After Evan Ratliff was captured, WIRED asked the most active hunters to send in their stories. Why were they drawn to the hunt, what did they do, and what did they learn? Here are the answers:
- Mike Selinker
- Sarah Manello
- Scott Deloach
- Clark Hodges
- Colin Ake
- Matthew Gilreath
- Rich Reder
- Sharon Sergeant
- Lindsey Wilson
- Quin Shirk-Luckett
- Likita Ambrose
Lone Shark Games
Before the hunt started, Wired hired me, and my partner at Lone Shark Games, Teeuwynn Woodruff, to help structure the hunt for Evan and to include puzzles that would add a layer of intrigue to the chase.
In an alternate reality game, the puppetmaster's job is to disguise the truth in plain sight, usually through a series of unexplained puzzles. In a "non-alternate reality game" like this, my job was to feed the internet a regular dose of puzzles that clued Evan's location. Of course, this job was complicated just a tiny bit by my not having the slightest idea where Evan was. I was helped though by being in constant communication with Nick at Wired and with Teeuwynn, who served as the lead huntress.
During the hunt, no one—not Teeuwynn and certainly not Evan—knew the answers to the puzzles before the hunters did. Here, in rough chronological order, are the puzzles that Vanish hunters had to unravel.
1. 8/19: Evan's car.
After breaking Evan's FastTrak, Nick and I theorized that Evan would dump his car. To get the license plate out there, "Evan's friend" (me) gave Teeuwynn (@Evansvanished) the first four characters: 4MUN. A search of License Place Genie would reveal under California plate 4MUN509 the confirmatory message (written by me, under the name "Ratty"): "Blue Devils Ultimate 4ever!"—a reference to Evan's Duke University background and his love of ultimate frisbee.
2. 8/23: Evan's soccer team.
We sliced a cryptic fragment of a logo, with no clues as to what it was from. This was identified very quickly as Evan's favorite soccer team, the Fulham Football Club.
3. 8/24: Evan's reading list.
On Evan's Facebook page, we found his favorite author list. We fed Teeuwynn the following context-free tweet: HST—FaLiLV/tRD:aN/HA:aSaTS; TW—tRS/tEKAA/tBotV; FSF—TItN/tGG/tCCoBB; JC—LJ/HoD/aOoP; JM—JGS/MWS/tBotH; GD—BB:aBaJ/tCoM/tMotS; see GR. These were all authors and their works, but just the initials (lowercasing articles and prepositions): Hunter S. Thompson—Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Rum Diary: a Novel, Hell's Angels: a Strange and Terrible Saga; Tom Wolfe—The Right Stuff, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, The Bonfire of the Vanities; F. Scott Fitzgerald—Tender Is the Night, The Great Gatsby, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Joseph Conrad—Lord Jim, Heart of Darkness, An Outpost of Progress; Joseph Mitchell—Joe Gould's Secret, McSorley's Wonderful Saloon, The Bottom of the Harbor; Geoff Dyer—A Book about Jazz, The Colour of Memory, The Missing of the Somme; and then an indicator to "see Good Reads." On Evan's fake Good Reads page was the comment "TK—tSoaNM/MBM/SiWR (just found out—this comes out tomorrow!)". This was a final author: Tracy Kidder—The Soul of a New Machine, Mountains Beyond Mountains, Strength in What Remains. And as it turned out, that book did come out the next day, leading hunters on a merry chase to catch Evan buying the book then, which he did.
4. 8/31: Riot_Sage.
At this point we realized we couldn't just keep feeding Teeuwynn fragmentary messages, so we created a new Twitter identity, the mysterious Riot_Sage. With strong indications from Evan that he would go to the US soccer team's match in Utah on September 5, the Twitter feed received this post: Riot_Sage: At Rome T, van to S. F. port. She beat them there. I may go into tame chat. Ending nigh. Disassembling and then reassembling these words led to the message: I/ go/t a me/s/sage/ f/rom e/van/ to/nigh/t/: he re/port/s he/ may/ be at/t/ending/ the m/at/ch at/ rio t/into. Rio Tinto Stadium was the site of the soccer match, so hunters marshalled efforts to catch him there.
5. 9/1: Dusky_Wireworm.
We had all of Evan's flights from the previous 18 months, which might predict his Vanish route. So a new character, Dusky_Wireworm, appeared on Twitter. His name, "Cole Optera," was a respacing of coleoptera, the taxonomic order of beetles, and identifying the genus and species of the dusky wireworm gave Agriotes obscurus. "Obscuring the order" of AGRIOTES spelled "Riot_Sage," which suggested these were the same person. Dusky_Wireworm posted two strings of numbers: 22578422644012261167226427032725833040110317701105721111831812181501222128512291071... and 211724216385223573224468318150325133430758528031510476827261326972247627. These were all of Evan's flights, first by date ("2/25") then by flight number ("784"). Identifying the airlines gave the cities he visited: San Francisco, Charlotte, the Tri-Cities, Phoenix, Denver, Oakland, Washington D.C., New York, Atlanta, Palm Springs, San Diego, Toronto, Nashville, and Memphis. Evan hit quite a few of those in his 25 days on the lam.
6. 9/7-9/11: The New York Times.
We knew Evan couldn't not read the Times every day, so we left five challenges for him there. For each one he completed without getting caught, he got an extra $400. The challenges were laced in the Times crossword (thanks to editor Will Shortz) each day. A series of directional strings followed: Monday: G 1E 3SE 1W 8S 2N 2N 1NW 5NE 4W 1SE 1NE 2S 3SE 5W 11E 5SW 1E 1E 11NW; Tuesday: A 3N 6N 9E 1W 5SW 3W 11E 2W 2E 2E 2S 1W 2SW 1N 4NE 3N 4W 4SW 2N 2W 1N 2N 2NW 5S; Wednesday: G 12S 7N 1E 6SE 13W 9E 1S 3E 1NE 4NW 2S 1N 1SE 1N 3NW 3W 1W 8E 7SW 1S 1NE 2N; Thursday: U 1S 4N 1W 14E 1S 4W 2S 1NE 3W 4N 2W 1SW 2SE 1SW 6NW 4SE 2N 6S 3SW 1N 1W 6N 12E; Friday: S 1E 4E 1N 1E 7N 5S 3NE 1NW 2E 4SE 12W 4E 5N 7E 5S 7W 1NW 4NW 11S 2NE 4E 11N 5W 5S 11E 2N 5W. In each case, hunters had to start in a specific letter in a solved copy of that day's crossword, and follow the path thereafter. So on Monday, one would start in the G in the upper left corner, then going one space east to get an O, then three spaces southeast to get an A, and so on. The five challenges ended up being: GO ATTEND A BOOK READING; ASCEND A FIFTY-STORY BUILDING; GRANT A HUNTER AN INTERVIEW; UPLOAD FOOTAGE OF A ONE MILE JOG; and SPEND A DAY IN A DAVID ORTIZ JERSEY—that last being particularly painful since we expected Evan to go to New York, where Nick was. However, we never got to see Evan in an Ortiz jersey, since Evan got nailed outside a book reading in New Orleans.
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:59:46 -0400
Subject: Menacingpickle's (late) story on my hunt
Here is my journey of one menacingpickle and my search for Evan.
I heard about the contest from my long time friend David Devitry (@devitry) He provided the much needed computer edge but felt inadequate at investigations. He contacted me, who had real life investigations experience to team up in this challenge.
My background seemed to be quite different than the others participating in the contest, mostly because I use social skills and ground work not computer skills to track people. And that I had actual experience tracking people; both criminals and those not evading the law. We had hoped this would give us an edge. I knew Dave's brilliance with the computer was going to be a huge asset. I'm now disabled due to Lupus so I have all the time in the world to track people and make calls. Years earlier I had worked assisting private investigators, and I still love using my skills.
You'll notice that the PI's interviewed for Evan's article about going missing all referred to pre-texting as their primary method. If law enforcement uses this they do so in a way that doesn't interfere with the chain of evidence. Pi's have little concern for that. I wanted to use my skills to help families in need or aid law enforcement in convicting criminals. What I discovered was relatively callous investigators using primarily illegal methods without concern for how it would their methods may destroy evidence and contaminated witnesses without an altruistic reason. I made contacts with a couple law enforcement agencies through the years and volunteered my services to them when requested. Sadly, it never developed into finding an agency I could gain employment through.
I treated the search for Evan Ratliff as I would any legal investigation, trying to fill in gaps normally filled by law enforcement with other hunters. The first thing I did in the search for Evan was locate all the legal addresses he lived at and with whom. In this case, to rule them out as a usable source but also build a comfort zone surrounding each place. I had a feeling if things wherever he went got rough he might return temporarily to an area he was familiar with from many years earlier. Later, this would give us various restaurants and other areas he patronized. I also looked to see the names of neighbors and googled them to see if he was still in communication with any of them. Friends were not off limits, just family. That lead did not help.
During this time Devitry setup ip traps on all the links we posted, even ones unrelated to the hunt. Through this we were able to figure out who all the other hunters were and where they were located. Cross referencing that with times they were tweeting. Devitry will have to give the details on that as I stick to ground work.
Next, I contacted Fedex and found the lead that of course gave us nothing but entertainment. Amazing, considering I called and didn't misrepresent why I was trying to get the information. Imagine how quickly I could have gotten it if I had said I was Evan or another illegal pretext?
Around this time I found Evan's Amazon account which gave me an alternate email address. The amazon account, while not recently updated had given me a sense of his interests, prior to the Kidder information being handed to us.
Along these lines I also found ebay transactions relating to the http://myworld.ebay.com/theatavist which I have found out through Evan is not actually his account. Look forward to restraining orders taken out against me from unsuspecting ebay users.
Around this time I got in touch with a long haul trucking school. If I were working for law enforcement I would have contacted local agencies, so I knew I needed someone who had a similarly long reach. They had contacts on every route across the country and could get me in contact with people looking to make a cut of the prize money who could tag Evan in just about every city. This contact didn't end up being utilized although it was in place just in case. I felt this was how Devitry and I would tag him outside of Pa (Dave) and NY (me).
