My search for Evan began when I heard about the contest on the 100th episode of the ARG netcasts.  I’m a casual ARG (Alternate Reality Game) player, and a longtime fan of Wired, so I thought maybe I’d check out the site.  I was instantly hooked.  I’m often complimented on my “google fu” so this seemed like a good test of my abilities.  That, and $5,000 would do a lot of good in my family right now, so I had to try.

I found a lot of information in those early days.  I mean I found tons.  I got a little worried, for everyone, when I saw how easy it was to piece Evan’s life together in only a few hours.  At one point I joked that I don’t know where Evan is right now, but name a date ten years ago, and I’ll tell you where he was then.  Had I been willing to spend six dollars on a public records search, I think I could have found a lot more.  I uncovered a lot of info about his family members (including nicknames, secondary email accounts, etc) and took a lot of care to not accidentally let any of that information out.  Not only did I want to follow the “no contacting family” rule, I appreciated why he had established that rule in the first place.

Eventually, new information started becoming more difficult to find (had we found everything there is to know about Evan Ratliff?) and the hunt seemed to be slowing down.  I had a good idea where Evan had been for the first week (see my theories here) but completely lost him when he left Venice Beach, CA.  Reading through Evan’s article, Gone Forever: What Does It Take To Really Disappear? gave me a new idea.

In the article (page 3) Evan wrote about how an investigator established a missing persons website, in an effort to catch Patrick McDermott.  The site claimed to be asking for tips, but the real purpose was to gather IP information from McDermott.  I too had been struggling with an IP Address problem.  Scattered info about Evan’s IP’s had been coming in, but I needed direct access to his browsing habits.  Thus TrackEvan.com was born.

I thought at first it would be a site where I as @mescad would post my latest theories and thought that I might provide a wiki to collect all of the random tidbits trackers had been posting to twitter.  I installed the WordPress publishing system, and looked for a simple theme to make it look pretty.  Then I stumbled onto the awesomeness that is the Revolt Basic theme by NenadK.  With only a tiny bit of image editing, I could make this simple blog site into a full fledged fake missing person website.  Coincidentally, this same theme is used on one of Robert Basil’s websites, so that’s why Jeff thought I was him.

Missing person websites need a tip line, right?  So I registered an 888 number (available for $14.95 per month, but I only needed one month) and pointed it at an old Google Voice account that I’ve had for years.  Next I found a great royalty free stock photo website, and launched the site.  My first article was a no-brainer…we needed Missing Person posters.  I put my new number on them, and no mention of the contest, hoping that people would put them up nationwide, and I would someday get a call saying Evan was spotted.  The plan was then to travel to Evan and “fluke” him myself, instead of letting a ‘civilian’ win the money.

As luck would have it, @labfly, who I knew through twitter from a previous ARG adventure, had just invited me (@mescad) to sit in on an interview with @NxThompson and @EvansVanished.  I had a previous engagement that day, but I discretely passed along the address to TrackEvan.com and asked her to give out our number.  During the interview the site was mentioned.  Nick hadn’t yet seen the site, and loaded it up live.  He loved it, and tweeted about it and added a link to the Wired vanish blog.  I went from 4 pageviews on day one, to around 900 views on day two.  The site was an instant hit.

For the next week or so, I posted content, from the point of view of one of Evan’s friends.  Other than linking to interviews I never mentioned anything about the contest, playing it completely straightforward.  I actually received several emails from distraught passersby who couldn’t tell if the website was real or not.  I usually replied saying that in fact Evan was missing, and that the site is silly because I’m looking for a silly guy.

One day, an email came in from a producer of Charles Gibson’s ABC News program.  They wanted to interview someone from our team for the national news.  The hardest thing I’ve done in this contest is declining that interview.  It was too early to reveal my identity as @mescad, and I never broke character as TrackEvan, ever.  I told myself that I’d agree to an interview after I found Evan.

When the trackers on Twitter got into a frenzy about possible Evan impostors, @nxthompson started getting a lot of pressure from people asking if Evan ran the site.  Because I wanted to keep a good relationship with him going, I revealed my identity to him.  To his credit, I’m pretty sure that he didn’t tell anyone.  I emailed Evan on the evening of his capture to let him in on the secret, and I told my fellow trackers from IRC about ten minutes before i wrote this article.

So I continued, playing the part of a double agent really.  @mescad was jovial and found lots of good clues (the real me).  I would post those to IRC first, then to twitter an hour later, so that my close colleagues would get a head start on the news.  Then, about half a day later, I’d post the same info to TrackEvan.com.  As @TrackEvan I was kind of a short-tempered fellow, who just wanted to get the story, and didn’t like anyone questioning his sources.

The leader of the Vanish Team and I got into a lively debate via Twitter Direct Messages one night, and each of us accused the other of hoarding the good info for ourselves (he through his facebook application, I through my tip line.)  I completely agreed with his point of view, but in no way could I reveal that my tipline was useless (nobody ever called) and I needed to protect my identity, so I feigned disgust and broke off our relationship.  Sorry Jeff, that was a little twisted of me, but it opened the door for @mescad to join your group, so I had to do it.  In the end we found Evan, so hopefully that will comfort you if you’ve got any hard feelings.

