American Harry Devert's (32) remains were found in plastic bags in Mexico

[puzzld]

http://mydeathspace.com/article/2014...bags_in_Mexico

Harry Devert's motorcycle journey from the United States to Latin America is somewhat reminiscent of "The Motorcycle Diaries," which recount the South American travels of revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara on an old motorbike in search of his insurgent spirit.

But Devert, 32, who left a job as a trader in finance to travel the world, has not been in touch with his mother or girlfriend in New York since January 25. That day he sent girlfriend Sarah Ashley Schiear an ominous text via the WhatsApp messenger app.

"Just got an hour and a half long escort out of some area it was too dangerous for me to be," the message said. "Stopping for lunch and ... voila Internet. ... Gonna get back on the road soon. Apparently there's another military escort waiting for me in some other town... I'm running way late because of the crazy military stuff...hopefully get a chance to talk to you tonight when I (hopefully) finally arrive."

He had checked out of a bed and breakfast in the southwestern Mexican state of Michoacan and planned to travel to a beach in Zihuatanejo, on the Pacific coast, that was in the final scene of the film "The Shawshank Redemption," according to friends and family.

"My son is a great communicator and he always lets me know -- because I'm anxious -- as close as he can where he's going to be or if he's going to be out of touch," his mother, Ann Devert, told CNN Saturday.

Ann Devert said she last heard from her son January 23. The phone connection was poor. He told her he'd be out of cell phone and Internet range a few days.

She said he called every January 29, his late father's birthday, "and when he didn't, I felt a misgiving but I thought maybe it would take a couple of days," she said. "He didn't call."

Then, Ann Devert heard from a friend who recently returned from Michoacan, where vigilante self-defense groups in numerous communities have engaged in deadly confrontations with the Knights Templar drug cartel.

After vigilantes threatened to descend on a key cartel area last month, the Mexican government sent in thousands of troops and police to try to keep the peace. The government has even joined forces with the vigilantes as the Knights Templar become further entrenched in the agricultural state.

"This is an area in Michoacan that has been very dangerous," said Ann Devert, who has been in contact with The Missing Americans Project, a Website dedicated to sharing information and resources about U.S. citizens missing in other countries.

Last week, Ann Devert contacted both the American and French embassies in Mexico. Her son, born in France, has dual citizenship.

"The wheels of diplomatic work sometimes grind slowly," she lamented. "They are on top of things as much as they can be."

Schiear, 28, was less diplomatic.

"I just feeling pretty lost in terms of the help we are receiving," she said.

In a statement Saturday, a U.S. State Department spokesperson confirmed that a U.S. citizen was reported missing near Morelia, Michoacan, but declined further comment "due to privacy considerations."

"When a U.S. citizen is reported missing in Mexico, the U.S. Embassy or Consulate works with both the missing person's family and Mexican and U.S. law enforcement agencies to locate the missing individual and return him or her to safety," the statement said. "For missing person cases in Mexico, Mexican law enforcement institutions generally have jurisdiction and play the lead role in the conduct of investigations. We work closely with Mexican authorities to monitor such cases and seek progress as quickly as possible."

In Mexico, Interior Ministry officials told CNN that they have not yet confirmed that Devert is missing.

Devert's friends and family remain hopeful that his disappearance is only temporary, another story to recount from his wild travels around the world -- from Pamplona, Spain, to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and beyond.

"I've been chased with a gun in Colombia, chipped my tooth on a gun that was shoved in my mouth in Venezuela and shot everything from a bazooka to a machine gun, an M16 to a Colt .45," Devert wrote in his travel blog, A New Yorker Travels. "I've been in some of the poorest and some of the most dangerous parts of the world and to many of the finest, and I still can't tell which I liked more. I think that life is a pilgrimage."

In an Oct. 19 post, Devert described his latest journey on a type of vehicle he had no experience using.

"I've never ridden a motorcycle," he wrote. "Mostly, naturally, because I don't know how. So tomorrow I'm going to go to the DMV, get my motorcycle permit, buy a bike and hopefully figure out how to ride it home without crashing. Which I'm sure will be an adventure in itself."

He added, "Then in the next 2 or 3 weeks I'm going to drive it across America, through Central America, down to Brazil for the World Cup, and eventually south to Ushuaia, which as far as I can tell from a map is about as far south as one can get on the continent."

He purchased a green 2002 Kawasaki. Ann Devert said her son took a safety course and spent hours studying YouTube videos on how to survive falls from bikes.

Still, the fact that he had never driven a motorcycle concerned her, she said. He promised not to travel faster than 55 mph, yet he took a nasty spill while speeding in Florida, Ann Devert said. He emerged unscathed.

