NV NV - Steven Koecher, 30, Henderson, 13 Dec 2009 - #22

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On the topic of pings, are any of you familiar with the 2017 disappearance of Michael Chambers in TX? In his case, investigators were able to trace Chambers' final phone signals to very specific locations, as well as the speed at which the signal traveled. They determined he was traveling at 2.5 mph and that his phone signal stopped in the middle of a bridge.

I'm just wondering if there's a way to determine more specifics with SK's phone signals too. The pings I've seen in his reports have pointed to vague locations/towers and gave no indication of the speed at which he was traveling. Is there any way to determine this?
 
On the topic of pings, are any of you familiar with the 2017 disappearance of Michael Chambers in TX? In his case, investigators were able to trace Chambers' final phone signals to very specific locations, as well as the speed at which the signal traveled. They determined he was traveling at 2.5 mph and that his phone signal stopped in the middle of a bridge.

I'm just wondering if there's a way to determine more specifics with SK's phone signals too. The pings I've seen in his reports have pointed to vague locations/towers and gave no indication of the speed at which he was traveling. Is there any way to determine this?

I think the biggest issue with this is that the technology wasn't there in 2009 when Steven went missing. Additionally, I recall him not having a smart phone, so not sure how good the data is on the old style of phones.
 
Hi everyone. It was laytonian who put together the ping map and I wouldn't post that without her permission.

That said, IIRC, the ping was in the general area of the I-515 and Russell Road. I'm linking a Google map of the area below.

Also IIRC, in the discussions about cell phone pings at the time, we learned that signals will ping off the closest available tower. That may have changed since the time of Steven's disappearance, but probably not. So, it's reasonable to believe that, during a weekend in a city like Vegas, the towers will be pretty busy. It was also the final weekend of the National Finals Rodeo, which draws a LOT of people to town.

It's not too terribly far from where Steven's car was found, but I don't think we can know how close Steven's phone actually was to the area or for how long. We also don't know if Steven was with his phone at the time.

I 515 and russell road las vegas - Google Maps
 
<modsnip - quoted post contained sources that are not approved>

I’m sure this is not really helpful, but I lived near his last phone ping location in 2009 and now live maybe 7 miles away.
I have followed this case from the beginning. I hope someday his family can find him and Steven will Rest In Peace.
 
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There are no womens’ prisons near any of his phone pings as I look through that link.

My mistake - the womens prison was apparently in the area of one of Stevens earlier pings that morning of Dec 13,I believe it was mentioned in Ed Denzels podcast
Also brings the question as to what else he was doing that early in town for 4 hours, as the first phone call he got was 7:52am, I think he was right on the edge of the city at the time
 
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I think there's a solid chance Steven committed suicide. My gut feeling.

This has always been a popular theory. My question has always been, why come here for that? There are hundreds if not thousands of areas near to St. George where he could have done that and never been found. It also doesn't explain all the odd travels in the weeks leading up to his disappearance.
 
I think there's a solid chance Steven committed suicide. My gut feeling.

Given all the info that is out now, I think that is very unlikely. You have two men with a shady past and Steven was last seen near their address and was in contact with one of them. Not only were they not communicating with LE, but they were actively deflecting and misleading them.

I haven't reviewed this case in a while but I think the likely outcome was Steven owed BB money and BB orchestrated a plan to call it a wash. Steven may or may not have know what he was actually doing, but he was likely delivering pills to MD. The key to this case is finding a link between BB and MD. There is far too much circumstantial evidence to suggest they weren't involved in some way.

<modsnip: rumors>
 
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I was excited to post this link, thinking it might be Steven.
As the water of Lake Mead is dropping, someone found an old barrel containing a corpse. In the past, this was probably several hundred feet offshore.
Lake Mead body: Homicide victim in barrel discovered as reservoir level drops - CNN
However, now I see that cnn.com has posted a new detail that I didn't see in earlier version of the story.
This is a suspected homicide victim from the 1980s...
Well, hopefully it will help bring closure to some other family.
 
According to Occam's Razor theory, a principle of theory construction or evaluation according to which, other things equal, explanations that posit fewer entities, or fewer kinds of entities, are to be preferred to explanations that posit more. In other words, all things considered, the simplest explanation is probably the correct explanation.

