2CpNg

If you have tips or leads about Mostly Harmless, please send a DM to @nxthompson or an email to [e-mail]. Nick is also answering questions in the comments section of the article. 8/ wired.trib.al/4s2CpNg