"He always tells me 'I take risks but I'm not an idiot,'" she said.

Devert hoped to write about his experiences traveling around Latin America, perhaps in a book.

"My son was hoping that instead of a job in an office that he'd be able to somehow use this trip to get enough followers who would maybe read a book that he would write," Ann Devert said. "He's had some extraordinary adventures. He just loves people so."

Schiear said Devert spent the last year saving money for the journey.

"This trip was kind of him wanting to make it maybe a career or something," she said. "This is what he loved. He wanted to try to figure out a way to keep doing it. He started a website and everything."

Friends and family recently created the Help Find Harry page in Facebook, with more than 5,000 likes.

"He's one of those people that every single person that he comes into contact with just loved him," said Schiear, who planned to meet Devert in Guatemala. "Everywhere that he's been around the world, families took him in. Everybody's hoping that's ... the end of this crazy story. Somebody has taken him in, and it'll be another one of his wild stories."
http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/08/world/...html?hpt=hp_t1

[moosella]

Harry's FB-- https://www.facebook.com/harrydevert

Help Find Harry FB-- https://www.facebook.com/helpfindharry

[blighted star]

This was posted to his fb on the 7th http://www.ignaciomartinez.com.mx/no...conocido_34870

Says the unidentified man was found unconscious in the street tuesday (not sure which) & that he has 2 tattoos



ETA posted on the other fb page 9 mins ago that it's not Harry, will leave the pic up though because this guy is still unidentified

ETA x 2 just saw a post saying it's not him because mum says the tatts don't match. I really hope they've ruled the tatts out with photos & not verbal descriptions, they screw up enough when everyone involved speaks the same language.

Missing poster

[blighted star]

From
https://www.facebook.com/helpfindharry

Harry's bike & gear
License Plate: NY67SD67 (Green Kawasaki)



Help Find Harry Harry was on his way from JM's Butterfly B & B in Macheros (left at 10AM CT) to(we think) Zihuatanejo where he planned to visit the beach where the reunion scene took place at the end of the Shawshank Redemption.

Full name: Harry Russell Edouard Devert Age: 32 Birthday: 3/9/81 Motorcycle: NY67SD67 (Green Kawasaki) Height: 6'0 Approx. weight: 185 lbs Tattoos: right shoulder/upper arm large tattoo of carp, globe, waves, initials; 2 Asian symbols left chest Eyes: brown Hair: brown Other: wore a watch with red, white, and blue strap

There has been no activity on one of his debit card that we have been able to access since he has been missing. His cell phone is 011 52 1 434116 2164 and the provider is Telcel. His phone is no longer in service.

[blighted star]

It's confusing, so many from Mexico are posting that it's being reported in Mexico that it IS him because of numberplates found with the unconscious man, but the Americans are saying no, his mum says it's not??


From Help Find Harry - there are a LOT of posts saying it's him
Emir Esc https://www.quadratin.com.mx/.../Loc...suntamente.../

is in Uruapan, Michoac?n.. Lo encontraron en Uruapan. El n?mero de placas coincide con las de la foto. Pidan asistencia ala embajada de USA en Michoac?n. Espero todo salga con bien. Bendiciones https://www.quadratin.com.mx/sucesos...do-en-Uruapan/ is in Uruapan, Michoacan... They found him in Uruapan. The number of plates match the photo. Ask for assistance at the Embassy of USA in Michoacan. I hope everything goes well. Blessings

[hjtommt1]

From https://www.facebook.com/helpfindharry

I am truly sorry to trouble you further in what must be an incredibly difficult and trying time, but I have learned some information that I feel I must share with you.
A well-placed friend of mine who has some connections has told me that kidnapping in Southern Mexico has increased dramatically over the last week or so (mainly police related).
He says if Harry was abducted, typically the kidnappers in that region will wait a couple of weeks before making their demands, giving them time to go underground and cover their tracks. This allows them to figure out who they have.
What Harry thought were Mexican military could have been Zetas - who are cartel-affiliated former military special forces. Zetas could have believed a white guy traveling alone was intelligence directed at their activities so they will want to know everything they can about the person and who else/what else might be going on in their area before taking any other actions--and this simply takes time. If they realize Harry is just a tourist in the wrong place, a ransom could be demanded.
Harry could have been correct that it was Mexican military and abduction by some element of Mexican military could be related to recent anti-police kidnappings.
If abduction is the reason Harry disappeared, it is possible you may not hear anything for a few more weeks.
My friends suggest you consider contacting a private firm that deals in these types of situations and handles potential negotiations. The right firms will know where to look first and who the likely culprits are and why. Of course, the firm needs to be vetted and the costs for a consultation and retainer can be quite high. If you're interested in going this route, just let me know and I will ask my friend for his advice.
Again, I'm so sorry to hear about how Harry has gone missing. I pray he is just fine and that I have troubled you unnecessarily.