Regarding SK's case. He was last seen by at least two witness' on that fateful day, December 13, 2009. One, new information has been made public suggesting SK approached a neighbor on Savannah Springs Ave. It should be noted this home is the second house from the end of Savannah Springs. New information suggests this neighbor was interviewed by at least two investigators where he states SK asked him something to the effect, " do you want the money."? The second witness is the video itself which captured SK walking by and turning onto Evening Lights. The 6 min gap from arrival to being seen on video is explained by first going to the wrong home. Now, interestingly enough the DiMaggio's lived in the second house from the corner of Savannah Springs and Evening Lights. Mrs. Lee was interviewed (neighbor across the street) where she stated she saw a moving van and the people seemed to be moving out quickly that Sunday. This case starts and ends here. Its simple. This is where SK was last seen by one person and one surveillance system.

In addition, the new public information reveals the casita in which MD lived was trashed inside by MD himself. MD had lived there, convalescing from a bad car accident and on many medications. The police finally interviewed MD in February 2010, I believe. The police reports states his reaction to questioning appeared 'deceptive'. MD has a considerable record of domestic violence and drugs. Red Flag!

In my view, the simple explanation is this. SK was sent there, by whom I don't know. He visited the wrong house, second from the end of Savanna Springs. Getting his bearings, he begins walking to 2260 Evening Lights where he runs into MD. MD on drugs and out of his mind, having heard "money," beats SK to death. Now, the cell is documented to travel north until it dies. Id be interested in knowing the trash collection schedule that week and the route the trash truck takes to dump its load. More importantly however, investigate the property of 2260 Evening Lights with a dog and GPR (ground penetrating radar).

The only way to investigate that property is thru a warrant. This leads me to my thought. Contact a good investigative journalist. Get this back into the public domain. Tell the story of how LE at the time, didn't do such a good job. Give LE another opportunity to investigate; using the new evidence which has been uncovered. There is ample evidence for another investigation here, in my opinion. A good investigative journalist will be the squeaky wheel to get LE back onto the case. 11 years has passed. The public pot will be stirred, perhaps generating tips from current and former co-workers, friends, perhaps MD's family, or even criminals hearing something and wanting reduced sentences. The list goes on.
 
I like Glovey's explanation, but the odd thing is that Stevens phone was used the next morning. If it was thrown in the garbage and picked up by a garbage truck, and no pings or calls/texts/ anything that would make noise happened until around 4:30 I think, I would think it would get lost in the trash collection. I don't see how anyone could find it or hear it, let alone use it. I don't think there's any garbage or landfill sites near his last phone ping. I don't know much about garbage collecting, but would it make sense for them to drive around in the afternoon on a Sunday to do it? I always thought it was a Monday to Friday job

I always found it odd that no one (aside from "Angela DiMaggio", if that's even a real name) tried to collect the reward money that was offered in February 2010 (which was $10,000). I believe "Angela" contacted police around March 2010 and said to look in the desert. I know it's entirely possible Steven's killer never told anyone what he did until years later, but still...whoever he told should have common sense to at least research to see if there was a reward for information
 
To add a little more to Gloveys explanation - given the clues we have, I think this is what happened but of course its speculative:

BB owed MD money for whatever reason, so BB decided to sell some of his expired/stolen pills to make money, since he wasn't getting any rent money from Steven. I suspect BB had experience driving around delivering/selling expired or stolen pills, but had he been caught one more time doing anything illegal, one more charge would have put him in prison (this is what the private investigators found), so he got Steven to do it as a favour. This is what I believe Steven was doing on his long drives a few days before he disappeared (delivering them). and I think he was delivering pills in north Las Vegas area early Sunday Dec 13, 2009, which is why he was there so early. His final stop was dropping off money to MD. This lines up with BB's wife comment that it was his "last stop before heading home, according to his last conversation". (what conversation she is talking about is unknown, but it sounds like she knows more about this than is willing to admit)

Something happened and he was killed (probably strangled) at 2260 Evening Lights. The neighbour across the street noticed that there was "suspicious activity" and they "moved a lot of boxes in 3 hours" which is when panic mode set in and he needed to move things as well as get rid of Steven. I believe his body was taken in the moving van to the desert somewhere (possibly the Henderson Airport area, which is where "Angela Dimaggio" told the police where to look. southwest of Evening Lights).

The phone travels are a mystery though, I can't really piece it together but I would not think Steven was with his phone at the time. The fact that BB called or texted Stevens phone at 4:36pm and got no response then or later that day or the next morning, to me means Steven was already killed (if, according to BB, there was already a plan for Steven to pay back rent, there would be no reason for Steven to avoid responding). Likely that BB was contacting him to follow up with the results of the transaction because he would not have heard back from Steven for several hours by this time. BB attempted to contact Steven several times the next few days..even to the point of calling using different phone numbers, probably because he thought Steven was trying to avoid him for some reason.

Its very sad to me there doesn't seem to be any movement on this case. I have a feeling MD or his parents (or both), will pass away before they are investigated any further.
 
