
I work in media relations for the Collier County Sheriff’s Office, which recently launched a podcast.
Sworn Statement will feature cases and topics of importance to the agency and the public. We’ll take deep dives on issues such as mental health, while bringing you the latest on major cold cases.
The first three episodes of the podcast focus on the case of the deceased hiker known as Mostly Harmless. The story starts in the summer of 2018, when detectives were called in to identify a man found dead at a campsite in the Florida Everglades. Nearly a year later, the man, whose body was in the early stages of decomposition, has not yet been identified. A composite sketch did help fellow thru-hikers to identify the man as someone they saw hiking the Appalachian Trail the past year. He was known to them only by his trail name, Mostly Harmless.
I spent about a month talking to thru-hikers from as far away as New York, trying to piece together what might have happened to the man. And I interviewed our detectives and researchers who have spent countless hours trying to make an ID.
The first three episodes are a rare look at how our agency does its work, and what that work has revealed about this John Doe.
Read more about the podcast in these publications:
You can listen to the podcast on iTunes and Spotify, as well as SoundCloud.