This is not a good time to be traveling in Mexico. If his motorcycle has been found without him, it's most likely he's been abducted.

[Queena]

That wasn't a smart idea. Mexico is dangerous.


That picture does look like him.

[Xanoca]

On his FB page:
I ask you all to keep Harry in your thoughts and prayers and to picture a positive outcome as the resolution of what appears to have been an opportunistic kidnapping gets closer and closer. The following article, printed in the newspaper Excelsior the 21st of February, may provide a significant lead in our search. Harry may or may not be at the ranch mentioned in the article but the fact his motorcyle, distinguishable by its black box saddlebags, has been seen makes the likelihood of finding him in that area more likely. His rescue will require diplomacy and, I believe, a coordinated effort. Those believed to be holding him say they never harm others unless provoked.
- Posted by Harry's mother Ann

[Xanoca]

The article:
http://www.excelsior.com.mx/nacional/2014/02/21/944950

[puzzld]

Harry Devert left a job as a trader in finance to take a transcontinental motorcycle journey from the United States to Latin America.

Six months ago, he vanished after sending his girlfriend in New York an ominous text message from a troubled region in Mexico, about being escorted from "an area too dangerous for me to be."

Mexican authorities, acting on tips, on Thursday located his green Kawasaki motorcycle in a shallow grave in the state of Guerrero, along with the badly decomposed remains of a man in two plastic bags, said Darren Del Sardo, an attorney for Devert's mother.

The identity of the body has not been confirmed, said a statement from the Guerrero office of public safety. The discovery was made nearly 300 miles southwest of where Devert was last heard from in January.
Harry Devert had not been in touch with his mother or girlfriend in New York since January 25.
Harry Devert had not been in touch with his mother or girlfriend in New York since January 25.
American adventurer missing in Mexico
American teen lost at sea

"We don't know whether it's Harry or not," Del Sardo said.

On Saturday, Devert's mother Ann was to fly to Mexico after identifying the VIN number on the motorcycle found in Mexico. A day earlier she provided a DNA sample to police in New York to match against the remains.

"She's just remaining hopeful as any mother would," Del Sardo said. "One way or another, she's hoping for either closure or hoping that she's at least one step closer to finding him due to the fact the motorcycle was found."

Del Sardo said Ann Devert spent time in Mexico after her son's disappearance, meeting local authorities and residents in the southwestern Mexican state of Michoacan in an attempt to find him. There was hope with unconfirmed tips that he was being held at a ranch. This week, she was notified of the remains and the bike in the shallow grave.

Mexican authorities said the motorcycle was found along a road leading to La Majahua beach in Guerrero. The statement said "10 packages of what appeared to be narcotics (marijuana and cocaine)" were found near the motorbike and body.

Del Sardo said Ann Devert was told that the remains may have been moved to the shallow grave. Devert's mother hopes to examine the remains for any signs that they are her son's, Del Sardo said.

"She's keeping her spirits up at this point and, most importantly, hoping that she gets confirmation one way or another as soon as possible," he said.

Devert, 32, had not been in touch with his mother or girlfriend in New York since January 25. That day he sent girlfriend Sarah Ashley Schiear an ominous text via the WhatsApp messenger app.

"Just got an hour and a half long escort out of some area it was too dangerous for me to be," the message said. "Stopping for lunch and ... voila Internet. ... Gonna get back on the road soon. Apparently there's another military escort waiting for me in some other town... I'm running way late because of the crazy military stuff...hopefully get a chance to talk to you tonight when I (hopefully) finally arrive."

He had checked out of a bed and breakfast in Michoacan and planned to travel to a beach in Zihuatanejo, on the Pacific Ocean, that was in the final scene of the film "The Shawshank Redemption," according to friends and family.

Ann Devert last heard from her son January 23. The phone connection was poor. He told her he'd be out of cell phone and Internet range for a few days.

She told CNN earlier this year that he would call every January 29, his late father's birthday, "and when he didn't, I felt a misgiving but I thought maybe it would take a couple of days," she said. "He didn't call."

Then, Ann Devert heard from a friend who recently returned from Michoacan, where vigilante self-defense groups in numerous communities have engaged in deadly confrontations with the Knights Templar drug cartel.