At this time @socillion began offering hunters who had declared they were not Evan an IRC to communicate in. This proved extremely useful so we could gauge the skill set of everyone participating. I recall only a handful of us that stayed in through the entire contest. @evanoffgrid, @socillion, @devitry, @jinatlanta. @mescad, @davetwining and a few others. An interesting thing started happening about 2 days after IRC was established, that of severe paranoia. Dave Devitry and I spent equally as long analyzing locations and things the other hunters said as we were on Evan. Clearly, others were too. Socilion began kicking "suspected liars" out of his IRC and a number of us were communicating through even more secret methods. Things like tipoffs to locations we were staking out were being sent to Evan and publicized on twitter, which indicated people working against Evan being found. There was a second IRC added we jokingly called the "Thooper Thecret Chat, for hunting Evan's" Where we mostly discussed suspicions of other hunters and user names.
Our suspicions were right after Dave Twining's attempt to stake out a local Barnes and Noble failed by being outed in the now public email and online. It would appear Evan was already way out of Vegas by then. I would have been sad to see the search end so early, on the other hand to see Dave Twining win after taking the initiative to drive all that way would be spectacular.
I had also spoken with a number of people at the car dealership in Vegas and had gotten someone to search Evan's car for clues but couldn't actually locate it. He got suspicious at that point and was spooked out of helping. There was an issue with the VIN that took me too long to clear up and I lost the window in searching it. I think I probably transcribed it wrong off the check, my error killed my chances.
I had contacted Amber Unicorn Books in Las Vegas (and many, many others) based on proximity to the car dealer and trader joes. They were confident that before the contest started Evan had shopped there. This was the first thing that lined up with the sale of the Civic prior to the actual contest start date. The bookstore was a family owned mom and pop place who said "this was the most exciting thing they have ever been involved in." Considering they are in Las Vegas, that is quite a statement. They don't carry the Kidder book but we had discussed my buying it at Borders nearby (via credit card) and having them go pick it up to display in their shop window to entice you in if you were still there. I nixed the idea when Evan was clearly long out of Vegas by then.
I began getting frustrated with the leads. There were so many people searching it was making it more difficult rather than easy. Too many people destroying leads (accidentally or on purpose) made it hard to get a sense of where Evan had been. Employees of establishments Evan may have had contact with were also frustrated with the amount of contact they were getting and were not being forthcoming.
Had it not been for Jeff Reifman asking for mine (and Devitry's) help on his team I am not sure where I would have gone from here. He shared the Gatz profile he had been keeping his eye on. I shared my previous experience and again seemed to be the only person using non technical methods to track. The night before Evan was caught I called over 50 lower end hotels near Naked Pizza, and Naked Pizza themselves. Jeff made contact with them via email and became the primary contact for them. I had some hilarious discussions with overnight staff at these hotels. None provided information regarding Evan's whereabouts, though almost all took down my information and stated if a "white man with that face walked in, they would remember." They relayed to me entertaining stories regarding the appearance and guests of their clients and how they knew they were not Evan.
Then of course, Evan was caught. The rest is history. I had a ball in my involvement and hope to keep in touch with the other hunters I spent many a late night speaking with. Their individual personal stories were as interesting to me as the actual hunt. It was a group represented by every imaginable skill set and profession from all over the country.
Thanks for the opportunity!
Sarah Manello
Chief Pickle @menacingpickle
Organization: Click Start, Inc.
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2009 02:14:34 -0400
Subject: my tracker story
Hi Nick (and Evan),
Thanks again for the contest!
Here's my story. Maybe all I ever saw were Evan look-alikes, but it was a lot of fun tracking Evan.
My story begins after I spent what must have felt like months (to them!) telling my gf and friends about the contest and promising them that Evan would come to Atlanta.
~~~
"Evan Ratliff will arrive in Atlanta in 5 minutes."
I had to read it twice to be sure, then I flew out the door. Within minutes, I was speeding toward the airport.
On the way, I called my girlfriend to postpone our date and to ask if she could keep an eye on wired.com/vanish. Since she didn't use twitter, I also sent a text to my friends Shane and Bucky and asked them to follow @vanish.
I arrived at the airport by 9:45–five minutes after the flight was scheduled to arrive. If only the flight had been on time instead of 30 minutes early! Running through the parking deck and into baggage claim, I decided that my best chance was the MARTA station. MARTA trains leave the airport about every 20 minutes, so it seemed possible that you were still waiting in the train. As much as I wanted to keep running, I slowed to a fast walk/jog, like an excited child at a swimming pool.
I made it through MARTA and sprinted up the escalator. YES! The train was still there! I started in the closest train car. Let's see: white. mid thirties but younger looking. Black, blond, or possibly no hair (I suspected that you'd cut it short). Maybe a hat, glasses, or goatee. Blue or brown eyes. One bag at most. Definitely ALONE. I was really counting on that one. No one remotely fit the profile in the first car. No problem. That just means you'll be easier to find in car #2!
Car 2: nothing. Cars 3, 4, 5, 6, 7....D@mn. No one that looks remotely like any of your pictures, at least no white males traveling alone that look like you. For a second, an older black woman was a close call, but I think that was just hope. After the third or fourth car, I realized that walking through each car and glaring at the passengers wasn't going over so well. Especially wearing a t-shirt with a skull on it. Obviously not a cop. Probably a mugger?
The first car is a -long- way from the stairs, so it's always empty. I saw one shape in the car, but I was at the end of the train. You never know when the train is gonna leave the station, so I made a run for it. I could see people staring out of the windows as I ran past, their faces a mix of relief that I wasn't going to rob them and morbid curiosity about my victim. Or maybe I really was a cop? Deep, deep undercover.
I made it to the first car before the doors started closing. It was just a guy. Not you. At least, I don't think it was you. I was glad I didn't get trapped in the train. I really wanted to search the airport.
I left the MARTA and checked baggage claim again. The tip came through while you were on the plane. Assuming you didn't post the tip yourself, I doubted you knew about it. I scanned the people at baggage claim, and there was one "Evanish" looking guy. He looked more like bc Evan than ad Evan (before contest/after disappearance). He also had a bag from a local company (TSYS). As much as I respected your skills, I didn't think you'd be able to find fake luggage. This Evan was also with a woman. I must have stared at him too long, because he subtly pointed me out to her and he seemed to nervous. Lesson learned: don't stare at people in the airport for more than 2 minutes. If you're sweaty, wild eyed from too much caffeine, and dressed like the devil, you only get 10 seconds, max.
There was a slim chance you might be eating in the terminal, especially since it was Sunday and Chick-fil-a was closed. I checked all of the restaurants, chairs, and fast food areas. Nothing. The south (Delta) and north (everyone else) taxi areas were also strike outs. But, you -were- here! That was something. It was still fun.
It took about 20 minutes to find my car. I had no idea what level I parked on, and I was surprised it was even in a parking space. While I searched, I called my girlfriend to see if there was any new info on the site, and I sent some texts to my friends. No news. I posted a comment to the Atlanta tip on the vanished page:
"evan, you got lucky your plane was 1/2 hour early! see you at chick-fil-a tomorrow."
The next day, the big news was your taunt about Jalisco's and CFA on West Paces. New plan! Taunt you back! I added a comment:
"There is a CFA -near- west paces ferry at 3419 northside parkway. 404-261-9166. Hard to reach by public transit, though. How about the one by Dragon*Con, Evan? You should try a new one!"
If it's possible, I love CFA as much as you do. I even did some work for them a long time ago, and I obviously still like to brag about it! I already knew that there were CFAs @ Peachtree Center in the heart of Dragon*Con, @ P'tree and 14th, @ P'tree and Collier, and of course @ West Paces. I doubted you would really try P'tree Center. It's really crowded, and it's not the same atmosphere as a typical CFA. W Paces seemed too far: how would you get there? And, it was reportedly staked out. I asked Kelly to check Collier, and I headed to 14th.
I even sent a text to your recently-revealed phone number:
"welcome back to atl! i think cfa is on northside, not w paces. how bout one by pied park @ 4th? bout noon? lol"
Evan taunting is FUN!
Kelly reached the CFA @ Collier around 11:30, and it was packed. She reported that two guys, one a very trendy and handsome Evan, were mixed in with about 50 other people. Everyone wanted their free sandwich. She decided that trendy Evan wasn't you because he was with someone else. We assumed you'd be alone. You couldn't contact friends, and how could you have met someone so quickly? Kelly thinks trendy Evan was a hunter. Don't worry: she definitely think trendy/handsome Evan could have been been you if he'd been alone!
Meanwhile, I was at the CFA @ 14th. I knew this CFA was closed, and it was a perfect stakeout. You can't tell it's closed until you get within 10 feet of the door. if you showed up, I had you! I watched for about an hour, but no Evans.
I really thought you'd go jogging at Piedmont Park. I found a shady and relatively hidden spot, adjusted my binoculars, and started searching. I spotted three potentials: short shorts Evan, volleyball Evan, and soccer Evan. No ultimate frisbee Evans. Short shorts Evan was nowhere near a match up close. Unlike the airport Evans, he didn't seem to mind me staring at him, though. Volleyball Evan was a girl with short hair (sorry), and soccer Evan was too short and spoke Spanish. Not a match. The park was great, and I didn't know they'd finished the renovations. I'm looking forward to going back.
Monday afternoon. I checked coffee shops on Ponce, in Little Five Points, and in Virginia-Highland. Nothing. Nick posted the challenge solution "Attend a book reading," so I spent an hour searching online for book readings. I couldn't find any scheduled, but I did find an interesting session at Dragon*Con about Digital Forensics and Anti-Forensics. Right up your alley! Time for another stake out! I met up with my friend Bucky, who said I could use his wife's conference badge. There was only one problem: the badge name. Did I want to pretend to be "Saucy Temptress" for a few hours? H3ll, yes! Just bring the pass. It was time for some karmic staring payback.
We didn't see any Evans go into the session, not even a last minute Evans trying to sneak in. Hold on, though. There's an Evan!!! About 5' 11". Looks like a runner. In fact, he's wearing running shoes! And, he's ALONE!
I watch gotta-be-him Evan walk into the hotel bar. He's the only customer, and he orders a drink. Nope, not a beer! Maybe a vodka tonic? I didn't think you were a 2pm drinker, but that's OK. I didn't think you'd be wearing a kilt and have blue hair, either. Great disguise!
You look quick with those running shoes, so I leave Bucky to lock down the perimeter in case you make a run for it. As casually as you can enter a bar with one customer, I walk behind you and try to verify your height, weight, and drink selection and to see if you're watching soccer on TV. I'm too busy sizing you up to see the waiter approaching me. When he asks if I'd like a table, all I can respond with is, "Are you open?" Not too smooth. Unless Ian MacEvan is drinking on the job, the bar must be open.
