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Jim Gillian
Gillian called the police after reading out about Alex's death, and he described several peices of equipment that the aricle did not release. He told the police that his name was Alex, and he told the police that he was from South Dekota. -
Anchorage Daily News
The story of Alex was publishedin the Anchorage Daily News. -
Pictures
The police developed the film from the hiker's belongings, and this allowd Gillian to fully Identify the hiker as Alex. -
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Police Search for Alex
The troopers started searching for the hiker's kin in South Dekota. They found a man by the name of McCandless near Carthage, but that ended up being the wrong guy. The town was only a few miles away from Carthage, where Westerberg lives. -
Wayne Westerberg
Wayne Westerberg was on his way back to his farm from his fields, when his employee heard a story on the radio that sounded like Alex's. He phoned Westerberg to turn on the radio, and he knew that they wre talking about Alex, so he called the police to tell them what he knew. He found two W-4 forms, which the second gave his real name and place of residency. -
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Searching
Authorites looked for McCandless in phone directories but could not find his parents becuase they moves to Maryland and no longer had a Virginia number. They did find another McCandless in Virginia. -
Phone call
Sam McCandless, Walt's oldest child, still lived in Virginia and recieved a phone call from the Fairfax County homicide detective. -
Police Station
The detectives asked Sam to come to the police station, which he agreed to doing, The picture of Chris was large, and he had a beard with long hair. He could still tell that it was Chris though. -
Telling
Sam McCandless now had to tell his parents that their son is dead. He fathered his family together, and drove out to Maryland so he could talk to his parents about this serious matter.