<modsnip: not an approved source>
Also I just had a thought. What if BB's plan was to get Steven to do pill deliveries for him for the rest of December, and then when Steven started his new job (that was pretty much promised to him by the church in January), he would start paying him back? This sounds sensible to me, although I don't know the logistics of drug delivering, so I could be way off. Maybe once you're in you can't get out. BB, nor his wife, never revealed the details of any plan to pay back money to law enforcement, however.
 
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I like Glovey's explanation, but the odd thing is that Stevens phone was used the next morning. If it was thrown in the garbage and picked up by a garbage truck, and no pings or calls/texts/ anything that would make noise happened until around 4:30 I think, I would think it would get lost in the trash collection. I don't see how anyone could find it or hear it, let alone use it. I don't think there's any garbage or landfill sites near his last phone ping. I don't know much about garbage collecting, but would it make sense for them to drive around in the afternoon on a Sunday to do it? I always thought it was a Monday to Friday job

I always found it odd that no one (aside from "Angela DiMaggio", if that's even a real name) tried to collect the reward money that was offered in February 2010 (which was $10,000). I believe "Angela" contacted police around March 2010 and said to look in the desert. I know it's entirely possible Steven's killer never told anyone what he did until years later, but still...whoever he told should have common sense to at least research to see if there was a reward for information

I have a theory about the phone. I believe his killer found Steven's burner phone and didn't think to look for another phone. I believe a burner phone explains no communication trail for his odd travels before Vegas. So the real phone may have traveled with Steven's body. At some point the killer finds the real phone and pulls up the voicemail to see if anyone is missing Steven. Forgive me as I am pulling info out of my brain from years past, IIRC, the last ping was in a mixed use area if big box stores, homes, shady apartments, and industrial. In other words, an area with lots of dumpsters. Moo. Gosh, it is so nice to see people still discussing this case!
 
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According to Occam's Razor theory, a principle of theory construction or evaluation according to which, other things equal, explanations that posit fewer entities, or fewer kinds of entities, are to be preferred to explanations that posit more. In other words, all things considered, the simplest explanation is probably the correct explanation.

Regarding SK's case. He was last seen by at least two witness' on that fateful day, December 13, 2009. One, new information has been made public suggesting SK approached a neighbor on Savannah Springs Ave. It should be noted this home is the second house from the end of Savannah Springs. New information suggests this neighbor was interviewed by at least two investigators where he states SK asked him something to the effect, " do you want the money."? The second witness is the video itself which captured SK walking by and turning onto Evening Lights. The 6 min gap from arrival to being seen on video is explained by first going to the wrong home. Now, interestingly enough the DiMaggio's lived in the second house from the corner of Savannah Springs and Evening Lights. Mrs. Lee was interviewed (neighbor across the street) where she stated she saw a moving van and the people seemed to be moving out quickly that Sunday. This case starts and ends here. Its simple. This is where SK was last seen by one person and one surveillance system.

In addition, the new public information reveals the casita in which MD lived was trashed inside by MD himself. MD had lived there, convalescing from a bad car accident and on many medications. The police finally interviewed MD in February 2010, I believe. The police reports states his reaction to questioning appeared 'deceptive'. MD has a considerable record of domestic violence and drugs. Red Flag!

In my view, the simple explanation is this. SK was sent there, by whom I don't know. He visited the wrong house, second from the end of Savanna Springs. Getting his bearings, he begins walking to 2260 Evening Lights where he runs into MD. MD on drugs and out of his mind, having heard "money," beats SK to death. Now, the cell is documented to travel north until it dies. Id be interested in knowing the trash collection schedule that week and the route the trash truck takes to dump its load. More importantly however, investigate the property of 2260 Evening Lights with a dog and GPR (ground penetrating radar).

The only way to investigate that property is thru a warrant. This leads me to my thought. Contact a good investigative journalist. Get this back into the public domain. Tell the story of how LE at the time, didn't do such a good job. Give LE another opportunity to investigate; using the new evidence which has been uncovered. There is ample evidence for another investigation here, in my opinion. A good investigative journalist will be the squeaky wheel to get LE back onto the case. 11 years has passed. The public pot will be stirred, perhaps generating tips from current and former co-workers, friends, perhaps MD's family, or even criminals hearing something and wanting reduced sentences. The list goes on.

This theory is very close to what I have thought. Again, going on memories from years past, on Google maps, the suspected house involved had a bunch of white vans, like one in front and several in back. I do not know what all those vans were for, but you would need to hire drivers to drive those vans...for some reason...KWIM? JMO.
 

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