On the Grid Confirmations

In case you haven't heard already, Evan has sold his car. He sold his car to a Car Max in Las Vegas, NV, on August 14th. Evan deposited this check at a bank in Santa Monica on August 21st. 

From an interview Wired did with Evan's friend Jeffrey O'Brien we know Evan and Jeffrey were in San Francisco on August 12th. Jeffrey states: 

"The day before he left, we watched the Mexico-U.S. soccer match in town, and he told me that he was leaving the next day. But he didn’t say anything about where. He was driving his hunter green Honda. But he told me that he was going through a move and selling that car. But he certainly hadn’t sold it yet."

Evan's Fast Track toll pass has him leaving the San Francisco area on August 13th at 7:27 p.m. So, the "day before he left" remark by Jeffrey fits in with Evan travelling to Las Vegas and selling his car on August 14th. Evan, who is nocturnal, could easily have driven to Las Vegas in 9 hours, spent the night in Las Vegas, and sell the car on the 14th. It's also possible Evan could have stayed some where in between San Francisco and Las Vegas.

After the 14th, Evan pops up on the grid August 20th using his computer from San Diego. Then on the 21st of August he makes a deposit at a ATM in Santa Monica, CA. There are no confirmed locations to my knowledge between the 14th in Vegas and the 20th in San Diego.

This is my best guess as to confirmed locations. If you have any additions or deletions, please leave them in the comments.

#Vanish

Wanted: Cryptologist

Cryptologist needed to help decipher a message from Evan:


Official Blog Entry about this message from Nick on Wired Blog: http://www.wired.com/vanish/2009/08/is-evans-cat-jumping-on-the-keyboard/


Text of Message:


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 

Code deciphered here: http://textbin.com/s8741


Wikipedia Entries for Authors Here: http://textbin.com/08c21

Additional message, deciphered in the link above, left here: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2660551-evan-ratliff

What does it mean? Or is it a misdirection? Adding to our file to make us waste our time?


Evan interviewed Frank M. Ahearn, author of the #1 book on how to disappear, for Evan's article in Wired. From Mr. Ahearn's web site:


"DISINFORMATION is making the PI’s file thicker disinformation has three parts, Hook - Line & Sinker. The hook is to bring a PI into an area of choosing and have them start searching for the subject. The line is having them find information about my subject. The sinker is having the PI believe they are on the trail of my subject and keep trying to reel them in.

Disinformation is my favorite part when it comes to teaching someone how to disappear. To me it is the sneaky aspect of leaving the breadcrumbs for the PI to find or who ever is looking for my subject. Disinformation makes the file thick and eventually cauSes mass confusion."

--source


#vanish

Search for Evan Ratliff on Wikipedia and wiki for #Vanish Hunters

The wiki being used in the Search For Evan Ratliff can be found, here.

I just discovered there is an Evan Ratliff entry on Wikipedia. Most of the information so far concerns the hunt for Evan. Wikipedia site can be found here.

The official Wired blog, Vanish: Finding Evan Ratliff can be found here.

#Vanish

Has Evan Sold His Car? (Updated)

There has been speculation among those searching for Evan that he may have sold his car. This theory materialized after it was learned that Evan deposited $3,000 into his checking account on Friday, August 21, in Santa Monica. His car, a 1999 Honda Civic, would be worth approximately $3,000 dollars if he sold it.

Thanks to Facebook Group contributor Ben Feldman it appears that Evan has not sold his car. Ben points us to the California Bureau of Automotive Repairs web site for the evidence. Using Evan's license plate number, 4MUN509, the database shows us that Evan's car has not had a smog check in the past 90 Days (see screen capture below). In California, in order to sell your car you must have a smog check done within 90 days prior to the sale date.

Edit: Thanks to @Mescad for reminding me that Evan's Twitter account has a post from July 13th that Evan was at the DMV.

The one A caveat is the database may not have been updated recently. Checking the database later this week would be prudent to rule this scenario out.

This information still doesn't tell us whether or not Evan is using his car during his travels.

#Vanish

Searching the Wayback Machine

Searching the Wayback Machine for the archives of www.atavistic.net and .org I found some known associates, Jennifer Kahn and Stuart Luman, from November of 2004: site

Another known associate is Brian Dalton. site This site is from April of 2003.

I don't know what, if any, link the information below might have to Evan. I thought I would provide it as it was found in the archives of atavist.net.

I found this site, which was designed by Atavistic Productions. It is for a company that at one time sold car insurance for people taking their cars to Mexico. Here are the address details for that business:

Baja Bound Insurance

2222 Coronado Avenue

San Diego, CA 92154
(619) 429-8810 Fax: (619) 429-8805
(888) 552-2252

Their current web site can be found here: site

Here is their staff bio page: site

I don't know if this is helpful, but I thought it would be good to put out there.

#Vanish