After vigilantes threatened to descend on a key cartel area last month, the Mexican government sent in thousands of troops and police to try to keep the peace. The government has even joined forces with the vigilantes as the Knights Templar become further entrenched in the agricultural state.

Ann Devert had been in touch with both the American and French embassies in Mexico. Her son, born in France, has dual citizenship.

Devert's friends and family were hopeful that his disappearance was only temporary, another story to recount from his wild travels around the world -- from Pamplona, Spain, to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and beyond.

"I've been chased with a gun in Colombia, chipped my tooth on a gun that was shoved in my mouth in Venezuela and shot everything from a bazooka to a machine gun, an M16 to a Colt .45," Devert wrote in his travel blog, A New Yorker Travels. "I've been in some of the poorest and some of the most dangerous parts of the world and to many of the finest, and I still can't tell which I liked more. I think that life is a pilgrimage."

In an October 19 post, Devert described his latest journey on a type of vehicle he had no experience using.

"I've never ridden a motorcycle," he wrote. "Mostly, naturally, because I don't know how. So tomorrow I'm going to go to the DMV, get my motorcycle permit, buy a bike and hopefully figure out how to ride it home without crashing. Which I'm sure will be an adventure in itself."

He added, "Then in the next 2 or 3 weeks I'm going to drive it across America, through Central America, down to Brazil for the World Cup, and eventually south to Ushuaia, which as far as I can tell from a map is about as far south as one can get on the continent."

He purchased a green 2002 Kawasaki. Ann Devert said her son took a safety course and spent hours studying YouTube videos on how to survive falls from bikes.

But the fact that he had never driven a motorcycle concerned her, she said. He promised not to travel faster than 55 mph, yet he took a nasty spill while speeding in Florida, Ann Devert said. He emerged unscathed.

Friends and family created the Help Find Harry page in Facebook, with more than 25,000 likes.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/12/world/...html?hpt=hp_t2

[sheeppiss]

What a bummer. I was really hoping he'd reappear with some crazy story

[Feetprints]

My husband used to work at a slaughterhouse here in town that hired tons of immigrants, mostly Mexican but quite a few Hmong as well. One of the guys headed to Mexico to visit family with his wife, came back with no wife. She was abducted and has been missing for somewhere around 4 years now. And this was a couple of Mexican people visiting their homeland, not a random (and therefore possibly "suspicious") white dude with a taste for dangerous areas.

[Boston Babe 73]

I refuse to go anywhere near Mexico. And whenever friends go, I shudder. I just pray they come back.

[Xanoca]

Probably is dead... :(

http://westchester.news12.com/news/d...ains-1.8791586

DNA testing to be done on possible Harry Devert remains
Originally published: July 14, 2014 8:52 AM
Updated: July 14, 2014 5:31 PM

PELHAM - DNA testing is now underway after human remains were found near the motorcycle belonging to missing Pelham man Harry Devert.
Last week, Mexican authorities found his motorcycle next to a dismembered body in two garbage bags. The body was so decomposed that it was unrecognizable.
Devert was last seen in January traveling through a dangerous part of Mexico on his way to the World Cup.
Read More: Westchester Top Stories
Officials have revealed that drugs may have been found next to the shallow grave, increasing the possibility that a cartel killed him.
Harry Devert's mother, who's from Pelham, is flying down to Mexico to help identify the body.

[trepid]

Probably.

Well shit. I dig his blog.

This story reminds me of this time I had this genius idea to go to Bangladesh "for fun" and we ended up in a riot zone taking two planes in fake names, 3 military escorts and bribing an ambulance to smuggle us through jungle villages full of islamic fundamentalist death squads burning things. JUST so we could attend a wedding in some bumfuckville slum in Khulna.

What an adventure . . . but it was a terrible idea in hindsight. Probably at least an 8 on the scale of 1 to riding through Mexican drug cartel territory on a motorbike you don't know how to ride.

RIP Wild Harry

[Olivia]

The remains are him - http://fox4kc.com/2014/07/18/remains...sing-american/

[Boston Babe 73]

That's sad
RIP Henry

[blighted star]

So who was the guy in the coma & why were Harry's plates found near him? Was Harry found in the same place?



ETA Aha. Maybe the plates comment was bullshit.

https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbi...type=1&theater

La persona que se encuentra en este hospital, no es Harry Devert... es un joven vecino de esta ciudad de Uruapan, quien ya fue identificado plenamente por su sra. madre

Translation

The person who is in the hospital is not Harry Devert ... is a young resident of this city identified by his mother

[Olivia]

That's sad
RIP Henry

Close

[Boston Babe 73]

Close

HARRY! lol. Wow. Have another margarita, BB. Omg. I'm a dope.

