re: "Mostly Harmless" Appalachian Trail Hiker Identified

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VANCE JOHN RODRIGUEZ was born in February 1976 near Baton Rouge. He had a twin sister and an older brother. He told friends over the years that his father had deeply hurt him, but no one I spoke with seems to be clear exactly how. When he was about 15, according to friends, Rodriguez headed off into a field with a gun, intending to kill himself. He fired into his stomach. But then, as he lay bleeding to death, he decided to live. He raised his hand weakly and a passing truck saw him and pulled over. The surgeries that followed were the cause of the scar that had so intrigued the Facebook group. Later, he would tell friends that he wanted to be buried in that field.

At 17, with the consent of his parents, Rodriguez was emancipated by a Lafayette, Louisiana, court”

After graduating from high school, Rodriguez enrolled at the University of Southwestern Louisiana, now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. In the school’s computer lab, he came to know a man named Randall Godso. They became off-and-on roommates for the next five years”

According to Godso, Rodriguez didn’t graduate. But people with computer skills usually don’t have a hard time finding a job. Eventually, he started work at an ecommerce company based in Baton Rouge called Shoppers Choice, where he was recognized by many as the most talented engineer on the team

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