*UPDATE* Unidentified in Georgia: The Benton MacKaye Trail Doe identified as Stephen Lucas Ryan, 41, of PA

*UPDATE* Unidentified in Georgia: The Benton MacKaye Trail Doe identified as Stephen Lucas Ryan, 41, of PA. Please respect his family during this difficult time.

In Episode 3 here at the Lost Souls of America Podcast, we had an interview with our friend Natasha where we shared the story of closing the case of an unidentified hiker that the world called Mostly Harmless who’s real name turned out to be Vance Rodriguez.

Well, our humble little facebook community took some downtime and now we are starting up again with a new investigation. We’d love to invite you all to join in too. You can help by searching missing person’s databases, and even just by sharing his poster as often as possible. We really believe that sharing is going to be the key to finding this man’s family, so that’s the best thing you can do! The group is also a great place to bounce ideas off other sleuths, make comparisons, and come up with creative ways to help.

There’s not a lot of information available for this unidentified doe case but we’re going to tell you as much as we can. I’m going to read you the quote directly from the GBI website:

The GBI is requesting assistance from the public in identifying a deceased man believed to be a hiker on Springer Mountain found on January 21, 2022. The man was found specifically off the Benton MacKaye Trail, which is part of the Appalachian Trail in Fannin County. A forensic artist’s rendering of the man is attached.
The man was wearing a small gray t-shirt, a gray fleece long sleeve shirt, tan Wrangler brand cargo pants size 30×32, gray wool boot socks, and Keen brand hiking boots size 10.5 (pictured). The man had in his possession a black Thermal-FR brand fleece quarter zip pullover (pictured), a dark gray Champion brand quarter zip fleece (pictured), a black Uline skull cap with rechargeable light attachment (pictured) and a small black folding shovel (pictured).
This investigation is active and ongoing. Anyone with information regarding a person matching this description is asked to contact the GBI. Anonymous tips can be submitted by calling 1-800-597-TIPS (8477), online at https://gbi.georgia.gov/submit-tips-online, or by downloading the See Something, Send Something mobile app.
GBI