Death of Vance Rodriguez

Rodriguez was identified in December 2020, over two years after his discovery. After viewing photographs of the then-unidentified man, a previous coworker contacted authorities, who obtained DNA samples from living relatives in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana. An official announcement from the Collier County Sheriff's Office was released on January 12, 2021. Othram had confirmed the match between Rodriguez and his family by performing the required testing. He was last known to reside in New York and worked in the field of information technology.

Rodriguez's identification aired as a segment on CBS News Sunday Morning on February 21, 2021.

Vance John "Vaejor" Rodriguez, previously known as "Mostly Harmless", Denim, and Ben Bilemy was an American hiker whose body was found on July 23, 2018 in Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida, then remained unidentified for two years. He was identified when a previous coworker recognized photos of him in December 2020, and his identity was released in January 2021.

By January 2018, the hiker had reached northern Florida.

He was last observed alive after his arrival in the southwestern region of Florida in April 2018.

On July 23, 2018, the hiker was found dead in his tent by two hikers in Big Cypress National Preserve. He had no form of identification with him. The location was near Interstate 75.

The hiker started his journey on the Appalachian Trail in April 2017, from Harriman State Park near New York City. On the way, he met several people who took pictures of him. Witnesses reported that he preferred ketchup and sticky buns, and that he had said he came from Baton Rouge, was hiking to Key West, and had a sister living in Sarasota or Saratoga.

Rodriguez was arrested in Lafayette Parish for shoplifting in August 1994. It is not immediately clear if he had been fingerprinted after that arrest and, if so, why he was unable to be matched with those fingerprints during the two years that he remained unidentified.