(The Advertiser)- A hiker who was found dead in a tent in Florida was identified two years later as a New York man who was originally from Lafayette.
Vance Rodriguez was found by two hikers on July 23, 2018, inside a tent deep within Big Cypress National Preserve. He went by the trail names “Denim” and “Mostly Harmless.”
“Although an autopsy did not indicate foul play in his death, our detectives worked tirelessly to identify him,” the Collier County Sheriff’s Office wrote in a Facebook post.
He interacted with others along the Appalachian and Florida trails and detectives even had clear photos of him along the way, but Rodriguez did not have a cellphone, credit cards or any form of identification, The Advertiser reported Thursday.
Detectives found hiking gear, two notebooks and about $3,640 in his tent, about 5 miles north of Interstate 75 in Collier County.