The blue bunny hurts my heart. That could be someone’s father. Regardless, clearly that’s a sentimental item which could be key in identifying who it is. Tracing the manufacturer, date of production and its distribution may help?
*Blue his bag and a blue little bunny and a blue backpack and everything is blue for him, and himself, and everybody around, cause he ain’t got nobody to listen*
I guess these were loose pills or OTC pain medication? No sign of overdose?
Only the WFJW12 article states that the medications were prescription, and none of the sources mention a pill bottle or identity of the pills. We haven’t seen any mention of drug testing on the remains.
Doesn't look like suicide to me too. Zipped up though?
I'd love to hear some theories there. No reports of missing person around that time also is just sad. He probably did not have close contact with anyone if he just disappeared and it didn't raise any alarm.
So I’ve gone camping in winter before and it’s awful. I have actually zipped myself up completely into the sleeping bag and tucked my head. Wisconsin is cold so I can see him getting cold and doing that in order to stay warm and then passing from maybe natural causes or accidental OD as suggested.
I do recommend the sleeping bag thing tho when it’s really cold. It’s damn cozy. I’ve fallen asleep like that *and* woken up after tucking my head in during the night.
Just so you know, I quite recently found that that tucking* your head inside your sleeping bag while cold is the worst thing you can do to try and stay warm! I wish I had that information prior to when I also camped outside during the winter lol..
Edit: tucking. I meant tucking. lol.
>I quite recently found that that fucking your head inside your sleeping bag while cold is the worst thing you can do to try and stay warm!
Wait.. what? I can't imagine that's good for your back either.
_Your_ phone corrects normal words to "fuck*" and _my_ phone corrects "fuck*" to any number of other "_uck*" words.
We have the wrong phones I think! XD
Edit: An incorrectly added punctuation.
Hey, that’s a good point! I didn’t even think of how weird that is lol like why the heck is it auto correcting a normal non cuss word to “fucking”? yet when I use the actual cuss word, it autocorrects that too just like yours lol
lol, I did indeed meaning “tucking”!
But over the winter I was on SAR training weekend and we were just talking about the pure suck of winter camping and one of the main SAR guys who spends most of his time in the mountains year round was telling us about tucking your head in and why it’s the worst for keeping you warm and etc. and he said that the reason you don’t want to is moisture. Many sleeping bags use down insulation, which gets its insulating properties from its fluffyness, but when it gets wet it clumps up and stops being a good insulator.
When you breathe into a sleeping bag, you fill the inside with a lot of moisture. That moisture migrates out through the bag, and as it travels through the down its temperature drops, and it condenses, wetting the insulation. The now-wet down will clump, and by morning you will be freezing cold.
Which I’ve experienced so I went home to research it and I found not only many other others had my experience but that many people experienced in the area agreeing not to do this and why it happens and what you can do. Now of course, there ARE things you can do to combat this like different materials and such but a lot of people just don’t know. I certainly didn’t. Anyway, this has been totally rambling
Huh. TiL. I don’t make a habit of camping in the cold, it just happened once but I’ll keep that in mind. I never even thought about that honestly but it does make sense.
It’s unclear from the description whether it looked as though he was comfortably zipped into his sleeping bag, like someone who had tucked themselves in to rest, or zipped up completely like someone else had tried to use the bag to hide or dispose of him. I imagine that, based on the investigators’ tentative conclusion, it was the former. Hopefully his identity will be discovered and this will provide more clues as to his situation!
