Solved Mysteries
February 10, 2017 9:31 AM   Subscribe

An unidentified man who was found wandering along a Brazilian highway near Manaus has been identified. He is Anton Pilipa, a Canadian who went missing from his home in Scarborough, Ontario in 2012 and apparently walked and hitchhiked the approximately six thousand miles over the course of 5 years. His family has taken him back home to Toronto, where he is apparently doing well and recovering from the ordeal.
posted by Copronymus (22 comments total) 10 users marked this as a favorite
 
Like a Yann Martel novel, but about a million times more interesting.
posted by My Dad at 10:18 AM on February 10, 2017 [3 favorites]


Interestingly, while his brother believes that he has mental-health issues, there is no word of a diagnosis, and the only hard facts are that he was a fugitive on the run from assault and weapons charges. Which makes the whole thing sound a lot less whimsical and darker.

(Also, “anti-poverty activist” is a tantalisingly vague description. What if his activism involved holding up banks or something, and the poverty he acted against began and ended with himself...)
posted by acb at 10:21 AM on February 10, 2017


Several different articles on this man clearly states he suffers from schizophrenia. So I don't think he took off to go "on the lam", but instead probably took a long walk because the voices told him to.
posted by P.o.B. at 10:49 AM on February 10, 2017


I'm guessing "assault and weapons charges" means something like losing control and waving a knife around -- the kind of thing that can easily get a metally-ill person shot and killed by police. Not holding up banks. It may not be heartwarming, but don't dismiss the guy as a dangerous criminal based on that language.

I see the fundraiser to bring him home was set up by a radical leftist involved in anti-poverty work in Vancouver: organizing in poor neighborhoods, resisting gentrification, advocating for marginalized groups like drug users and sex workers. Presumably that's what Anton Pilipa was involved with before he disappeared.

I know a guy in a similar situation, an anarchist with mental health problems whose behavior became increasingly erratic. He started doing some dumb shit (vandalism, yelling at people) and could easily have had a run-in with cops that would have led to similar charges, but friends were able to take care of him. He spent some time out of the country but disappeared a year or two ago on his way home. So the outlines of this story are familiar, except for the happy ending. I'm glad Pilipa is back home and has support.
posted by Gerald Bostock at 10:54 AM on February 10, 2017 [11 favorites]


I have a similar family member. Left the country rather than attend court-mandated therapy for mental illness, after running afoul of the law due to his poor grip on reality.

A person can be hard working and very intelligent, and still be lost in an alternate reality.
posted by elizilla at 10:58 AM on February 10, 2017 [2 favorites]


I'm guessing "assault and weapons charges" means something like losing control and waving a knife around -- the kind of thing that can easily get a metally-ill person shot and killed by police.

Maybe TO is like that, but not in Vancouver or Victoria. Canada is a wee bit different than the US of A.
posted by My Dad at 11:06 AM on February 10, 2017 [1 favorite]


That's a lot of border crossings to make! Nine by my count, Canada->US->Mexico->Guatemala->Honduras->Nicaragua->Costa Rica->Panama->Columbia->Brazil (possibly via Venezuela or Ecuador and Peru). Complete with a Darién Gap crossing! I guess tracking the Pan-American highway would get you most of the way there, but he ended up in Manaus/Amazonas so if he was following the PAH I guess he took a wrong turn in Columbia?

Quite an impressive trek, regardless of mental/physical status.
posted by Matt Oneiros at 11:09 AM on February 10, 2017 [1 favorite]


Maybe TO is like that, but not in Vancouver or Victoria.

Dude, I'm from Vancouver. 1, 2, 3, 4, for example.
posted by Gerald Bostock at 11:14 AM on February 10, 2017 [6 favorites]


Good point. Maybe we're just luck in Victoria with VicPD (a very good police force). I would observe, however, that those incidents were from several years ago, and things seem to be getting better in YVR?
posted by My Dad at 11:16 AM on February 10, 2017


Complete with a Darién Gap crossing!

I've been fascinated by the Darién Gap ever since I learned about it, so my very first thought on reading this post was "how did he get through/around the Darién Gap?" Alas, the details of his journey don't seem to be known:
As for where exactly Anton had been in the five years since he was last seen in Toronto, the gaps are still being filled in.

"I haven't wanted to press him too much about it," said Stefan.
Which, fair enough. I wonder if he might have made some of his journey by boat, perhaps a freighter?
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 12:09 PM on February 10, 2017 [2 favorites]


This reminds me of that Win Wenders film, Paris, Texas. Also a guy, possibly with mental health issues, who walked a lot.
posted by batter_my_heart at 12:37 PM on February 10, 2017 [2 favorites]


Huh. That's a lot of borders to cross without id and without getting caught. Are they sure he walked and didn't maybe hitch a ride on a freighter? If not, wow, weirdly skilled at it for a schizophrenic.
posted by tavella at 1:35 PM on February 10, 2017


Schizophrenia would have no bearing one way or the other on his skill at crossing borders without ID.
posted by OmieWise at 2:04 PM on February 10, 2017 [8 favorites]


Freighter is an interesting idea, certainly seems to reduce the needed luck/skill quotients a bit. Perhaps he arrived in Brazil at Belém and travelled up river.
posted by Matt Oneiros at 2:19 PM on February 10, 2017


Schizophrenia would certainly impact his ability to consistently plan and execute surreptitious boarder crossings; it's a disease that distorts your perceptions and turns your actions erratic, pretty much the opposite of the skills you need to do that.
posted by tavella at 2:48 PM on February 10, 2017 [1 favorite]


It's a disease that may distort your perceptions and turn your actions erratic, in certain aspects of your life. I've diagnosed, known, worked with, and interacted with hundreds of people with schizophrenia during my ongoing career in micro and macro level mental health. They have varied widely in their ability to accomplish all sorts of things, kind of like, well, everyone. I think you are being far too categorical.
posted by OmieWise at 4:25 PM on February 10, 2017 [9 favorites]


I think you are being far too categorical.

And perhaps exaggerating the difficulty of crossing some borders.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:12 PM on February 10, 2017


Maybe TO is like that, but not in Vancouver or Victoria. Canada is a wee bit different than the US of A.

Manifestly untrue.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 7:17 PM on February 10, 2017 [2 favorites]


Metafilter: Like a Yann Martel novel, but about a million times more interesting.
posted by dancestoblue at 3:24 AM on February 11, 2017


Darien is a particular fascination of mine. The typical way around it is to take a sailboat from Panama City to Cartagena, Colombia. A lot of hippie wanderer types are able to travel that way on private sailboats in exchange for work. Nobody in their right mind actually goes into Darien, it's infested with both drug gangs and Fer de Lances (an extremely dangerous venomous pit viper).

I've read that there's a research station a hundred-ish km into Darien that you can visit, but you have to wear full rubber wader type gear so you don't get bitten.
posted by zug at 6:55 AM on February 11, 2017 [1 favorite]


Darien is a particular fascination of mine. The typical way around it is to take a sailboat from Panama City to Cartagena, Colombia. A lot of hippie wanderer types are able to travel that way on private sailboats in exchange for work. Nobody in their right mind actually goes into Darien, it's infested with both drug gangs and Fer de Lances (an extremely dangerous venomous pit viper).

In a parallel universe, it was also the crucible of the Scottish Empire.
posted by acb at 9:23 AM on February 11, 2017


As recently as last year, there was a 18 hour ferry that went between Colón, Panama and Cartagena. I'm not certain if it still runs.
posted by umbú at 7:32 PM on February 12, 2017


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