All right, I can't be too hard on myself. Even Magnum made mistakes. I smooth things over with the waiter, hope you don't rabbit, and gather up Bucky. "It's HIM! I think. Maybe. Let's move it." This time, there's no sneaking. Bucky is bouncer sized. As soon as you see us walking toward you, I see fear. I grab a seat beside you and order a Jack and Coke. Bucky gets his usual: Vodka and Red Bull. It's not unusual for us to drink at 2. Might as well mix business with some pleasure. It takes a few minutes, but the strangeness of three people huddled together in a 100-person-sized bar, silently drinking, leads to some small talk. I think you said, "Are you drinking Ripple?" Seeing a perfect opening, I casually respond with, "Where are you from?" OK, it was more like, "Where are YOU from!" with a strongly implied "EVAN!!!" at the end. I thought for a second you were going to fall off your chair. Didn't expect me to see through that disguise, did you? That's when I saw it. A wedding ring. Uh oh. Evan's not married. I've just confronted the wrong guy! During my confusion, you managed to stop shaking and leave. No fluke.
I had one last idea: make you come to me! your challenge was to attend a book reading. There weren't any schedule for Dragon*Con or anywhere in Atlanta, so I decided to schedule one. I quickly created a fake gmail account and posted a fake book reading on Craigslist:
Book Reading: Fans of Hollis!
We are holding a fan book reading on Labor Day, Sept 7, for Hollis Gillespie, author of "Trailer Trashed," "Confessions of a Recovering Sl_t," and "Bleachy-Haired Honky B1tch." Hollis loves the Local – you might get to see her in person! Characters from her books will probably be in attendance. Don't miss it! 9:30 @ The Local - 758 Ponce De Leon Ave.
Perfect! Hollis has been known to hang out at the Local, and she'd probably hold a real book reading there. The Local doesn't have a website, so you can't confirm the posting online. If you try to call, the bartenders will probably tell you it's true just as a joke. Even better: between me, Bucky, and Shane, we know everyone at the local. No matter what your disguise, we'll catch you! I can't wait until 9:30.
Kelly and I grab a seat outside around 8:45, order some food and drinks, and wait. Shane arrives around 9:15 – he doesn't want to miss the capture. Bucky is still a little shell shocked about our afternoon stakeout, and he thinks the fake book reading might be illegal. I hope not. He decided to check in throughout the night through text.
Shane and I have been to the Local at least 200 times, and we've never seen anyone with a computer. Tonight, there's a guy playing speed poker on a Mac (does Evan have a gambling problem?) and two guys drinking tall boys with a netbook constantly searching the web and checking email. We've never seen any of them, but they aren't Evan.
9:30.
No Evan, but one of the Bud drinkers hits the bar. When he comes back, I overhear him tell the other guy, "He said it'd start around 9:30." Looks like I've attracted some fellow trackers! We order another round.
9:35.
Still no Evan, but he's probably playing it safe.
9:45.
After a false alarm (the local has a BACK DOOR!), we start to admit the plan didn't work. One more drink?
10:15.
OK. Last drink. For Evan!
1:00.
Woo hoo! We should go out on Mondays more often!
Well after noon the next day.....
According to twitter, you were just caught in New Orleans. I don't know how you got there so fast! It looks like you've lost the blue hair, but you still have the wedding ring. No word on the kilt.
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 2009 09:46:45 -0500
Subject: Favorite moments
Just some notes on my favorite parts. The overall thrill of the chase probably has to be my favorite. My ruse of Operation Bookstore is something I'm proud of, even though it didn't work. Or did it?
I think the thrill of finding out ways to track someone. Using known email addys to see if that account was used to open a twitter account etc. The contest gave me a chance to be a detective for more than the time allotment of a TV drama. I've thought I would be a good detective and wouldn't mind pursuing. I don't see that as an option, even a far-fetched fantasy.
Some notes on my favorite moments:
Getting the Fed Ex info about where the packages were delivered and where Evan dropped them off. I was chatting with Menancing Pickle on IRC late at night and she mentioned some information about the packages I hadn't seen. She told me she simply called up Fed Ex customer service with the tracking numbers, She would then DM me the info she got and I would ask more questions and she would say I didn't ask that, let me call them back. I asked her about pretexting and she said no. Only once did they ask her name and the CSR said "Hi Sarah! How can I help you.'
It became annoying when people would still mention the Fed Ex clue, after I had published the solution, with wrong information or guesses about where the packages went. The frustration of crowd sourcing during a manhunt.
Before getting the information about Fed Ex from MenancingPickle, I had pieced together information from Evan's work history, International Reporting Project, and discovered they were based in Washington, D.C. I was waiting for the next day for the IRP to open up and ask about a package when I started conversing with Sarah and her calls to Fed Ex.
The video on Venice beach!!! Especially when it was realized amazing amanda wasn't involved. That was great. It really gave credibility to www.trackevan.com. Plus, we got to see his new disguise.
Dave going on a road trip to Vegas for the bookstore on Decatur.
My ruse about contacting the ABA. Someone, via IRC chat, was annoyed at first that I told the world about this. Then when I explained that it was meant to drive Evan away from his usual habit of going to an indie bookstore, thus hopefully narrowing his options, they understood my strategy and liked it. I told no one that Operation Bookstore was fake until after Evan rubbed our faces in it by telling us he bought the book at an ABA store. It seemed odd that no one questioned me directly whether or not it was a ruse. They probably did privately as suspicion of others was always high since the mole was discovered.
Solving the book clue puzzle collaboratively in a matter of minutes. I only contributed a little, right off the bat I recognized HST as Hunter S Thompson. Once that was out there, people picked up on author/book clues and it was solved.
Setting up my blog. I wish I would have installed the tracking stats earlier. I was relying on Google Analytics, which was generic and didn't give me IP address. Or I didn't know how to find them in GA. I didn't know about free tracking stats. I got the idea of setting up a site from the original article on Sheppard with the PI using a web site to trap IPs. I should have done some research to make this more effective as I'm a novice at web site building and tracking. Google Analytics just wasn't going to do it. I lost interest in my site as a tool for trapping IPs when it seemed that TOR was unbreakable. Now I want to go back and look at the logs for Safari 3.2 on a Mac. Or did he use other browsers and OSes? I'll go back and look at city and dates of his travels once they are published.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Peace, Love and Rock n' Roll
Clark
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 2009 13:43:56 -0400
Subject: The Georgia Tech Team
My name is Colin Ake, and this is the story of how we tried to catch Evan Ratliff.
About 8 days into the contest, I saw @stammy - a local blogger and friend - tweet about the contest. I had just received Wired the previous day but hadn't had time to read the magazine yet. We immediately jumped in, formed a Google group, and I began recruiting people. I started at work and recruited several people from a group we refer to internally as the Phoenix Foundation to join the team. This included Drew, and for the next few days Drew and I met over lunch with the rest of the Phoenix Foundation and ran over the clues again and again trying to gain insight into Evan's disappearance. We figured that he was from Atlanta and if he was doing a cross-country trip, he'd have to drop by for at least a little bit.
We had several tactics. We wanted to find Evan, we wanted to have the ability to confuse others finding Evan, and we wanted to get Evan's unTOR'd IPs. We immediately installed TOR on our own machines, found a paper on cracking TOR by setting up a relay server and seeing TONS of incoming and outgoing traffic (http://www.csnc.ch/misc/files/publications/the_onion_router_v1.1.pdf ), and created two identities - Marcus Wieland (interested in finding Evan and based out of New York) and Angie Yazmin (wanting to help Evan remain on the loose and based out of LA). We wanted to divert all attention away from Atlanta so Evan would feel safer coming here. Unfortunately we didn't have the resources to set up a TOR tarball. About this time we added a friend from San Francisco to the team as well as some coders also based out of Georgia Tech. We began scraping all data out of the Twitter feed and IRC channel under multiple personalities and analyzing it. We investigated things like Shockwave and Flash that could be used to pull a user's real IP even if they had traffic TOR'd and began to discuss how to deliver information using these plugins so we had everybody's real IP addresses.
We began to focus on Evan's servers. His domain name WHOIS information had been updated with fake phone numbers so we figured it'd at least make the game more interesting and requested that the domains be shut down for registering with fake information - unfortunately ICANN doesn't immediately respond and gives the offender 45 days to resolve, so Evan should have time to remedy this situation before he gets shut down. We also determined we couldn't crack the machines as that'd be crossing the line into dubious behavior so we stayed away from that route. That said, Evan should definitely update his WHOIS info or they'll pull his domains :)
We began to focus on obtaining information that nobody else had access to. That meant we began to develop a website and facebook apps for both sides - focusing on catching and helping Evan - in an attempt to grab as much IP information as possible and lure Evan's false identity into giving us data - and an upper hand - on those that didn't have the assets we did. About this time I compromised our Angie Yazmin personality by clicking a link DM'd to its Twitter account while not TOR'd. We also reached out to the trackEvan team, but they were not interested in sharing who they were or collaborating.
Drew scoured the books in the book list clue - identifying cities, alcoholism, roadtrips, motorcycles, and other such things - he even tried an anagram of all the letters in the clue, but that revealed nothing.
We identified where Evan used to live in Atlanta and marked it as a spot to potentially check out... but didn't.
We created posters with Evan's picture, labeling him "mentally challenged" and asking people to call a number - but we couldn't obtain a Google Voice number fast enough and didn't want to pay for an 800 number. Didn't follow through though, and no posters went up.
Drew identified the two best soccer bars in Atlanta - and checked the Fulham schedule against the Red Sox schedule - both EPL games matched up perfectly with Red Sox games and would be great doubleheaders for someone looking to burn time on the run.
We got an app half-built but about that time VanishTeam launched their app and we abandoned that route. At that point we abandoned the route of building an app for those helping Evan Vanish. It was incredibly hard to gain trust among that crowd. It's a lot of work to cover your tracks, have a presence online, and stay in one location. We didn't go through the cost of privately registering domain names and decided to abandon the website route as it most likely wouldn't give us Evan's IP. The Facebook App idea is brilliant as it pulls in EVERYTHING related to its users.
We began to discuss how to create multiple fake personalities that could be though of as Evan - disseminating contradicting and false information and whatnot trying to confuse other people following Evan, and hopefully at the same time give us something to gain credibility with those helping Evan remain on the run.
