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

[believe09]

Boy... That story looks familiar...

Ahhh, it's the sincerest form of flattery, right?

 

[laytonian]

It is. Welcome to my world. So much time is spent sending outlets like these copyright violation notices...

They don't even give credit. Sheesh.

It's outright theft; I wonder who hired the person who never learned what the word "plagiarism" means.

 

[carbuff]

The atttowers.com website is interesting (thanks again, SeekingSusan!)

There's an AT&T tower right in SCA at 2402 Atchley (MAP) - yet, Steven's phone never hit off that tower.

If you were driving to it, from where the car was parked, it's only .8 mile (and much less as the crow flies). (MAP).

What does that mean?
That the tower's too new?
That his phone was off, when he was in SCA?

IF the tower was present on Dec 13th and since he was so close to it, wouldn't his phone have hit that rural/residential SCA tower rather than hitting something further (ie, the Whitney Ranch tower at 4:36pm)?

It's possible something blocks line of sight. The place spouse used to work was only a few hundred feet from the base of the tower. When I was in the parking lot, I had no reception whatsoever because the signal didn't broadcast that sharply downward...

 

[Lato]

Boy... That story looks familiar...

If I could have found credit, I would have put it right up there....lol.
I would guess that it is not a CBS affiliate station.

 

[rd_jfc]

Dial-up?
According to the landlady, there was no landline in the home...so that would rule out dial-up.

Wifi hotspots?
I tend to think that someone who drives to Vegas, but doesn't take their notebook computer with them, doesn't use wifi hotspots much.

Wifi/MyFi card?
With his financial situation, $60 a month is a lot.

Snail mail?
There was "a stack" of unsent job apps in his apartment. That indicates he was planning on mailing out applications, with info gained from the phone book or newspaper.

It'd be interesting to know how many of the "thousands" of email job applications were produced AFTER he moved to St George. I'll bet very few.

It seems he was really good at producing job apps. Not good at actually seeking a job.

and there I think you have summed it up perfectly, laytonian. The last possibility is public access to a library PC, which I don't know how available they are and if so what kind of time limits or waiting for other people on it needs to be done. I would say would be very hard to generate and receive many, many emails that way.

And yet we have an astute person in swjaxon whose take was that SK was totally focused on job hunting because he saw thousands of emails that were 99% job hunting related. How were these emails recieved with no internet access?

I'm not so sure next time SK runs off from this mess that I won't join him.

rd

 

[webrocket]

with so many people having wireless in their own homes, it is very easy to pick up a free signal. Maybe not as strong as your own, but they are all over the place. So neither Steven nor the landlord needed to have their own wireless account.

 

[rd_jfc]

<snip>

Rachael Anderson is missing and her two, young, low income, struggling daughters need help in resolving her dissappearance. God Bless.

yes, I need to focus on learning about Rachael and her daughters. Thanks for the kick in the butt to get me started, holly.

rd

 

[laytonian]

with so many people having wireless in their own homes, it is very easy to pick up a free signal. Maybe not as strong as your own, but they are all over the place. So neither Steven nor the landlord needed to have their own wireless account.

At the time Steven lived in St George, the open wifi connection was two houses down, around the corner. It didn't reach into his house.

 

[Malini2001]

I'm sorry for not being more clear.

Steve does have thousands of emails in his inbox from job hunting sites, responses from prospective employers, family, etc. Most are job hunting and unread (daily alerts from certain job websites). He opened the ones that looked interesting. But it doesn't look like he had internet access at his home. There aren't a lot of sent emails, and of those, they're very spaced out. He wasn't prompt in responding to people. Same with his Facebook. Just not a lot of activity.

Thanks for clearing that up.

So Steve took the time to join job hunting sites and make up search agents, but left most responses unread. I can understand only opening the interesting looking ones. But since he wasn't having much luck, what does that say about what he was doing? He doesn't seem to have been spending a lot of time on the job hunt - or maybe he was just a disorganized person in his hunt. He was probably using library computers, but my guess is he probably wasn't spending enough time there. So if his time wasn't spent on the job hunt, what was it spent on ? we know driving at least for a period of time, maybe passing out flyers for what had to be a low volume business. what else?

Since he was primarily using library computers (my conclusion) he could have accessed maps and other sites that nobody knows about. Things that may be valuable clues to his reason for being where he was that Sunday morning.

My 1st thought to many unopened e-mails is depression. I have seen this with other depressed people - they don't bother reding e-mail. Was he giving up? This would play into the theory that he was running away or took his own life.

 

[rd_jfc]

I'm sorry for not being more clear.

Steve does have thousands of emails in his inbox from job hunting sites, responses from prospective employers, family, etc. Most are job hunting and unread (daily alerts from certain job websites). He opened the ones that looked interesting. But it doesn't look like he had internet access at his home. There aren't a lot of sent emails, and of those, they're very spaced out. He wasn't prompt in responding to people. Same with his Facebook. Just not a lot of activity.

