NV NV - Steven T. Koecher, 30, Henderson, 13 Dec 2009 - #12

[paris_paris]

Wow. I see lots of activity here. Cell phone pings finally got sorted out.

I'll catch up, but I gotta ask, cause I'm so confused now.

Steven talked to Travis at 6:58 p.m. on Sunday? On his way to Target? So he didn't go missing at noon in Henderson?

 

[SuziQ]

Why are people suggesting Steven was in SCA to do something illegal either on his own or on behalf of his last known employer?

People who do illegal side jobs usually have plenty of cash - maybe not much money in the bank - but are usually not hurting for cash.

Steven by all accounts was as poor as a church mouse so if he was earning cash under the table, he was pretty bad at that too.

Because it's just as possible as your theory of Steve running off. People desperate for cash will let their commense sense slip out the window. I posted awhile back about an unemployed teacher who got caught up in something way illegal on Craigslist. The job was way too good to be true. His explanation for not seeing the obvious criminal implications? He was desperate for a job and money.

 

[SuziQ]

bbm

That is not good, especially if this isn't the correct home. Either way it is not appropriate. I just have to say if this were my home I would be ticked.

I'd be pretty understanding of people looking for a missing person.

 

[webrocket]

For all we, or anyone else knows, Steven could have been killed in SCA.

True.

However, why would the killer leave Steven's car in SCA yet take his cell phone after killing him?

And how could the alleged killer be certain Steven left no paper or email trail that would have led directly to the killer's doorstep?

The absence of a trail (other than pings and a few receipts) strongly indicates to me that Steven was covering his tracks because he did not want anyone to find out what he was up to, i.e. an exit strategy.

If you look at the times of the last pings it looks like he went to bed early that night after a long day on the road then got up early to resume his voyage. He ditched the phone in Whitney Ranch and went off into the yonder with his companion as he planned.

What I don't understand is that while these are my opinions, and I can be wrong, why is it that so many people would presume he is dead rather than believe he is alive and living elsewhere by choice?

If nothing else the ping evidence (in my interpretation) shows he did meet up with someone and went elsewhere, namely that SCA was NOT his ultimate destination.

While the ping evidence does not prove much (other than in my book he was still alive and in LV the morning after) it in no way disproves any theory I have espoused from day one.

 

[RubyRed]

I'd be pretty understanding of people looking for a missing person.

I would too, if you knocked on my door.

 

[carbuff]

I'd be pretty understanding of people looking for a missing person.

Not if they broke into my back yard and were going through my things. That's just --

And even if you did find something that way, it couldn't be used in court.

 

[sbakker]

Why are people suggesting Steven was in SCA to do something illegal either on his own or on behalf of his last known employer?

People who do illegal side jobs usually have plenty of cash - maybe not much money in the bank - but are usually not hurting for cash.

Steven by all accounts was as poor as a church mouse so if he was earning cash under the table, he was pretty bad at that too.

I do not think steven KNEW he was doing illegal jobs. He was doing them for his boss. And his boss was the one making the money. Steven would NOT do it if it was illegal. Maybe he was suspicious, and ..... who knows what happened-a thought anyway.

 

[webrocket]

I do not think steven KNEW he was doing illegal jobs. He was doing them for his boss. And his boss was the one making the money. Steven would NOT do it if it was illegal. Maybe he was suspicious, and ..... who knows what happened-a thought anyway.

I suppose it is one thing to speculate that Steven was doing something illegal. It is quite another thing to publicly speculate that he was doing so at the behest of someone else, whose name has been thrown about on this website.

Personally, I would never go there for very good reasons.

 

[gsmith]

Here are the cell pings, on a map.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=U...6.62655,-114.422607&spn=1.362209,2.246704&z=9

Wow. This is the most useful info I've seen. Where are the pings of him traveling to vegas? Shouldn't they be pinging every few miles on his trip? I know my phone does.


Looking at the ping map it appears he was in the general area his car was found from at least 7am till 12pm (I was told weeks ago the pings looked like he was all over vegas). The pings at 7 and 10 am are within 5 to 5.5 miles from where he was spotted on evening lights at 12pm.

I know cell towers have a theoretical range of about 30 miles but the ideal is to keep the distance the phone has to transmit to a minimum to preserve battery.

The ping that is most interesting to me is the one at 4:36pm. From evening lights it is about 7 miles and is in the path of some hilly/mountinous terrain. That terrain and extra distance would make the previous towers more ideal for transmission if he remained on evening lights.

My point is that HIS CELL PHONE MUST HAVE TRAVELED NORTH.

Not only that but the two towers pinged later on are next to a crowded shopping area. There is no way those two towers would be picking up signals farther than a couple miles. In busy areas, cell towers are placed about 1/4 to 1/2 miles apart.

His phone's battery lasted till the next morning. It couldn't be communicating with towers 15 miles away and last that long.

 

[SuziQ]

Not if they broke into my back yard and were going through my things. That's just --

And even if you did find something that way, it couldn't be used in court.

