Gisbert Ben Kistemaker was 26 when he set out from the Netherlands and arrived in New York in May 1979. He bought a faded blue and white 1968 Chevy van and was travelling west and north along the Pacific coast, reportedly picking up hitchhikers along the way and planning to visit a friend in British Columbia.

On September 22, 1979 his van was found abandoned near mile marker 233 on Highway 101 in Oregon. His passport and other personal effects remained in the vehicle, and receipts inside showed he had reached the Seattle area. On December 25, 1979 hunters found his body in a remote gravel pit off Rockport Cascade Road, about three miles from Rockport in Skagit County, Washington. Investigators determined he had been killed by a gunshot; the death is a homicide. No suspects or arrests have been publicly identified.

Did anyone who travelled Highway 101 or the Seattle–Skagit area in late 1979 ever encounter Kistemaker or that Chevy van?