Hello, everyone. I hope everybody is doing great. Been reading the posts without signing in so I'm fairly caught up even though I haven't posted for a while.
First, unfortunately, my roommate is selling her house I will be moving out. And it looks like I will be moving to the entirely opposite side of the valley. So, in a month there will be no more quick drives up to where Steven disappeared. I am sure that will make Appalled happy.
Stress. Meditation. One begets the other. Life is full of new opportunities.
Second, since my roommate is short selling her house and I've been looking for a new house to rent, I gotta tell ya. . .been thinking a lot about Steven. Because here I am, I'm driving into neighborhoods that I have never been in, parking on the street, going up to stranger's houses, etc., etc., etc. Now, I know in doing this I have left a huge electronic trail if I should disappear during one of these trips because I found all of these places online. (By the way, not one has told me to park down the street) Even if Steven did a search online at some library, I think there would still be a very easy way to track him down if he found something online about SCA. Even if it was some free place like Craigslist, you need an email address to correspond with people. And, to our knowledge there has been no record of any emails back and forth between anybody who was a stranger.
Yup. Nor phone calls. Why would you hide your phone calls (ie, TracPhone) yet tell everyone you were in Vegas?
Third, this whole thing about walking away from his life. . .I know we have all been round and round about it but I still don't see it. I can see him leaving behind his parents if he didn't want hassled by them anymore. Sure. But everyone else? Brothers? Other friends? Church members? I can't wrap my mind around that. I can't see him just leaving ALL of them. Some of them, I guess. But ALL of them? Some types of people could do that but does anybody get that picture of him? It's not like he was $500,000 in debt and was telling people he was running a business, all the while he was hiding out in a strip club when he was supposed to be at work, and his wife was about to find out!
Even IF his car was going to be repo'd, I can't come up with debts higher than the mid-four figures.....unless he had a credit account no one knew about.
You're right. He had too many ties, people in Texas, Utah, Nevada. He wouldn't want to live without them. (I say it that way on purpose, because there's still the "ended his life" option).
Fourth, what caught my eye recently was that girl in SoCal who disappeared and then they found her 300 miles away. Here, she had been telling people she was going to UCLA but she had not been enrolled there since 2008. She lied about getting kidnapped. But really, she was just running away. Adding this to my third point, there's not proof Steven was telling any lies as big as this girl was. So he missed some housing payments, he was just joining about 1/4 of the homeowners in the U.S. by doing that.
The fake UCLA runaway girl. At least the Runaway Bride lasted four days. This one didn't. It's HARD to cut the ties with everyone, UNLESS you have someone to go with. How would Steven have met someone so committed to go with him, and support/hide him...for this long?
Where IS that person? They can't be hanging out "normally" with Steven sitting in the living room for five months. If someone comes to see them, does Steven have to hide in the attic?
Fifth, I know this can all get frustrating and most of the post over the last few weeks cover most of the same subjects that have been covered since thread #1 was created way back in like January. But here's the thing to remember: Somebody know something. He or she may not know they know something. But somebody knows something. You take a look at serial murderers who get caught, people who disappeared then are found, etc. . .in retrospect, all of the pieces were there, they just could not be put together because a bunch of different people knew separate things. Whereas, if one person would have known everything, the case would have been solved immediately. Crimes that are never solved are not perfect crimes. It's more a fact of not being able to track down the perpetrator. And I say this because I do believe Steven ran into foul play all in an effort to make money. This is also the reason I believe Steven didn't just perfectly walk away because, and I say this is as nicely as possible, I don't believe he is that lucky or smart.
Let's put it a different way, because I think Steven WAS smart. His trainer at the SL Tribune told me he was "smart and funny". His friend gsmith said the same thing. He had odd characteristics. Maybe a bit of an oddball, but even people who won't let me post their thoughts publicly or come join us, have nothing but good things to say about him.
I think there's something else involved in a "perfect" disappearance: WILLPOWER. Luck is just luck. BUT....to successfully disappear, you have to work hard at it and stick with it. That's the part I think Steven was lacking, because I don't see him having stuck with much else (ie, jobs).
That's the main thing that tells me he's likely not with us any longer, ALTHOUGH Naegle did have a good outlook on it: "It'd get easier the longer you stayed away."
Sixth, having read through most of the disappearance cases on Wikipedia, I have really found out how odd this whole disappearance is. Especially when it is a clean cut guy disappearing in a nice community. I still insist that this was all monetarily motivated. He met someone somewhere. The person told Steven to meet him at one of those hosues on EL or the other street over. They rode somewhere. Steven found out what it was. He wanted to back out. And that was that. I've said drugs but it would not have to be that. Lots of different mobsters here, not just Italians. Russians, Colombians, Mexicans, etc. . . .and it could be any types of "hot" stuff. Fashion goods, cars, electronics, etc.
But, I will be around. . .
Monetary motive/meeting someone: what IF it was merely a parking place, and he was immediately taken elsewhere without ever entering a home?
He could have met someone who had NO direct ties to that neighborhood, but was familiar with that spot. Someone who lived in an adjoining neighborhood, for instance.
