This is an another great historical lost of bitcoin. According to Howell, it was his girlfriend that threw the harddisk into the waste in 2013. And he has been searching for it for 12 years. And he has used different devices plus planning robot to search for it but no avail and finally gave up the search. And right now that bitcoin price is on the peak, the 8,000 BTC he lost would hit very big amount. This is a very painful lost and he never forgive the girl.
It's loss, it's done and he will never recover it.
If any news relates to this man, it is noise to hype the market but if we look at it in another view, we can see his loss as a free lesson and warning to all people who have bitcoins about importance of backing up their Bitcoin wallets properly. Similarly to all people who are outsiders and don't have bitcoins yet but have kind of interest and intention to purchase bitcoin.