About this time I got incredibly busy on an event I was hosting in Atlanta - Ignite Atlanta - and had to go heads down on the details of that event and abandon the search. Most of our team stopped
Three days after the event (Was still following Nick on Twitter), I saw that Evan was in Atlanta and sent it out to our entire team. No Fulham games that day, so we didn't focus on soccer bars. Drew was sick in bed, others were busy, and on labor day I was out of town with the girlfriend... or I'd have gone to my local Chick-Fil-A to look for Evan. Where do I live? At the end of Collier road. Where did Evan go? My Chick-Fil-A. Damnit. (Clarification - did he go to Collier/Peachtree or Collier/Howell Mill? I'd have likely gone to both but live closer to the Howell Mill side of town).
Good game - wish we had caught him and wish he'd been in Atlanta more. The bottom line is that better coordination and on-the-ground footwork could have led us to Evan, but we didn't follow through on enough things.
The GT Team
Colin Ake - @colinake
Paul Stamatiou - @stammy
Drew
Thomas - @tbranch227
Michael Mealling - @mmealling
Cooper
Daniel
Nicholas
Supported by the Phoenix Foundation
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2009 19:30:24 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Hey, I hunted and cyber-stalked you, too! (Did I really just say that?)
Evan,
Frankly, I'm still trying to figure out why I got SO into this game! It was totally addictive. For me it was partly because of the local SF angle, but obviously there were other factors such as sheer escapism, team interaction, new technologies, good v. evil, gluten v. wheat, wine v. beer, etc., that hooked me into this challenge.
I think something about your Vanish disappearance tapped into our collective frustrations (economic/political, etc.), and offered an entertaining and welcome distraction. My employer, for instance, is forcing an unpopular and unfair furlough plan/salary cut onto a portion of its employees, which has been disheartening of late. While it's surely no reason for me to jump into a river and fake my own death(!), there's obviously a part of me that would like to simply start anew. I also realized along the way in the hunt that perhaps I didn't want you to get caught, because the story of your journey was the real point/prize here, and it shouldn't be cut short.
I had emailed my contributions to the chase to Nick earlier and got a free Wired subscription (woot!). The basic highlights of my short-lived #vanish hunting career are:
-I searched Nick's Twitter followers and brought @runningratliff's posts to the attention of @Socillion's inner IRC chat group of hunters. Specifically we focused on the 2323 Borders post, and looked at Vegas bookstores other than Borders in that neighborhood. There was a Run Evan Run mole in that session, though, so I quit interacting with Socillion in that arena, and doubted his motives until the end.
-I also helped to solve some of the puzzle clues with Teeuwyn and Co. online as they were happening. I thought several times I was really onto something, like when I feverishly turned @dusty_wireworm's ## puzzle into IP addresses which meant, uh, nothing?
-I also "covered" the SF wedding that you missed, by using twitterlocal and nearbytweets.com to monitor tweets within a 1-mile radius of the Dogpatch area that Friday night (party) and SOMA area Saturday (wedding). I was hoping to intercept some drunken chatter about your location. All I got were two twitpics, one from each event. I reposted them on #vanish.
-Towards the end, I spoke with Jeff from Vanish Team and helped him mildly with a little legwork (checking out your Google searches to see if the NYC Brooklyn addresses were potential sublets). I also advised him to not overshare his secrets to anyone unless he saw the value in their assistance (myself included).
Overall, I really enjoyed this game. I "met" some very interesting folks online and was amazed at how well we worked together at times towards the same goal. I learned to master Twitter in new ways and now find it a fascinating tool for finding out what's happening right now both locally and globally.
Personally, I'm the opposite of Vanish. As my friends know, I post my location frequently with Loopt, and encourage them to join me for a pint! I think location-awareness software is really keen, but many of my friends and family don't, fearing privacy issues. Phooey! I'm planning live GPS team hide and seek games in SF this Fall and the winners get free beer! :-)
FYI: I just got a ticket to the Pop-Up Mag show this month, because it sounds cool! (I am not, uh, still hunting you.) @labfly and I tried to find out more info about Doug McGray when his name surfaced, and that's when I checked out the Pop-Up gig. I'm looking forward to it.
Cheers, Matty (aka @mattysf1)
Matthew Gilreath
Date: Wed, Sep 9, 2009 at 10:10 PM
Subject: Vanish Chronology
Attached is my log with favorite moments indicated.
CHRONOLOGY OF KEY POINTS
* favorite moments
8/18 – discovered VANISH via Mike Selinker's FB page
8/18 – joined the FB group "The Search for Evan Ratliff"
8/18 – I emailed Evan Ratliff directly, offering my help and support in staying hidden
* 8/18-8/21 – inspiration for a FB countergroup to support Evan and make things more challenging and fun for all
* 8/19 – Evan replied to my e-mail, saying "Thanks but I trust no one."
8/21 – suggested countergroup to Mike; he encourage me to start one, and I did so
8/21 – Mike agreed to place a reference to my group on his FB page, resulting in an immediate response of interested persons requesting to join (set as restricted membership for clandestine effect and to differentiate my group from the original open one
8/21 – Set up first Twitter account @pbemaddy
8/21 – 9/8 – sequence of Tweets by @pbemaddy, designed variously to divert & taunt hunters, or to inform & encourage Evan and the RunEvanRun team
* 8/22 – surprised and delighted to find article re: RunEvanRun FB group on blog and subsequently (unsure of exact date) referenced in Wikipedia article re: Evan Ratliff
8/22 – linked up with JJMcElroy, an active fellow supporter of Evan
* 8/25 - surprised to receive e-mail direct from Evan "do you still want to help me?" asking me to secure password to the IRC chat re: Evan search
* 8/25 – e-mail inquiry received from Ki Mae Heussner, abcnews.com, requesting phone interview re: my FB group (unsuccessful in connecting with her due to timing; article posted online the next day with reference only to the "Find..." hunters FB group)
* 8/29 – created FB event page for online "VICTORY Celebration for EDR on 9/16" (day after Evan would have completed his full 30 days)
8/29 – misinterpreted wired.com "Mole" article as a veiled message to me from Evan
8/30 – 9/16 – English & Spanish palindrome tweets by @palindromer (2nd acct) to amuse & confuse
8/31 – ran (unsuccessful) Tweet campaign by @pbemaddy & @gardevanjel (3rd acct) to contrive red herring Evan R&R visit to Cincinnati (due to above 8/29 misinterpretation
9/6 – established "Confidential Corner" discussion topic in FB group to provide place for clues or secret observations – designed to spur lagging interest in the group (almost all posts in the group were mine by this point)
9/6 – undercover infiltration of Twitter search forces, posing as a new hunter @lee_roy09 (4th acct)
* 9/6 – surprised by Evan recontacting me via double blind e-mails, requesting info on /access to the Confidential Corner
* 9/6 – success by @lee_roy09 in securing access code for protected IRC
* 9/6 – passed on IRC access info to Evan via secret e-mail link
* 9/6 – 9/8 – exchange of e-mails with Evan through secret address revealed only to me
9/8 – suggested to Nick Thompson and he agreed for me to offer daily challenges parallel with Evans to members of my FB group (not implemented due to early end of game)
9/8 – Evan nabbed in New Orleans while I was AFK, and hunt/game comes to an end
* 9/8 EDR's email of appreciation and affirmation for my efforts in supporting and assisting him during his exile
9/9 – sent closure messages to mescad/FindEvan, RunEvanRun FB group members, EDR, JJMcC
9/9 – if I could have done anything differently, I would have started playing and the countergroup earlier (missed nearly a week), and along with all the pro-Evan efforts would have also run a hunter alias from early on, with goal of infiltrating inner circle and thereby tipping off Evan before his capture. I am proud, however, of all that I and my cohorts did do to support Evan, believing we made a significant impact on the game by assuming a place others would have needed to do if we hadn't
Date: Tue, Sep 22, 2009 at 2:04 PM
Subject: Looking for AncestralManor, vis a vis the recent hunt for me, Evan Ratliff
I really did not have the bandwidth to follow this in the first place but I have a colleague who got the Wired issue in the mail and called me to say I ought to follow it.
I got hooked on it because there was so much that was being missed. I was dying to put a stake in the ground and go back to the beginning.
In the end, what solves the real cases is exactly what happened to you.
Reifman got the scent, saw the big picture, developed a strategy and drove the team. Beautifully executed Command, Control and Communications!
I did feel uncomfortable with the privacy issues, concerned that ethical issues could get out of hand or that some fruit cake would pull something nasty. So I am pretty relieved by the humor of you being snagged by the Naked Pizza folks.
I can't imagine that it wasn't jarring. It must have compounded the confusion with taking on a new id then suddenly being unmasked. But what a great group to be caught by.
Despite so many cooks in the kitchen, and so many layers to the game plan and counter plans, there's some reality even in that.
James Earl Ray apparently did some pretty bizarre things like sending his photos out to lonely hearts clubs, taking dance lessons and so on in his new identity before he shot King, but there was still a uniformity in his MO, a fabric to his threads.
Ray did seem to have thought a little rhinoplasty would make him unrecognizable, but as Rambam noted it doesn't matter what the guy looks like when the trail takes you to a certain spot. Sure turned out to be true for you too.
[ER: continued in later email conversation:]
Most of my posts were geared towards trying to get the hunters to think through the whole thing, as well as warn you that there might be some just quietly doing the leg work. I never would have guessed that Reifman was the guy doing that.
I was trying to get people to think in terms of bounding the problem and not conjecturing into outer space. At one point I said something about hunters having to box you in so it is also humorous to see you with a pizza box.
I was also trying to figure out who was behind the shills. In general I wanted the game to be more interesting and educational.
It never occurred to me that others might think I was you, but I did think it was odd that Nick specifically said that you said you were not AncestralManor so that explains that.
When the palindrome/coded flight puzzle dragged on for days, I thought there wasn't a prayer of getting any direction, so it was pretty cool to see Reifman pull out of the field like a thoroughbred turning on the power as the game neared the finish.
The way others were approaching many clue themes would have taken a neural net artificial intelligence team and a few years - and still produced no results. Reifman did the Occam's Razor route with common sense, intellectual muscle, persuasion and persistence. Just elegant. Tho I do wonder if he didn't have doubts and high anxiety along the way.
I frankly don't think that you could have been caught without the approach he used unless there was broader publicity and more people on the street buzzing about it. But one thing that definitely worked in your favor was the piecemeal release of what info Nick had. A brute force approach would be to organize everything Nick had or others found into time lines and begin sorting the real clues from the miscues by getting different people to work on parts of the problem.