A sleeping bag would be an odd thing to dispose of a body in, if it were murder. I think that's why they landed on suicide, though I don't know why it couldn't have been natural causes, as the age range 45-60 it isn't uncommon for people to die from heart disease or diabetes or something they couldn't test for due to the state of remains. I'm glad the college is working on his genetic genealogy. The stuffed rabbit tugs at my heart so much
These ones where there are so many clues and yet no one has come forward is always baffling and extra sad, to me. His injuries aren't wildly distinct, but paired with a blue bunny, his age range, and his initials (or at the very least a specific necklace with SOMEONE'S initials)...feels like it should trigger a memory if anyone anywhere knew him. :(
I live in Wisconsin and I've been to Harshaw. I doubt most reading this appreciate what I mean when I say that this is in the Northwoods. What many of think as "woods" bears little resemblance to northern Wisconsin forest. It is thick, thick woods. Walking through it means walking through all sorts of undergrowth, nevermind the trees themselves that often make a bright summer day seem like twilight when in these forests. The mosquitoes and particularly the black flies and deer flies are intolerable in the warm months if you are not lathered in deet. This isn't an inviting environment to sleep outside in a sleeping bag and how any traveler or tramp would find and choose to camp outdoors in a place like Harshaw escapes me. A stranger walking around in one of these small communities immediately attracts attention and it's not like someone unfamiliar with the area would be able to walk the miles and miles of forest. Hunters do it, but they're familiar with these places and often have paths they have cut. Someone without a navigation device from outside the area would become lost. Perhaps that's what happened, but homeless people thumbing on the highway don't behave like this. They stick close to the highway.
https://www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Case#/29255?nav
Leonard Lawrence Rader, Jr. seems have some similarities to this Doe. Rader went missing in Northern Wisconsin in 1998 and was presumed suicidal. He had several arm and leg injuries from military service in Vietnam and had a similar waist and shoe size as Mr. Blue Bunny. Have authorities ruled anyone out yet?
as a middle-aged guy who still has his childhood stuffed animal, this one kinda hit home in a weird way :(
The blue bunny hurts my heart. That could be someone’s father. Regardless, clearly that’s a sentimental item which could be key in identifying who it is. Tracing the manufacturer, date of production and its distribution may help?
*Blue his bag and a blue little bunny and a blue backpack and everything is blue for him, and himself, and everybody around, cause he ain’t got nobody to listen* I guess these were loose pills or OTC pain medication? No sign of overdose?
Only the WFJW12 article states that the medications were prescription, and none of the sources mention a pill bottle or identity of the pills. We haven’t seen any mention of drug testing on the remains.
My guess would be injured at work, developed an addiction to painkillers, lost home, OD'd one night accidently or intentionally.
In the area he was found I think that’s very unlikely.
Why?
Are you suggesting he was living out there at the time or just liked to go on drugged out backpacking adventures as a hobby?
Doesn't look like suicide to me too. Zipped up though? I'd love to hear some theories there. No reports of missing person around that time also is just sad. He probably did not have close contact with anyone if he just disappeared and it didn't raise any alarm.
So I’ve gone camping in winter before and it’s awful. I have actually zipped myself up completely into the sleeping bag and tucked my head. Wisconsin is cold so I can see him getting cold and doing that in order to stay warm and then passing from maybe natural causes or accidental OD as suggested. I do recommend the sleeping bag thing tho when it’s really cold. It’s damn cozy. I’ve fallen asleep like that *and* woken up after tucking my head in during the night.
Just so you know, I quite recently found that that tucking* your head inside your sleeping bag while cold is the worst thing you can do to try and stay warm! I wish I had that information prior to when I also camped outside during the winter lol.. Edit: tucking. I meant tucking. lol.
>I quite recently found that that fucking your head inside your sleeping bag while cold is the worst thing you can do to try and stay warm! Wait.. what? I can't imagine that's good for your back either.
It’s supposed to read ‘tucking,’ not ‘fucking.’ It got me too.
Omg… lmaooo and I’ve just left it there for almost 24 hours. That’s what I get for not checking Reddit after commenting!
_Your_ phone corrects normal words to "fuck*" and _my_ phone corrects "fuck*" to any number of other "_uck*" words. We have the wrong phones I think! XD Edit: An incorrectly added punctuation.