People find stuff all the time and it's used in court. :waitasec:

 

[gsmith]

I looked up the distance to walk from evening lights to the mall ring circle (area where the two towers pinged around 4:30pm). Google maps says it is about 11 miles and to walk it would take about 3 and 1/2 hours. That compared to 4.5 hours from the time he was spotted on evening lights to the cell ping near the mall.

INTERESTING......

 

[gsmith]

Gosh darn the two pings I was refering to wasn't till 7pm.

My bad.

I'm too anxious to think correctly. Sorry

 

[swjaxon]

If nothing else the ping evidence (in my interpretation) shows he did meet up with someone and went elsewhere, namely that SCA was NOT his ultimate destination.

While the ping evidence does not prove much (other than in my book he was still alive and in LV the morning after) it in no way disproves any theory I have espoused from day one.

I completely agree with you: he left SCA after being seen on the cam and the pings do not discount any one particular theory.

 

[rd_jfc]

Hey what's up, I just got onto this sleuth thing. Anyway, I posted the FB info about the cleaning crews and such. The daughter I spoke with did not give any details about which cleaning crews or crew was there. I worried that she might have been exaggerating, but she seemed sincere and wanted to help. The reason she saw the activity at the house at night (not cleaning crews, they were during the day) is because she had some type of health issue where she couldn't fall alseep at night. She did not indicate if this activity continued after Steve's disappearance. One of my buddies hopped the fence of 2250 (left side) because we saw a big black plastic container. He looked in and found nothing except some random stuff and an electrical extension cord. However there were two shovels (and other stuff I can't remember) next to the container. This house was for rent at the time and I called the lady who was in charge of showing it (phone # on sign). She had heard nothing about Steven. This was in April. She said she would have to get permission from the owners to have anyone (police) search the place. After these bold moves I decided to just shut up and feel like I've done my part without messing up the investigation. Anyway I hope this helps. My e-mail address is escholl@dmail.dixie.edu

The address is wrong then. Something is wrong here. You can google 2250 Evening Lights, see it was purchased in 2005, see the owners, man and wife, see them on the news for the last three years as he is dying from a VA mistake (that mistake was made and ramifications are apparently not in dispute), triial to be held in January, see them quoted as recently as less than two weeks ago, and see references to them living in Sun City Anthem area in the articles.

If they had to move out and the house truly is for rent then the situation for them has deteriorated badly recently. In any event, and for their sake and health I hope they have not been bothered.

rd

 

[swjaxon]

Wow. This is the most useful info I've seen. Where are the pings of him traveling to vegas? Shouldn't they be pinging every few miles on his trip? I know my phone does.


Looking at the ping map it appears he was in the general area his car was found from at least 7am till 12pm (I was told weeks ago the pings looked like he was all over vegas). The pings at 7 and 10 am are within 5 to 5.5 miles from where he was spotted on evening lights at 12pm.

I know cell towers have a theoretical range of about 30 miles but the ideal is to keep the distance the phone has to transmit to a minimum to preserve battery.

The ping that is most interesting to me is the one at 4:36pm. From evening lights it is about 7 miles and is in the path of some hilly/mountinous terrain. That terrain and extra distance would make the previous towers more ideal for transmission if he remained on evening lights.

My point is that HIS CELL PHONE MUST HAVE TRAVELED NORTH.

Not only that but the two towers pinged later on are next to a crowded shopping area. There is no way those two towers would be picking up signals farther than a couple miles. In busy areas, cell towers are placed about 1/4 to 1/2 miles apart.

His phone's battery lasted till the next morning. It couldn't be communicating with towers 15 miles away and last that long.

Hey GS,

Just to clear a couple of things up:

The document doesn't appear to log cell tower hand-offs. I don't know if that exists, but I haven't seen it.

There are three calls where the exact cell tower location is unknown. Two of those are the Whitney Ranch calls you reference. As I explain in the pop-up balloons, these are placed in arbitrary, high traffic locations in Whitney Ranch. Take these exact locations with a grain of salt.

That said, Whitney Ranch is relatively small. I have drawn a box around the Whitney Ranch borders.

ETA: I was the one talking to you with Rolf at the search about the pings. I don't remember saying they were all over the valley. But I do remember explaining what I've learned about cell towers. Basically, they can see a phone up to 30 miles IF there's line of site. If overloaded, they'll hand off a call to the next tower, and if that tower is overloaded, it'll do the same. Since Vegas is flat, Steve could have hypothetically been in North Las Vegas and had his calls ping off Henderson towers. I think that is extremely unlikely and that Steve was in a close proximity to the towers he pinged off of for two reasons: cell phones look for the closest tower and most calls appear on towers in the same area where he was last seen.

Also, there's something I forgot to mention that might be important or not. This is the model of phone Steve used.

 

[gsmith]

Hey GS,

Just to clear a couple of things up:

The document doesn't appear to log cell tower hand-offs. I don't know if that exists, but I haven't seen it.