I have been an email list moderator in several forums for more than a decade and have seen the issue of people collaborating and communicating online for some time.
I think it may be a depth of field issue - most people deal in concrete rather than abstract patterns. There seems to be a real barrier at about 3 levels of conceptual organization biased by a beginning frame of reference. No scientific proof of that - just an accumulation of personal observation and work.
Vonnegut said that everybody looks at the world through their own keyhole in Deadeye Dick so that's what I think of as the simple answer.
Good luck on returning to real life :)
Sharon
Date: Friday, September 18, 2009
Subject: Vanish Contest
I learned of the hunt for Evan Ratliff through Wired's Facebook page late in the afternoon on Friday, August 21. Intrigued and immediately hooked, I enclosed a link to the contest rules in the nightly company-wide email I send out each evening as an assistant producer at Optimus, a post-production company in Chicago. This email is CC'd to our smaller office in Santa Monica, where Evan – or at least his credit card – had been recently.
I left work that evening, went home and read everything I could possibly find about Evan Ratliff and his disappearance. The next morning, I signed up for a new Twitter account: @SearchForEvan.
From the beginning, I thought the chances of someone capturing Evan were slim to none. I knew the chances of capturing him myself were even smaller. But as days went by without even being able to pin him to a time zone, I decided to take a shot on places he might visit if he came to Chicago. After all, I live in exactly the kind of metropolitan area it seemed Evan would like.
My first conversation with a total stranger about this contest happened with an employee of After-Words Books, a large used bookstore downtown. I gave her a copy of the rules along with Evan's mug shot, and she said they'd be on the lookout.
I arrived home from After-Words shortly before the Las Vegas Borders "clue" was discovered on the IRC channel that evening. @mattysf1 brought to our attention @runningratliff, a Twitter user who was following a small, select group of early hunters and posting cryptic messages, but without the #vanish tag. @runningratliff's latest post read "2323Borders".
A Google search yielded the obvious result: a Borders franchise at 2323 S Decatur Blvd. in Las Vegas. Even with nagging doubts about Evan being so careless as to post such a blatant clue, we decided to dig in anyway.
From what we knew of Evan, it seemed unlike him to plan ahead to purchase the book at a large chain store, so we looked at nearby options. Along with a used bookstore I had noticed in the Borders shopping center, @menacingpickle found Amber Unicorn Books, another shop on S Decatur adjacent to a Trader Joe's. With Nick Thompson's supposed clue about Evan reading the book with Two Buck Chuck in hand, we decided that if @runningratliff were the real deal, this would be exactly where Evan would go in Las Vegas.
And then @davetwining made the decision to drive from San Diego through the night to alert and stake out Borders and Amber Unicorn Books. He sent his phone number to @AtavistTracker and asked to be kept updated.
The following morning I took a quick break at work to check in on the Vanish blog for possible news about a nabbing in Vegas. Instead, Nick had posted an email that had been sent to Evan from runningratliff @ yahoo.com, alerting him of Dave's plans.
Buried at work, @AtavistTracker DM'd me Dave's number that afternoon and asked me to call to check in. Dave had no luck at any of the Vegas stores, and had only just heard about the tip-off. Borders had four copies of the book that they would keep an eye on, and both used bookstores had no knowledge of the release at all. Trader Joe's said they'd be on the lookout.
That evening, someone brought information to the IRC room that Amber Unicorn Books had identified Evan from a trip he had taken there a month previously. They said he was looking for books about "some kind of stomach thing" (Celiac disease, we assumed) and that they noticed a very slight southern accent. He told them he was originally from Atlanta and commented that not many people noticed his accent. (I'd like to know if that was really Evan!)
Two nights after the breach, @socillion set up a second, very secret IRC channel. This served as a great discussion forum for the remainder of the hunt. I was working particularly long hours at this point, so I would check Twitter at the office whenever I had a moment, and arrive home around midnight to catch up on the day and chat for another couple of hours. Needless to say, I was a little bit obsessed – and a lot sleep-deprived.
Sunday, August 30, Fulham was scheduled to play Aston Villa. A little after 7pm that evening, still having no idea at all where Evan was, I started calling all the soccer bars I could find in Chicago. Upon calling Small Bar in Wicker Park, the hostess yelled a greeting to me over the din of what sounded like a very rowdy crowd. She said that they were indeed showing the Fulham game – and that there were a number of people there drinking red wine.
It wasn't much of a lead, but as I had no plans for the evening and they seemed to be the only bar in the whole city showing the game, I hopped on a bus and rode to a section of Wicker Park I'd never visited before.
Busses in Chicago, by default, run notoriously late. So by the time I arrived at Small Bar, they had flipped over to the Bears game. Just to cover my bases, I meandered around anyway. A couple guys looked like possible Evans from a distance – but both were drinking beer. So I decided to wander the area. There are quite a few bars on this stretch of Division Street, and all of them, unfortunately, were showing Sunday Night Football.
Six blocks later, I happened upon a small pizzeria with just a few tables and a big-screen TV – showing soccer! Two men were sitting at one – neither Evan. My eyes scanned the menu board above the register: no gluten-free crust. The game that was on wasn't Fulham-Aston Villa, either. I approached a man sitting at the table in front of the TV and asked him about the Fulham game, which he told me had just ended.
The following Monday, the first of three days I had serendipitously scheduled off work months previously, I was able to help search through all the Spot Adventures accounts for possible users that could be Evan. This was the most tedious thing I did over the course of the hunt. (I'd love to know if we missed something…) That same evening – the solving of @Riot_Sage's cryptic message, the purchase of the first plane ticket from LAX-SLC-NYC, and the posting of the SometimesDaily video – was, in my opinion, one of the most fun and exciting nights of the whole hunt.
The next afternoon, a fascinating in-depth interview with Steven Rambam was posted. I felt a new surge of enthusiasm (it IS possible to catch Evan!) – with a measure of annoyance. How had he gotten Evan's new phone number? Google Voice account information? And so easily?! It felt like Rambam was taunting the hunters.
So I spent a couple hours early that evening scouring the Google and Skype phonebooks for every possible permutation of Evan, Evans, Donald, Henry, Connor, Warren, and for good measure (because it's what I thought I'd do if I were Evan) Fulham, Landon, and Donovan. My most promising find was Donald R. Fulham of Slidell, LA. No one answered the phone, and the voice on the machine sounded like that of an older woman.
While re-reading the Rambam interview hoping to catch any hint I may have missed, I noticed a new entry in the comments section from Wired user "EvanRatliff" about going for ceviche and Jameson's at his local bar – it had been posted less than 20 minutes previously. As ceviche is scarcely available outside large cities, I decided to do the only thing I could think to do from where I was – start calling places around Chicago, on the off chance that he was here.
As a girl, calling restaurants was very easy: "Hi, I'm supposed to meet someone there tonight and I'm wondering if he's already arrived. But I've never actually met him – he said I'd know him because he'd be at the bar eating ceviche and drinking Jameson's."
I knew I had a limited amount of time. So to my surprise, the second place I called, a funky mariscos establishment in Ukrainian Village, stunned me by responding positively. The conversation went something like:
"…ceviche and Jameson's. Has he arrived yet?"
"Yes."
"…Really? There's a man there, sitting at the bar - right now - eating ceviche and drinking Jameson's?"
"Yes."
"He's sitting alone, and he's kind of tall with dark hair?!"
He started to sound annoyed. "Yes."
"Eating ceviche and drinking Jameson's?!?"
As if his previous answers hadn't been obvious enough, he managed one final agitated "Yes."
"Please don't tell him I'm on my way," I replied, "I want to surprise him. Thank you!"
@Mescad was the only one left in IRC, so I excitedly told him my findings and left my phone number with the instruction to call if anything happened. (Something I never thought I would do: give out my phone number on the Internet to people I'd never actually met.)
I ran down the street and hailed a cab – not worth taking a chance on the bus running late again. My eyes scanned the sidewalks as we neared the restaurant: I didn't want to miss him on his way out.
By the time I arrived, there weren't many people left inside, and there was no one left at the bar. The host offered me seating as I entered, which I politely turned down for more pressing matters:
"I'm meeting someone – the man who was just here. Was there a man here just now? At the bar?"
He nodded.
"Really?" I said, my heart beating a million miles a minute – I had just missed him! "He was here alone, kind of tall with dark hair, and he was eating ceviche and drinking Jameson's. I just called looking for him. Was he here?"
The man just looked at me. "Yes," he said. He paused for a moment – then he picked up a menu and handed it to me.
"No," I was confused… "I am looking for the man who was just here."
His expression turned a bit sheepish, and he looked just as confused as me. At that moment, a server approached us. "Can I help you?"
I explained my situation.
"Oh, you're looking for someone? We didn't have anyone here tonight by that description."
My heart sunk. "No?"
The server walked over to talk to the bartender. Apparently, no one had ordered Jameson's at all, all evening. The moral of the story: be sure the person on the other end of the phone speaks English.
Friday, September 4, I flew through Houston to San Antonio for the weekend. I kept my eyes peeled in the airports, as Evan was scheduled to be flying that day. Though his tickets said he'd be departing from LAX or PDX, I assumed he'd be flying from a third, more obscure airport.
As I deboarded the plane to catch my connecting flight in Houston, I noticed a man sitting at a table in the terminal across from my gate – a man with curly, bleached-blond hair that looked startlingly like the photo @TrackEvan had posted that morning. I stood there and studied him for a minute as discretely as I could. Of all the people I had seen over the course of the contest, his appearance was the closest match to the photos I had seen of Evan. He was sitting alone thoughtfully looking around him – just waiting. No phone, no iPod ear buds, no book – which made it very easy to approach him and say, "Hi, are you… Fluke?"
He looked at me like I was crazy. "No..." he said, and smiled.
"Oh. Because you look just like this guy I went to high school with. Sorry!"
I'm sure I looked pretty embarrassed, but I was secretly a little bit proud of myself for actually "fluking" someone.
I arrived back in Chicago late Monday evening of the 7th, catching up on Evan's trip to Salt Lake City, his flight back to Atlanta, and the release of the crossword challenges. @socillion was able to get a copy of the puzzle shortly after it was released, and he, @Mescad and I worked together in the IRC room to solve it and decode Tuesday's challenge.
Shortly after we finished the crossword, the mood in the IRC room switched to something different than it had been the previous evenings. No one was saying much of anything. When I asked him, @socillion confirmed that he knew more than he was letting on. So did @Mescad, @SurelyHolmes, and @JTinatlanta.