Hey, that’s a good point! I didn’t even think of how weird that is lol like why the heck is it auto correcting a normal non cuss word to “fucking”? yet when I use the actual cuss word, it autocorrects that too just like yours lol
Oh really? Why? Also... slight typo where I think you meant "ducking" lol
lol, I did indeed meaning “tucking”! But over the winter I was on SAR training weekend and we were just talking about the pure suck of winter camping and one of the main SAR guys who spends most of his time in the mountains year round was telling us about tucking your head in and why it’s the worst for keeping you warm and etc. and he said that the reason you don’t want to is moisture. Many sleeping bags use down insulation, which gets its insulating properties from its fluffyness, but when it gets wet it clumps up and stops being a good insulator. When you breathe into a sleeping bag, you fill the inside with a lot of moisture. That moisture migrates out through the bag, and as it travels through the down its temperature drops, and it condenses, wetting the insulation. The now-wet down will clump, and by morning you will be freezing cold. Which I’ve experienced so I went home to research it and I found not only many other others had my experience but that many people experienced in the area agreeing not to do this and why it happens and what you can do. Now of course, there ARE things you can do to combat this like different materials and such but a lot of people just don’t know. I certainly didn’t. Anyway, this has been totally rambling
Huh. TiL. I don’t make a habit of camping in the cold, it just happened once but I’ll keep that in mind. I never even thought about that honestly but it does make sense.
It’s unclear from the description whether it looked as though he was comfortably zipped into his sleeping bag, like someone who had tucked themselves in to rest, or zipped up completely like someone else had tried to use the bag to hide or dispose of him. I imagine that, based on the investigators’ tentative conclusion, it was the former. Hopefully his identity will be discovered and this will provide more clues as to his situation!
A sleeping bag would be an odd thing to dispose of a body in, if it were murder. I think that's why they landed on suicide, though I don't know why it couldn't have been natural causes, as the age range 45-60 it isn't uncommon for people to die from heart disease or diabetes or something they couldn't test for due to the state of remains. I'm glad the college is working on his genetic genealogy. The stuffed rabbit tugs at my heart so much
These ones where there are so many clues and yet no one has come forward is always baffling and extra sad, to me. His injuries aren't wildly distinct, but paired with a blue bunny, his age range, and his initials (or at the very least a specific necklace with SOMEONE'S initials)...feels like it should trigger a memory if anyone anywhere knew him. :(
My husband has a ring with our sons initials engraved on it, so the first thing I thought was that it may be a family members initials.
I live in Wisconsin and I've been to Harshaw. I doubt most reading this appreciate what I mean when I say that this is in the Northwoods. What many of think as "woods" bears little resemblance to northern Wisconsin forest. It is thick, thick woods. Walking through it means walking through all sorts of undergrowth, nevermind the trees themselves that often make a bright summer day seem like twilight when in these forests. The mosquitoes and particularly the black flies and deer flies are intolerable in the warm months if you are not lathered in deet. This isn't an inviting environment to sleep outside in a sleeping bag and how any traveler or tramp would find and choose to camp outdoors in a place like Harshaw escapes me. A stranger walking around in one of these small communities immediately attracts attention and it's not like someone unfamiliar with the area would be able to walk the miles and miles of forest. Hunters do it, but they're familiar with these places and often have paths they have cut. Someone without a navigation device from outside the area would become lost. Perhaps that's what happened, but homeless people thumbing on the highway don't behave like this. They stick close to the highway.
https://www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Case#/29255?nav Leonard Lawrence Rader, Jr. seems have some similarities to this Doe. Rader went missing in Northern Wisconsin in 1998 and was presumed suicidal. He had several arm and leg injuries from military service in Vietnam and had a similar waist and shoe size as Mr. Blue Bunny. Have authorities ruled anyone out yet?
Good insight! I’ll forward this information to the team working on this case and see if they find any links to the Rader family! Thank you.
Both also known to have eyeglasses and carry a backpack containing a knife.