[blighted star]

HARRY! lol. Wow. Have another margarita, BB. Omg. I'm a dope.

I've got no excuse. Totally missed the names & thought Olivia were saying the "p" word needed an "s" on the end.

So glad I didn't say anything

[BLue]

Mexico is not that bad as all of you think, but ofc there are some states that you better avoid, even us mexicans think more than twice to go there. The last time they knew something about him he was in Michoacan, that state among Guerrero, Chihuahua and Tamaulipas are a big NO NO to go through, not even mention is very dangerous to visit them.

Sad we have a reputation like that, but it got worse with the drug war lol.

RIP Harry, I wish you could get justice, but I dont think our crappy system will allow your family to get it

[The Crone]

https://www.facebook.com/helpfindharry?fref=nf

CONFIRMATION

Harry's DNA was gathered from the butt of one of the rare cigarettes he smoked. Despite my having touched it before I realized how important it could be, the lab was able to work up Harry's complete DNA profile. This was done at the Periciales (Experts) laboratory in Mexico City.

Last night I was given the confirmation that the remains found at the site in Lagunillas were Harry's. The DNA match to his own DNA was 99.9963%. This was done by comparing a spectrum of 24 markers as opposed to the 15 chief markers which most labs use, the 15 markers which the FBI expert told me is what they use. The 15 marker comparison done by the lab in Guerrero showed a 99.9875% match to my DNA. The match now is even more precise.

There is no doubt this is Harry, my beloved son, Harry whose life was filled with delight, Harry whose boundless joy grew from the good times he shared with you, his friends, his companions, his allies, his heart. Harry carried each of us in his vast heart. And because there is a place for Harry in each of our own hearts, because that place is Harry's still, Harry is alive because YOU are alive. "ALIVE!, Ma!!!" he would say to me. "How great is that?!!"

I ache from missing my son who was Life's great gift to me. I miss knowing he is
alive in the world, meeting new people and having new Good Times! I miss knowing he will come home and tell me about his adventures and how people are people all over the world and that people are great. I miss his telling me about the different animals he got to know and the places in Nature that made him marvel. I miss his telling me about the children who crossed his path. I miss seeing the world through Harry's eyes, the world according to Harry. I miss knowing he will give me a big bear hug when he's exuberant and an everyday hug when it's an every day and I miss hiskissing me good morning and good night and good-bye on both cheeks.
I miss his laugh, his explosive, infectious laugh. I miss his arguing about anything and everything just to bat ideas around and sometimes to make sure to consider all points of view whether they were what he believed or not. I miss his curiosity and seeing the hours he spent researching everything he was interested in and his talk when an idea took hold of him. I miss his scope. I miss his vision. I miss how he could admit when he fell short and grow from that. I miss his sense of fun. I miss
his insight and his wisdom. I miss his on-going lesson to be connected and free and to give something back and have FUN! wherever you are, whomever you're with. Inclusive, Exuberant HARRY! How grateful I am he spent his last days in Macheros at the butterfly sanctuary. Harry who has now taken wing.

"Ma! Everything's a miracle!" he told me on my birthday. But my real birthday was March 9, 1981, when I came alive in a whole new way and got to be the self I like best. Harry was his father's and my personal miracle. How lucky we were to know him and watch him grow to be the Harry each of you knew. How lucky we who knew him and shared his life and times. How lucky you who had not yet met him who learned his story and have cared about him because Harry's life resonates in yours and you have made him your own. How he would grin to know that!

We are still HERE. NOW. ALIVE! A force of Evil killed Harry. This I now know. I also know that is not what matters most now. What matters most is YOU are HERE. Harry taught us that. Because YOU are ALIVE we can all rejoice that LIFE IS GOOD and Evil does not have the last say because YOU are HERE. NOW. ALIVE. Living a life that is all your own. "How great is that!"

To keep us all mindful how important that is, to help us through this hard time and the hard times which follow, I ask a great favor of you and your children. That is to take a picture of you in Harry's signature I-embrace-the-world, I-embrace-it-all, I-Love-My-Life! pose and to post it here for us all to see you stand with Harry in YOUR OWN LIFE. Let us make that the CONFIRMATION. Harry would love that.

And so would
Ann, the mother of her best beloved son, Harry Russell Edouard Devert,
your own Harry whose father, Georges, was surely there for him at his final moment to wrap him in his arms and kiss both his cheeks and welcome him to his new adventure.
- LOVE YOUR LIFE ! -

[The Crone]

[animosity]

what an incredible man. his pictures of him everywhere, smiling with all the people he has met...

rip harry.