Apparently @VanishTeam had new information – very valuable information – that no one else had.
Needless to say, it was a bit annoying to be the only clueless person in a room full of short, cryptic remarks where everything had always been out in the open. So I followed @VanishTeam's instructions to get into his so-called "inner circle."
I received an email with a link to a website which has since been updated and publicized, in which Jeff Reifman described how he identified James Donald Gatz' Facebook account by his similarity to the man who appeared in the Venice Beach video. And how he had traced that to a Twitter account in the name of @jdgatz, and also to a website, bespect.com. There were warnings posted asking everyone to avoid following @jdgatz and the links on his Twitter feed, and to keep away from bespect. Through the Facebook application, @VanishTeam and @socillion were able to pin down Evan's IP address in New Orleans. He had just arrived that evening.
This was the silver bullet, and everyone knew it.
And for a single fleeting moment, I contemplated ruining everything. I knew it was all going to end the next day, and I wasn't quite ready for it to be over. It would have been so easy to send Evan an email from a new, nondescript address, just like the mole that had infiltrated our first IRC room. I'd spent so much time learning about Evan that it felt like I almost knew him as a friend, and part of me wanted him to succeed in his quest for the sake of the dream of running away from it all.
But then, I couldn't be that person. For Jeff to trust me with the information he'd uncovered and all the work he'd put in – I couldn't do that to him. I couldn't do that to the other hunters I'd spent so much time with over the past few weeks. As a hunter, I wanted victory.
So I replied to Jeff's email about New Orleans with a note that I had a friend who lived there who might be interested in helping out. Jeff quickly responded saying he had a "BIG NEW CLUE!!!" and sent his phone number, asking me to call him so he could explain.
He told me that @jdgatz had started following New Orleans Rum Distillery, a New Orleans video production company, and Naked Pizza on Twitter, and that he had sent them all emails with the hope that they would get involved the next day. I told him I'd contact my friend to see if he'd be interested in staking out the pizza place or the distillery tour, or possibly some dive bars or wifi-enabled coffee shops in the area.
Jeff had asked me in his email to post something generic-sounding to Twitter about @VanishTeam being on the right track, but with no hint that he had any inside information. So, I said, "@vanishteam has some good stuff going on!" – meaning "Evan, @VanishTeam knows exactly where you are, so enjoy your last few hours on the lam!"
The next morning I received an email from Jeff titled "Pls, use my twitter fembot" (haha), with username and password information for the fake fembot, in case @jdgatz decided to protect his tweets again and I needed to update my friend in New Orleans about any changes in plan. I kept a browser window minimized on my computer that day with @jdgatz's feed – careful to only refresh the page on occasion but not to follow him. There was only one notable change: @jdgatz started following @theatavist.
I anxiously awaited a reply from my friend in New Orleans – from whom I did not hear back all day.
That afternoon saw a frenzy of quick emails to and from Jeff Reifman and Jeff Leach. Naked Pizza had responded overwhelmingly, and was on board for a city-wide stakeout. Jeff Leach had captured Evan's IP address the night before and again that morning as he checked out Naked Pizza's gluten-free options on their website. The only possible flaw I could see in this plan was Evan noticing that @NAKEDpizza had started following @nxthompson early that day. They unfollowed that afternoon, just in case Evan visited their Twitter again. One email I have from Jeff Reifman at 1:29pm says simply, "Ps they'll get him at the book reading before dinner :)"
Then, just after 6pm in Chicago, to my utter non-surprise, #vanish newcomer @NAKEDpizza announced their victory.
It was the originality and intensity of this contest that most attracted me to it. It was a real-live manhunt for a real live person, and it was happening around the clock for an entire month. There was a variable – a human variable – who, despite being identified by the detailed profile we had created, had the ability to be completely unpredictable. And there was the thrill of the chase – even the small rush in making phone calls or searching Google or talking with other people at places he may have been – that there might be the tiniest hint of a clue waiting to be unearthed at the other end.
Working with the other IRC'ers was especially fun. It was mostly the same group every night, turning over the days' clues and coming up with theories about them.
It was also the dream of escaping. The long hours, the stressful job – I am a little bit jealous of a month-long vacation away from everything. It was fun thinking about where Evan might be – or where I might be if I was in the same situation. That's what prompted me to send the email about the cookies as well as the on-the-run playlist to Evan: a small part of me wished to be in his place, and the rest of me was just captivated. It's not anything I would ever do – as long as the hours can get, I still love my job – but it's fun to think about. One of the things I'm most anxious to read in Evan's article: to what degree was it freeing? And to what degree was it taxing?
So, yet again, I'm impressed with the folks at Wired. On more than one occasion over the course of this contest, I started conversations with random strangers, "Do you read Wired magazine?" (That $5,000 bought a lot of great word-of-mouth PR!)
And not just Wired; I've become a fan of both Evan Ratliff and Nick Thompson through this contest, whose articles and books I'll continue to read for a long time. I'll also keep an eye out for anything Teeuwynn Woodruff and Lone Shark Games do in the future. Can't wait for the December issue of Wired!
Evan Ratliff's Itinerary
August 13 – September 8, 2009
PLAYLIST
SAN FRANCISCO He's Gone - The Grateful Dead
LAS VEGAS? The Summer Wind - Frank Sinatra
POMONA? Frank's Wild Years - Tom Waits
SANTA MONICA Leaving Trunk - Taj Mahal
TOUR... Snowflake Heart - Hermit Thrushes
ARIZONA In California - Neko Case
TEXAS Don't Make Me a Target - Spoon
OKLAHOMA Call Me the Breeze - J.J. Cale
ST. LOUIS Trouble, Heartaches, and Sadness - Ann Peebles
KENTUCKY One Big Holiday - My Morning Jacket
NEW ORLEANS Running Fast - The Meters
TENNESSEE Orange Blossom Special - Johnny Cash
SALT LAKE CITY Hurdy Gurdy Man - Donovan
N CAROLINA? Hail Hail - Truth and Salvage Co.
ATLANTA Going On - Gnarls Barkley
NEW ORLEANS Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone - Harry Connick Jr.
NEW YORK Mistaken for Strangers - The National
Aug 13 (Thursday): San Francisco, CA – Las Vegas, NV
Plans route out of town? (Post office, Carquinez Bridge)
Leaves San Francisco.
Most early CC purchases (REI, Best Buy, Pet Food Express) were likely made before leaving town on the 13th.
$85.73 for USPS shipping…?
Crosses Carquinez Bridge at 7:27pm ($4.00 toll on FasTrak account). This route seems to add another hour to trip if driving from home at 166 Germania St. San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge only charges $4.00 toll for westbound traffic. This would put him in Vegas sometime after 4:30am. Did a friend have his FasTrak pass? Just misdirection, so people would think he was going north?
Calls someone in Queens at 6:39pm from the road
Aug 14 (Friday): Las Vegas, NV
12:55pm Googles “Kelly blue book”
Sells car to Carmax in Las Vegas for $3,000.
CA Plates 4MUN509
VIN: 2HGEJ6672XH542279
Stays at Tropicana Hotel, and sets up spoofed IP through business center at 4760 S Pecos?
Aug 15 (Saturday): Las Vegas, NV – Santa Monica/Venice Beach, CA
Friend(?) takes photo of Henry with new lion cut.
Today, tomorrow, or Monday, transfers two sums from savings to checking: $1500 and $360.75
Arrives in LA today or tomorrow.
Aug 16 (Sunday): Santa Monica/Venice Beach, CA
In LA. No credit cards or ID, but with laptop.
Evening at Venice Beach with “the sunburnt and the burnt out”
Aug 17 (Monday): Santa Monica/Venice Beach, CA
Overcast morning in Santa Monica.
Sees man wipe out on Segway.
Sun comes out, possibly goes for a swim?
Watches sunset over Pacific.
Dinner at Baby Blues BBQ in Venice Beach: N. Carolina pulled pork and okra.
Aug 18 (Tuesday): Santa Monica/Venice Beach, CA
Films video with Amanda Congdon / SometimesDaily on Venice Beach.
Watches District 9 in Santa Monica.
Stays at 15 Rose.
Aug 19 (Wednesday): Santa Monica/Venice Beach, CA
Foggy morning in Venice Beach.
Watches Hull City-Tottenham game early afternoon at local soccer bar in SM.
Coffee Bean on Santa Monica Blvd for the rest of the afternoon. Pigeon flies into coffee shop, everyone starts screaming, customer traps pigeon in a box, then makes awkward joke to screaming women.
Uploads photos of Henry, taken April 11, July 18 and two from August 13 with Nikon D70, and one taken by friend with Canon PowerShot SD600 on August 15. (Evan possibly left town before Henry got lion cut)
Sunny later in the day.
Aug 20 (Thursday): Santa Monica/Venice Beach, CA
Evening hanging with friends in Santa Monica, $13 martini at Viceroy SM. Had plans for rides on pier, but crowds were too crazy.
Hermit Thrushes show at Echo Curio in Echo Park, LA… possibly went to Santa Monica afterwards? See Myspace Comment posted by Head Bangs, Aug 12 2009 4:17 AM:
1. you get to meet my best friend abby in santa monica!!!
2. you get to meet all my palz (not slappals - that's different) in tempe. especially brett. he's in soft shoulder, who you'll probably play with.
Also see: review from this tour (July 21, 2009: Chattanooga, TN)
Stays at 15 Rose (?)
Aug 21 (Friday): Santa Monica/Venice Beach CA – Tempe, AZ
$3,000 deposit from sale of car; 2x $300.00 withdrawals from 1300 4th St Wells Fargo ATM in SM.
Leaves Santa Monica as a hitchhiker on Hermit Thrushes tour, on a “retired retirement home bus” (see also: their old van), along with band members Andrew Keller, Matt Lynch, Nick Brannon, Sam Tremble, Yianni Kourmadas. They tend to pick up hitchhikers on tour to “offset some of the costs.”
(I had originally speculated that Evan might have been playing with them, as friends have noted that he plays keyboard and banjo but it didn't seem like those were a big enough part of his life that he'd be proficient for that) See also: Sam Tremble's blog from previous tour
Checks email 3:37pm in San Diego from unmasked IP address?
