The epigram before chapter 10 is an excerpt from the New York Time’s story on Chris’ death, headlined, “Dying in the Wild, a Hiker Recorded the Terror.” The following chapter recalls the police’s attempts to track down Chris’ next of kin but because Chris chose to abandon his identity, the police had trouble finding his family. The Epigram has a lack of detail, which leads to speculation over who the dead hiker is. Chris’ lies throughout his adventure made it difficult for his family to get the news of his death, but it is only because of the paper that his family got word of his death.
The lack of detail, specifically regarding the identity of the hiker, gives the effect of the ability to question whether this is McCandless, Reuss, or another
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And the only reason that the station took Westerberg’s information as viable was because when he called, He says “I know who he is he worked for me. I think I’ve even got his Social Security Number around here somewhere”. The Social Security Number’s accuracy helped the police place Chris’ home in northern Virginia and in turn let the authorities contact Chris’ oldest brother, Sam. Although the newspaper had the police chasing different leads all over the country, as well as encouraged many to call in thinking Chris was their lost friend or family member, the paper did its job in putting Chris’ face out there so that somebody who actually knew him could help point the authorities in the proper