One day I received an email from “Henry’s Shadow” which contained a link to the video I posted of Evan on Venice Beach.  Immediately I suspected that Evan was working with the Sometimes Daily show creators, but when I realized that he wasn’t, I knew that “Henry’s Shadow” was actually Evan.  Evan pulling off that appearance without Amanda knowing was my favorite part of the whole experience!  Later when Evan tried to send me some disinformation about him going to Atlanta instead of Salt Lake City, I decided to go ahead and post it.  I knew it was false, and that Evan wanted it posted to throw people off.  However, since I knew better, and it had the potential to throw off some of my competing hunters, I put it on the site.  Sorry for lying folks – we all know now that Evan was in Salt Lake City at the game.

But then, Evan actually did go to Atlanta!  I had almost written off my chances of Evan coming close enough to Kentucky for me to catch him.  I was willing to drive up to six hours from home, which included Atlanta, so I began to get excited.  Unfortunately Atlanta was as close as Evan came, and I wasn’t about to drive that far just to stake out a bookstore, so I lost my chance.

By this time I was in the Vanish Team’s inner circle group, and had good details that Evan was going to be in New Orleans (See: “The Big 49Across” article, where 49-Across refers to a crossword puzzle with the answer of “EASYA.”)  I heard about the Pizza Plot to catch him, and knew that it was going to work.  I came very close to calling or writing Evan to warn him about the pizza guys waiting for him in New Orleans.  If I thought it would have driven him north into my clutches, I would have done it.

Unfortunately I thought he would be going west instead, so I made a last ditch effort to scare Evan away by saying that I was in Houston, waiting for him to come to me through New Orleans on Tuesday.  Evan didn’t scare easily, so he ended up being caught by Jeff and his guys at @nakedpizza.  In the end, I’d rather that someone catch Evan than nobody catch him, so I’m satisfied with the outcome.

Congrats to Evan for lasting so long.  Congratulations to the team who tracked him down.  As I mentioned on Twitter this evening, I have this domain for 11 more months, so I’ll probably update it from time to time.  I have a ton of other great stock photos that were just waiting for a story to be attached to.  Stay Tuned!

Post your comments below, or feel free to email or call me with any feedback.  The tip line will stay up for another week or two.

Evan has permission to put any of this in his article.  If anyone else uses it, please just shoot me an email and credit TrackEvan.com or Mescad.  If you need a real world identity to credit, email me and I’ll send you my name.

P.S.  I’m without a job right now, so if you need someone with any of my skills that can telecommute or work from Kentucky, I’m available!

Thanks everyone for all of your help and support while Evan was missing.  We couldn’t have found him without you.  It really was a group effort of everyone posting with the #vanish hashtag on twitter.  Particular credit goes to the recently formed “Inner Circle” group, organized by Jeff Reifman of newscloud.com.  They tracked Evan to New Orleans (where we suspected he was heading last night) and found the right people on the ground willing to keep their eyes and ears open for Evan.

The guys who found Evan put up a photo of him here.  Henry will be surprised to see Evan with a little less fur on top of his head!

Congratulations to those of you who put up a poster in New Orleans.  Per our offer, because Evan was found in the city where you put up the posters, you’ll be getting a nice reward.  (Check your email for instructions)

Update to add: If anyone wants to leave their final thoughts on the tip line (1-888-603-0968) please do.  We will be sharing stories of the Evan trackers over the next week or so.  We are also always available to take your emails via info@trackevan.com

He has issued a set of five challenges to Evan.  Each day, if Evan completes the challenge and proves it within 48 hours, he will receive $400 when he finally returns home.  The challenges are encoded, as one caller to our tip line this afternoon informed us, (we were grilling out hamburgers on the deck when the call came) in the New York Times crossword puzzle.  Monday’s challenge is that Evan must, “go attend a book reading.”

Thanks to a connection in the printing industry, and a few phone calls, we received an advanced copy of Tuesday’s puzzle this afternoon.  We were still working on 13-down when an email came in from a member of our team, revealing the decoded challenge for Tuesday.  Evan must…well, you’ll have to wait until at least Wednesday to read the challenge, because we wouldn’t want Evan reading it too soon.

Your tips and theories have been invaluable to our team today.  Thank you readers!  Keep the emailed tips and calls coming in (1-888-603-0968) and be sure to identify yourself when you call.  When this is all over, we want to acknowledge the most valuable tipsters here on the site.