Drives 7-9 hours to Tempe, AZ
8pm show at Ye Olde Bike Saviours with Mark DeNardo of Graffiti Monsters, ASSS, Chrome Wings, Ovariesey, Black Flag, and possibly more
Aug 22 (Saturday): Tempe, AZ – Las Cruces, NM
Departs Tempe, AZ; drives 6-7 hours to Las Cruces, NM for 8pm show @ Equinox
Aug 23 (Sunday): Las Cruces, NM – Lubbock, TX
Watches Fulham-Chelsea match in AM at a house in Las Cruces, NM.
Departs; drives 7-8 hours to Lubbock, TX for 9pm show @ Bash's with Graffiti Monsters
Aug 24 (Monday): Lubbock, TX – Tulsa, OK
Leave Lubbock, TX; drive 7-9 hours to Tulsa, OK for show @ Blue Jackalope
Aug 25 (Tuesday): Tulsa, OK – Fayetteville, AR
Leave Tulsa, OK; drive 3 hours to Fayetteville, AR for (8pm?) show @ Smoke and Barrel with Graffiti Monsters and Circle Birds (Did you know, the owner of Smoke and Barrel is named Evan McDonald?)
Aug 26 (Wednesday): Fayetteville, AR – St. Louis, MO
Departs Fayetteville, AK; drives 6-8 hours to St. Louis, MO.
Purchases Tracy Kidder's “Strength in What Remains” at Wash U Bookstore.
Hermit Thrushes session at KWUR/90.3FM St. Louis at 3pm
Tour has 2-3 additional hitchhikers at this point:
Photos from session posted to KWUR's “Stack Sessions” Flickr Album (Beware: nudity! And EXIF data on camera incorrect)
“Unfortunately the show was canceled … they pulled up in a huge van, something like what airports use to shuttle people between parking lots and the terminal, and out came 8 or 9 people… they insisted on cramming the entire band (and the various hitch-hikers they'd picked up along the way) into the old recording studio…”
Hermit Thrushes concert 8-11pm @ Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center (Tickets $5) [SHOW CANCELED]
Aug 27-28 (Thursday-Friday): St. Louis, MO – Kentucky – New Orleans, LA
“Zig-zagging cross-country” ?? Possibly means he took an indirect route between these cities. Leave Hermit Thrushes Tour (they go to Chicago, Evan heads to New Orleans) and Travel St. Louis to New Orleans? AMTRAK: Bus to Carbondale ($120), or train to Chicago ($150), transfer to train to New Orleans. Hermit Thrushes drive him to Chicago, drop him at train station? Drop him at Carbondale on the way? Playlist indicates he didn't go through Chicago. Either way, doesn't spend much time online.
Aug 29 (Saturday): New Orleans, LA
Arranges to sublet “camel back” apartment of shotgun house in New Orleans.
Eats Naked Pizza for the first time at some point this week.
Visits weekend-only taco truck today or tomorrow.
Restaurant nearby with excellent burgers (no buns).
Finds local bar, but many other walk-able bars.
4 coffee shops within 5 min. walking distance of apartment. Frequents one every day. Two have nice gluten-free options.
Aug 30 (Sunday): New Orleans, LA
Watches Fulham-Aston Villa match at New Orleans soccer bar.
Attempts a noon run, “forgot what real August summer was like” = high of 91F and ~70% humidity.
Aug 31 (Monday): New Orleans, LA
Finds shop that sells paper copy of NY Times, 10 blocks from apartment.
SometimesDaily video posted by TrackEvan.
Sept 1 (Tuesday): New Orleans, LA
Ceviche and Jameson's at local bar
Sept 2 (Wednesday): New Orleans, LA
Comments on accessibility of coffee shops to apartment.
Sept 3 (Thursday): New Orleans, LA
Rainy morning, mild afternoon. (0.21” rain, Mean temperature for day 81F)
Runs early afternoon.
Found “pseudo-employment” similar to this posting; Sells concessions at Superdome for New Orleans Saints Preseason v. Dolphins, 7:00pm (Fans may be particularly upset due to recent price hikes this season)
Sept 4 (Friday): New Orleans, LA – Memphis, TN
Amtrak: Departs New Orleans, LA (NOL) 1:45pm, arrives Memphis, TN (MEM) 10:00pm.
Friend meets him in Memphis (also received FedEx envelope from Evan 8/13, no signature required)
Stays up all night to partially re-shave head.
Tony Robbins on TV at 2:52am?
Sept 5 (Saturday): Memphis, TN – Salt Lake City, UT
Delta: Flight 46931, departs Memphis, TN (MEM) 6:35am, arrives Salt Lake City, UT (SLC) 9:03am.
Attends US-El Salvador match at Rio Tinto in Salt Lake City as scheduled, sits in section 24, row Y of uncrowded stadium.
Stays night in Salt Lake City.
Sept 6 (Sunday): Salt Lake City, UT – Denver, CO – Atlanta, GA
Withdraws $500.00 via ATM.
Delta: Flight DL4484, departs Salt Lake City, UT (SLC) 10:58AM, 3 hour layover in Denver, arrives Atlanta, GA (ATL), 6 Sep 2009 8:40PM
Sept 7 (Monday): Atlanta, GA – New Orleans, LA
Gets free Chik-Fil-A early on Labor Day @ Collier Rd Location (Opens 6am).
Amtrak: departs Atlanta (ATL) 8:13am, arrives New Orleans (NOL) 7:38pm
Sept 8 (Tuesday): New Orleans, LA
Goes to barber, then bikes to Tom Piazza book reading, 6:00pm caught by Naked Pizza.
Date: Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 11:16 AM
Subject: Find-Evan recap
Greetings Evan!
Great hunt! A very engaging pastime for the month :) I hope life is feeling relatively normal now that you are back.
Attached is a recap of my find-Evan activities and thoughts on the hunt. I started this recap on the 9th after you were caught and then life took over for awhile and I hadn't got back to it. Hope something in here is of use to you.
Cheers,
Quin (Surely Holmes)
I had just recently started following Wired online when Wired posted the original Evan's Vanished story. Instantly I was captivated by the hunt for Evan. I was interested to think about over what life might be if you took a different path: dropping out of your life and starting a new one seems like a rare (but crazy) opportunity to try that. Also Vanish was a game - with strategy on Evan's part to stay hidden and on the trackers part to pull apart the clues, track down the secrets and find him. There was also a degree of sheer nosiness - this was open season to pry into someone's life and be congratulated rather than censored for every detail you could find. That's the part I hope Evan was prepared for because it was a little creepy.
In fact as the first weeks of the hunt progressed the trackers found a lot information on book lists, photos, friends, family, residences, phone numbers, high school, information on the purchase of his NY home - it was too much. I was quite concerned about the amount of information that was available; especially since I am pretty sure Evan had cleansed some of what was out there as he had some idea of what was coming. As of yet I have not faced trying this on myself, to see what information can be found on me - the idea is disturbing. I was also concerned that not all the hunters would respect the spirit of the contest, and that either Evan's family would be harassed or he would be more seriously hacked.
After reading "Gone Forevever" my first thought was to try the same thing TrackEvan and the VanishTeam did. Based on something a PI did in Evan's story: create a website and see if Evan could be lured into visiting it. However without the technical knowledge to make the most of that attempt I didn't try it.
So I followed the story on the Wired website for a few days. I visited Evansvanished on twitter and started following the #vanish feed. Within days I was spending hours every day trying to track down details Evan might have left or might be leaving online. I spent valuable work hours and even more valuable sleep hours. Vanish sent me on a crash course on Web 2.0 - twitter, flickr, blogs, wikis, IRC...
My feet itched, from the first clue that Evan left behind, to get out there and ask questions in person. Unfortunately geography and a full life precluded that. Geography also meant I couldn't win because I am not a US resident. And as much as any hunter, I would have liked to win. So my new challenge was to find as many good clues as I could, try to mobilize people on location to follow up on them, and try to notify as many people as possible when there was a lead to where Evan might be found.
This hunt differed from a regular disappeared person, in that most of the hunters had other commitments and wouldn't be doing any hunting on the ground, unless Evan came to them. The Private Investigators I interviewed all suggested that the hunters need to get out and hunt in person. With that not an option for hunters off of Evan's path, it seemed to me that the best way to catch Evan was going to be crowd-sourcing: getting as many people involved or informed as possible to raise the chance of Evan being caught by someone who wasn't spending their days hunting him.
So I spent hours scouring the internet, emailing Evan's friends, emailing the people he interviewed for the "Gone Forever" story, emailing someone who has a cat of the same name, emailing hotels, food chains, restaurants, sports venues, café's , wifi spots, tv and radio stations, newspapers, bookstores, chat rooms for bookstore employees, hunters in locales I thought Evan might be, airlines, airline attendants, book readings.... And then Evan would leave a trace in another city and it would start again.
I was taken aback when the first credit card traces showed up and later when clues started appearing. It made it seem more of a game and less of an actual attempt to disappear. However from the beginning I felt that the tables were slanted in Evan's favour as it seemed that the mistakes that 'the disappeared' made were often as they tried to interact with the system in creating a long term new life, or as they began to feel more paranoid or even more comfortable when they had been gone for awhile. Evan was only disappearing for a month, a fact that would change his mindset from that of other people who disappear. He also didn't need to get new bank accounts, credit cards, jobs or interact with the system: he didn't need to actually use fake ID, or social security number. I also started thinking about what Evan was likely to do and kept coming back to the story, that Evan is a writer and this is for a story. His actions would all be not only to stay vanished, but to engage the hunters and to make this a good story. I realized that if the hunters lost interest or never managed to get close it would be a less interesting story.
Somewhere in the 2nd week of the hunt I started keeping a daily log of my Evan-tracking activities, so I could keep straight who I had contacted, who I still needed to contact ,what I had sent to them, and what leads were worth following up on. I posted the most useful information I found to the IRC group, and later in the hunt to the vanish team, and some to the twitter stream and the wiki. I sent the longer interviews I did to Nick for the Wired blog. Some of Evan's friends did not want their involvement to be made public and those details I had to find other routes to release. I still had some of Evan's friends and acquaintances willing to answer questions that I was holding in reserve for the last push when Evan was caught.
At the end of week 3 of the hunt things got very quiet in the IRC and on twitter. It was beginning to feel like it was an impossible task. The only clues we had were the ones Evan wanted us to have, and I felt strongly that following Evan's schedule wasn't going to catch him. I spent time trying to find new aliases Evan might be using based on what we knew about where he had been and what he liked to do. This didn't turn up anything even though it turned out Evan had tweeted about many of the things I was searching on.