There are three calls where the exact cell tower location is unknown. Two of those are the Whitney Ranch calls you reference. As I explain in the pop-up balloons, these are placed in arbitrary, high traffic locations in Whitney Ranch. Take these exact locations with a grain of salt.

That said, Whitney Ranch is relatively small. I have drawn a box around the Whitney Ranch borders.

ETA: I was the one talking to you with Rolf at the search about the pings. I don't remember saying they were all over the valley. But I do remember explaining what I've learned about cell towers. Basically, they can see a phone up to 30 miles IF there's line of site. If overloaded, they'll hand off a call to the next tower, and if that tower is overloaded, it'll do the same. Since Vegas is flat, Steve could have hypothetically been in North Las Vegas and had his calls ping off Henderson towers. I think that is extremely unlikely and that Steve was in a close proximity to the towers he pinged off of for two reasons: cell phones look for the closest tower and most calls appear on towers in the same area where he was last seen.

Also, there's something I forgot to mention that might be important or not. This is the model of phone Steve used.

They don't overlap like that in crowded areas. It would cause too much interference. They are set to overlap a bit so they can hand off calls but you aren't going to have a cell tower in north las vegas picking up a call from henderson, no way.

 

[swjaxon]

SW-Did the ping records come directly from the company? I am curious as to why the configuration of the records would prove to be so challenging...I mean you have to figure there is some kind of standardization...but that is just me.

I don't know why the doc looks the way it does. Maybe there's someone out there who knows what it all means, but I've never found him (or her).

 

[rd_jfc]

Wow. This is the most useful info I've seen. Where are the pings of him traveling to vegas? Shouldn't they be pinging every few miles on his trip? I know my phone does.


Looking at the ping map it appears he was in the general area his car was found from at least 7am till 12pm (I was told weeks ago the pings looked like he was all over vegas). The pings at 7 and 10 am are within 5 to 5.5 miles from where he was spotted on evening lights at 12pm.

I know cell towers have a theoretical range of about 30 miles but the ideal is to keep the distance the phone has to transmit to a minimum to preserve battery.

The ping that is most interesting to me is the one at 4:36pm. From evening lights it is about 7 miles and is in the path of some hilly/mountinous terrain. That terrain and extra distance would make the previous towers more ideal for transmission if he remained on evening lights.

My point is that HIS CELL PHONE MUST HAVE TRAVELED NORTH.

Not only that but the two towers pinged later on are next to a crowded shopping area. There is no way those two towers would be picking up signals farther than a couple miles. In busy areas, cell towers are placed about 1/4 to 1/2 miles apart.

His phone's battery lasted till the next morning. It couldn't be communicating with towers 15 miles away and last that long.

Hi gsmith, jaxon has posted some explanation including some data that is not consistent for unknown reasons, such as call on phone bill but no ping recorded. However, appears to be no calls on bill on Sunday in addition to the listed pings.

In prior post, I explained that location pings are stored (or not stored at all) separately from phone call information. These are ping locations when calls or text messages were placed or recieved, because phone company does store that with phone call.

The gap Saturday day could be phone turned off, or no one called him and if they did didn't leave a voice mail (also not 100% that voice mail gets recorded to phone bill, varies on plan, based on info jaxon and others posted).

That SK's cell phone was in Whitney Ranch area from at least 4:36pm on is a given imo. No 15 mile transmissions, etc.

Thanks for info about area where pings were.

rd

 

[swjaxon]

They don't overlap like that in crowded areas. It would cause too much interference. They are set to overlap a bit so they can hand off calls but you aren't going to have a cell tower in north las vegas picking up a call from henderson, no way.

Exactly. I'm saying it's possible, but extremely unlikely.

 

[Mia]

Although I don't post much here anymore, I still think about Steven every day and read every single one of your posts. Once again, I'm in awe of the level of commitment displayed here among what are essentially strangers, coming together to solve the puzzle of a missing man who it seems many others have forgotten.

And indeed this case does seem like a puzzle. IF Steven met with foul play, then that is an accurate description of his disappearance, as one would have to discover who the murderer(s) were, how Steven met them, if and how his driving 'binges' are related to his murder, etc. But what if it's not a puzzle, and this case is exactly how it appears? A 30-year old man whose life wasn't going as planned, jobless, under pressure from his upwardly mobile family to achieve a certain level of success, unmarried and Mormon, drives his car to a neighborhood in Henderson, Nevada and ditches it - to either walk into the hills and commit suicide OR to run away and start a new life. My opinion still changes daily on which of the three it is, and I do believe these are really the only three options.

If Steven met with foul play, I do think that is him on the video. I do think he drove to Henderson himself not under duress. I just can't get on board with someone murdering him on the night of Dec 12 in St. George, getting rid of every single piece of evidence that would indicate a crime was committed, driving Steven's car to Henderson, impersonating him on the phone with close friends, and just happening to look so much like Steven that Steven's own family mistakes the murderer for him on the videos. That, to me, seems very far fetched.

If Steven was murdered, he met his demise with someone he met in the SCA neighborhood, IMO.