If all the information we received today is correct, Evan has likely left Atlanta, and has a good probability of heading straight for TrackEvan Central tomorrow.  Evan, if you are headed to H-town, be sure to stop along the way and pick me up some gumbo!  If Evan decides to take the easier road to the north, tipsters we are in luck.  We’ve got another member of the team stationed at a prominent Memphis landmark, waiting to send Evan packing.  (Evan, if you go that route instead, please FedEx us some BBQ)

Because we credited an anonymous tipster as our source of the video link, we’ve received a lot of pressure in the last few days.  Many suspect that the tipster was Evan himself, using the video to taunt those of us who he is hiding from.  Others feel that our revealing the identity of the tipster would help them find more clues to Evan’s current location.  It has been our policy from the beginning of this search to ignore all of the rampant fingerpointing that has been occurring amongst searchers, and stick to the facts.  Simply put, our mission is to track Evan, period.  It is thanks to this policy of protecting our sources, that we’ve received good tips from those in Evan’s inner circle.

For example, we know that a large part of the search for Evan is surrounding a big soccer game between the U.S. national soccer team and El Salvador, taking place at Rio Tinto Stadium on Saturday, September 5.  However, wise searchers will remember from the interview with Evan’s friend, and Fortune Magazine Senior Editor, Jeffrey O’Brien that Evan is a huge fan of both Georgia Tech and the Alabama Crimson Tide.  Both teams are playing in Evan’s hometown of Atlanta on the same day as the big soccer match.  Those close to Evan feel that Atlanta is a much more likely place to find Evan on Saturday.

It has also recently come to our attention that, in response to the publicity surrounding the video of Evan with black hair, Evan has now bleached his hair blond.  He is suspected to have also bleached his goatee, but may have later decided to shave it off completely.  The goatee is an uncertainty, but a reliable tipster is confident that Evan now has blond hair.  A photo of Evan with the hairstyle in question came in with the tip.  Evan’s hair may be a little longer or shorter, but this is the color that sharp-eyed Evan trackers should be looking for:

Evan Ratliff with blond hair (on the right)

Evan is expected to be traveling today, and is unlikely to be able to quickly change his appearance again.  Now is the time to redouble our efforts and finally send Evan Ratliff back home to Henry.

Evan spends his time on the weekends ordering from the local taco truck, and eats out at local restaurants every night of the week.  Evan goes running by nearby water most days, and has plenty of local gluten-free options, so it sounds like he is taking care of his health.  One of Evan’s oldest friends was interviewed this week, and he suggested that Evan is living in a city with an area code beginning with “21_.”

It seems that we are getting closer to finding our friend Evan!  Tomorrow (Friday) we will release some very important information that should help us track down Evan.

(For anyone who knows Latin better than we do, please forgive our likely mistranslation of “And you, friends?”)

Next, Thompson appeared on CNN Live.  We have embedded the interview below.

Thank you to everyone who is putting up our Evan is MISSING posters.  Remember, if you put up a poster (then tell us about it) and Evan is found by someone in your area, you’ll get a reward.  Our goal is to get Evan home as soon as possible.

Update: Some readers are asking when the video was shot.  In the first few seconds of the video a box says that it was filmed on August 20, at 11:30 and the location is Venice Beach, California.

Update: Amanda Congdon of sometimesdaily has responded to our requests for the raw footage from the day the Swine Flu segment was filmed.  She posted a new video, and uploaded the raw footage from the day.

Swine Flu, the more common name of the H1N1 virus, is highly contagious.  However, as with any flu, the spread of Swine Flu can be prevented by covering your face when you cough or sneeze, washing your hands frequently with soap and water, and by avoiding large crowds of people when you are sick.  Evan prefers large cities and sports bars, so he is at high risk of swine flu.

Evan, if you are reading this, we hope you stay healthy and come home soon!

If you notice anything else on the calendars that may suggest where Evan will be, please call the Tip line or email us.

Congratulations to Janeen and Paul on their successful wedding Saturday.  We are sorry that Evan couldn’t make it.

Alexa and Jake, hopefully by the time of your September 26 wedding Evan will have resurfaced.

One of our TrackEvan.com tipsters emailed us a recording of the Interview, which we are hosting here.  Keep those tips coming in via phone and email!

Evan’s Editor at Wired Magazine, Nicholas Thompson, received today an email from Evan saying that he recently purchased a new book by the author Tracy Kidder.  Strength in What Remains was released on August 25th, and it was expected that Evan would be purchasing a copy as soon as possible.

Thompson also released this week information that Evan had made a purchase from Ahearn Group, LLP some time in July.  The Ahearn Group belongs to Frank Ahearn, author of the book How to Disappear.  When contacted about the purchase, Ahearn confirmed that indeed Evan had bought a copy of the book, and had it sent to an address in San Francisco that belongs to the Beauty Bar. Unfortunately it seems that Evan was doing his homework prior to his disappearance.

While we hope that Evan will soon be reading a road map back home, in the mean time we will continue to follow any clues that he leaves behind.  Keep those calls coming into the Tip Line (1-888-603-0968) and emails coming to info@trackevan.com.  So far we’ve received calls from all over the country, and tips have been emailed in from as far away as Italy!  Even the FAA has visited the site in the last few days, so hopefully if Evan decides to fly, we’ll know about it .  Thank you all for your outpouring of support.  Together, I am sure that we WILL find Evan very soon.

Remember, if you post one of our MISSING posters, you may be eligible for a reward if someone finds Evan in your area.