But then the Vanish Team got a break and for those in the know it got very exciting again. We knew that Evan was in New Orleans, and he didn't know we knew it. It seemed that all of a sudden the tables had turned. I felt that the hunters had the upper edge at last, and we had an actual chance of catching him. Previous to this I thought that catching him would be a fluke, someone who wasn't involved in the hunt, a lurker or Wired reader, recognizing him randomly somewhere.
Someone in the IRC had information from a professional colleague of Evan's which made it sound like Evan was a risk taker, and even more likely to take some risks to make this a good story. That changed my thoughts on what he was likely to do and I became quite sure he would take the challenges that were being issued, especially those that seem low risk. The first two challenges seemed quite low risk, if he felt he had slipped detection and was anonymously in New Orleans. I did a google search and found only two book readings in New Orleans. I posted these to the IRC and the VanishTeam and pressed that I really thought these were worth staking out. September 8th was a long day, there was a lot of email back and forth with the inner team, and waiting to find out if the stake-out in New Orleans was going to work. And then Naked Pizza fluked Evan and Evan was caught!
In visiting all the sites in the aftermath I noticed that some members of the inner team working with the VanishTeam were active members of RunEvanRun so I wonder about 'double agents' and whether the VanishTeam was about to be infiltrated...
Below is a summary of my daily records of Find Evan activities. In the interest of brevity I have cut out some of the details or added a few words so it makes sense to someone else:
Week 1:
- Used info on Evan's car to look it up online and figure out fuel caps and mileage and where he would likely need to get gas leaving SM on a full tank. Found gas stations at those locations on prominent possible routes and got phone numbers. Tried to find someone local to make calls.
- Googled every combination of Evan's name and known aliases to try and find traces of him online.
Week 2:
- Used Evan's Friendster profile and The Atavist blog to find names of Evan's friends. Used Google to locate email addresses for everyone on profile and blog. Many didn't use last names but they were findable based on comments on their Friendster page or by finding another connection they had with Evan. It was easier to find addresses and phone numbers than email addresses. Developed a short email to send to this list of friends and emailed them all or contacted them through Facebook.
- Contacted PIs that Evan interviewed for his Vanished story and began interviewing them as they responded.
- Used Johnson Thrimp's Wanted poster to create one of my own that listed what people needed to do to nab Evan and Nick's email address.
- Hunted for Borders and other chain chat sites for bookstore employees online. Joined these groups and sent in notification that Evan might come in. These are fairly dis-affected employee groups and I got more email back from this than from any other posting I made while hunting for Evan.
- Tried to figure out a way to contact the ABA members using the member directory to find out where Evan had purchased the Tracy Kidder book. Moved on to other things.
Aug 28
- started to email companies, cafes, hotels etc that Evan might visit in areas I thought he might be or head to Looked for live cameras streaming online in locations Evan might be - California and florida beaches at the time
- Tried to find out from jon mooallem where Evan liked to fish in Florida
- Contacted Freelance Café in Oakland/SF
- Contacted Martha Baer - who agreed to help
- Emailed other SF freelancers who might specialize in technology writing
- Came up with a list of questions for friends who were willing to assist, with help from IRC
- Did, said or bought anything out of the ordinary since March
- Motorcycle?
- Can you tell me about the last time you had contact with Evan?
- Favourite places to travel
- How does Evan spend his free time
- When on vacation is he the type to strike up a converstaion about the game in a bar or sit in the corner and watch the soccer game
- does he go out at night when alone
Aug 31
- started going through everyone on Facebook group to see who looked suspicious. Made a list of 20 and checked out those names.
- hunted through spot adventures site for one that looked like Evan's - could not keep up with Mescad and SearchforEvan as they went through these Found one called spotmeplanb - odd but no available information. Since disappeared.
Sept 1
- Heard through a contact that someone else made (heard in IRC) that Evan was likely to take risks for a good story. And also likely to be 'writing on the run' - working.
- Decided he was likely to go to Salt Lake city game. And likely to go NY in the end.
- Tried to find out if Evan had a Chick-Fil-A card and if this could be traceable.
- Joined flyertalk.com and updated Delta stream of this with information about Evan's vanish
- Emailed Delta
Sept 2
- Joined chat group for Delta airline attendants and emailed the list
- Searched through Facebook group again and started trying to recruit people who had joined the group and were in SLC to stake out SLC for Evan's attending Rio Tinto
- Also made a list from there to contact if he went back to SF or on to NY.
- Emailed every newspaper, radio and TV channel in SLC who had contact information I could find.
- Searched through twitter and tweeted with every flight attendant I could find. Didn't get anyone flying to SLC on the 4th or 5th though.
Sept 4
- Tried to contact CFA and media relations at Rio Tinto.
- Tried to solve flight clues left by Dusky Wireworm. Found they were all United except 2 that didn't fit. Decided it might be indicating he would fly United. Went on to United site and had info for Evan's account with United sent to his email account for Nick to find and access. Also did this for Delta and NWA just in case.
- www.flightstats.com/go/FlightStatus/flightStatusByFlight.do
- 2/25-784 United From (ORD) Chicago, IL, US to (MHT) Manchester, NH, US
- 2/26-4401,United From (PEK) Beijing, CN to (TAO) Qingdao, CN
- 2/26-1167 United From (LAX) Los Angeles, CA, US to (SFO) San Francisco, CA, US
- 2/26-4270, United Operated by (JJ) TAM Linhas Aereas 3185 From (GRU) Sao Paulo, SP, BR to (FLN) Florianopolis, SC, BR
- 3/27-258 United From (DEN) Denver, CO, US to (ORD) Chicago, IL, US
- 3/30-401, United From (PHX) Phoenix, AZ, US to (DEN) Denver, CO, US
- 10/31-770 United From (SFO) San Francisco, CA, US to (DEN) Denver, CO, US
- 11/05-721,United UA 721 from (OMA) Omaha to (DEN) Denver UA 721 from (DEN) Denver to (SFO) San Francisco
- 11/18-318 United From (SFO) San Francisco, CA, US to (DEN) Denver, CO, US
- 12/18-150 United From (SFO) San Francisco, CA, US to (ORD) Chicago, IL, US OR 1501 From (MIA) Miami, FL, US to (ORD) Chicago, IL, US
- 12/22-1285 no flight OR 02/22 1285
- 12/29-1071, 2/11-724 United From (DEN) Denver, CO, US to (MCI) Kansas City, MO, US
- 2/16-385, United From (ORD) Chicago, IL, US to (MSP) Minneapolis, MN, US
- 2/23-573 UnitedUA 573 from (RNO) Reno to (SFO) San Francisco, UA 573 from (SFO) San Francisco to (SAN) San Diego
- 2/24-468, United From (SAN) San Diego, CA, US to (SFO) San Francisco, CA, US
- 3/18-150 United From (SFO) San Francisco, CA, US to (ORD) Chicago, IL, US
- 3/25-133 United From (SFO) San Francisco, CA, US to (LAX) Los Angeles, CA, US, 4/30-758 United From (ORD) Chicago, IL, US to (IAD) Washington, DC, US
Sept 6
- Was asked by Nick to interview Keegan Walden. Found Keegan through Facebook and tried to contact him.
- Discussed with Socillion on IRC what would be good to know if Keegan turned out to be the technical help that Nick suggested he was.
- Worked with Socillion on IRC to find locations that Evan might eat in SLC, wifi cafes, recommended restos, gluten free pizza, tacos.
- Emailed all the cafes. Socillion made a google map
Questions:
- How well do you know Evan?
- When did you last have contact with him?
- Have you heard from him since he vanished?
- How tech saavy is Evan?
- Did you assist him with his technical preparations before he vanished?
- Can you share with us what you helped him with?
- What was Evan curious about, what problems did he forsee that he was looking
- for assistance with?
- Evan seems to be using TOR to mask his IP - did he ask you to help him with
- the problem of staying online without being located?
- Did you discuss with him any other methods to use IP to mislead hunters?
- Did you discuss with him any other techniques to mislead hunters
- Do you have any idea where he is?
- Do you have any hints for us?
- Anything else?
Sept 7
- Joined VanishTeam team.
- Located 2 book readings in New Orleans.
- Notified IRC and then VanishedTeam team.
- Posted to #vanish careful not to mislead other hunters, but also not give out any information we now had...
- Googled jdgatz, gatzjd, james Donald gatz...
- Found:
- www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Apps/thread?tid=47d73c1cfdc3f5d3&hl=en
- there is a gatzjd on flickr that doesn't have photos available
Sept 8
- Email with VanishTeam team and on #vanish that Evan was likely to take challenges and we should stake out 50+ buildings and book readings.
- Contacted hotels in the Garden District in New Orleans.
- Contacted book reading locations.
- Interviewed Keegan Walden.
- Got the name of Kevin Gibbs from Keegan and emailed with Nick about whether Wired was already doing an interview with him, or if I could follow up on that lead.
I agonized whether to send this or not and am sending it while my courage is up. @lkita
I wasn't going to write, but then I thought maybe I should. My story isn't so much about what I did, but about why I did. Why would a middle-aged woman with virtually no technical knowledge be interested at all in following the Evan's Vanished story on Twitter? I was virtually new to Twitter and following the #Vanish thread was definitely enlightening on so many levels. I quickly learned a lot in the weeks that followed.
I don't remember where I found the link to Evan's Wired article, "Gone Forever: What Does It Take to Really Disappear" and read his interview with Matthew Alan Shephard. Here was an article on my family secret that no one ever tells or talks about! I had to follow the Evan story for my own curiosity, you see, my father walked out one morning in Sumter, South Carolina in 1933, kissed the wife and two young children goodbye as if he was going to work as always and disappeared for 12 years. He was around Evan's same age when he disappeared. He sent the family a telegraph a few days later asking them not to look for him. He pulled it off, vanished for those 12 years until he made the error of writing home to his mother where his now grown teenage daughters pulled the letter out of the fireplace his mother had thrown it into. I came along years after that but I grew up always knowing that my father had two names and a prior family. To this day, no one knows exactly anything about his personal life during those years. He told me about riding the trains to California and standing in the soup lines and I know a little of the different jobs he took during those years, but that is all I was ever told. We just didn't talk about it and I regret not inquiring deeper, whether I would of gotten honest answers or not, I don't know. I guess I'm hoping to have some clues to some of my questions from Evan's perspective.
Through it all, I had a lot of fun trying to decipher some of the clues and following the amazingly smart, technically knowledgeable hunters. I anxiously await Evan's story!
