I don’t recall exactly but I believe I was checking last name variances based off of the Bilemy alias.

So, not a coincidence.

Sorry for the hazy memory. It was a while ago and was not super important to me. It was just one of my many random OSINT exercises I like to do.

Hopefully my comment might spur somebody on HN with more time to locate the LI profile.

I found a reddit post[0] linking the LI profile[1] of Ben Bellamy. Can't get past the login-wall right now but I will check later.

0 -https://www.reddit.com/r/AppalachianTrail/comments/970h8f/co...

1 - https://goo.gl/images/8dALKK (Actually a google images link that redirects to LinkedIn)

My brain kept spoonerizing the alias to "Bill Benemy". Google searches show that "Benemy" is a real surname, but it's not very common.

Google also informed me that "Benemy" (or "Benami") means "no name" in Urdu, so if one was into word games then "Bill Benemy" could be "Bill No-Name".

I'd find it hard to believe that he's still a missing person if they already had his real name.

Since he did modify the spelling, I don't think it's that hard to imagine.

I’m sure that’s how the other poster found the LinkedIn user...