Goodness, you've been more clear than anyone could ask. But clarifications always welcome

My take on that jaxon is that maybe 99% of the emails are job related but certainly not 99% of his effort.

I take it they are all old from before he moved to St. George because he would be unable to receive any additional emails. Starting from lackluster effort when he did have internet, to unsent job applications, there's really no basis for thinking he was spending his time working on that. And how and where he was spending his time before he disappeared should be paramount in determing what happened to him imo.

Thanks for the clarification.

rd

 

[rd_jfc]

The atttowers.com website is interesting (thanks again, SeekingSusan!)

There's an AT&T tower right in SCA at 2402 Atchley (MAP) - yet, Steven's phone never hit off that tower.

If you were driving to it, from where the car was parked, it's only .8 mile (and much less as the crow flies). (MAP).

What does that mean?
That the tower's too new?
That his phone was off, when he was in SCA?

IF the tower was present on Dec 13th and since he was so close to it, wouldn't his phone have hit that rural/residential SCA tower rather than hitting something further (ie, the Whitney Ranch tower at 4:36pm)?

It's not the WR tower from SCA we'd be thinking about here, it's the two about three miles apart over to west side of SCA (the 8am and 10 pm calls). That would indicate he was over there and not in / close to where he parked his car that morning, else yes, we would expect to hit the SCA tower.

No calls from 10am to 4:30pm means don't know whether phone was on or off since no call to determine it. I take it he answered phone at 8am and 10am from his church people meaning phone was on.

Phone was still on at 4:30 to be pinged by tower for call, but he wasn't answering. As you've pointed out before, that's a pattern he had.

Only call going to voice mail can indicate he had phone off.

With this and LDS house next to northern towers, you are really connecting dots here, laytonian.

rd

 

[carbuff]

Goodness, you've been more clear than anyone could ask. But clarifications always welcome

My take on that jaxon is that maybe 99% of the emails are job related but certainly not 99% of his effort.

I take it they are all old from before he moved to St. George because he would be unable to receive any additional emails. Starting from lackluster effort when he did have internet, to unsent job applications, there's really no basis for thinking he was spending his time working on that. And how and where he was spending his time before he disappeared should be paramount in determing what happened to him imo.

Thanks for the clarification.

rd

There wouldn't be any issue with receiving the mail -- most services store it on the server unless you explicitly download it through a POP server or something. He'd have loads of unread mail when he logged in, but it would all be there. Unless he was on something that had a really low quota.

 

[rd_jfc]

I am waiting for someone to rule out the flash drive....

Rule it out for what?

 

[gsmith]

It's possible something blocks line of sight. The place spouse used to work was only a few hundred feet from the base of the tower. When I was in the parking lot, I had no reception whatsoever because the signal didn't broadcast that sharply downward...

I agree that might be the reason or maybe his phone didn't work properly. My last phone was hit or miss when people called me. My phone wouldn't even detect the call. However I could make calls and surf the web without problems. I wonder if my phone didn't ping correctly? Perhaps at times the network didn't know where to find my phone for incoming calls.

I do remember him complaining that he didn't get some of my calls.

 

[laytonian]

It's not the WR tower from SCA we'd be thinking about here, it's the two about three miles apart over to west side of SCA (the 8am and 10 pm calls). That would indicate he was over there and not in / close to where he parked his car that morning, else yes, we would expect to hit the SCA tower.

No calls from 10am to 4:30pm means don't know whether phone was on or off since no call to determine it. I take it he answered phone at 8am and 10am from his church people meaning phone was on.

Phone was still on at 4:30 to be pinged by tower for call, but he wasn't answering. As you've pointed out before, that's a pattern he had.

Only call going to voice mail can indicate he had phone off.

With this and LDS house next to northern towers, you are really connecting dots here, laytonian.

rd

Well....the timing IS about right ... but it's too easy to connect things because of a coincidental last name or a cell tower right by one of many LDS church buildings. There's likely an LDS building close enough to every cell tower in Vegas, so it's easy for logic to take a leap.

Someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it's standard for regular LDS Sunday worship meetings to begin at 1pm and end at 4pm.

I'm going to assume that if he saw an LDS church, he'd know he could walk in and be a part of the congregation. No appointment, no connections needed.

At 4:36pm, he checked voicemail -- after (apparently) ignoring a call.

Nothing came in between the last call from St George and this time -- but since LDS pretty much all go to church at the same time, no matter which city they're in, it's logical to have a silent cell phone for that length of time. Especially if your entire circle of friends and relatives is LDS.

So.....this takes us back to the start, wondering if the LDS calling chain was ever implemented in the Vegas area, to find out if Steven had wandered into an LDS wardhouse that Sunday afternoon.

At least it would account for the gap in phone pings, and give him somewhere to "be".

But I don't see an LDS ward house anywhere near where the car was parked.

 

[rd_jfc]

There wouldn't be any issue with receiving the mail -- most services store it on the server unless you explicitly download it through a POP server or something. He'd have loads of unread mail when he logged in, but it would all be there. Unless he was on something that had a really low quota.

yeah, but no known way to connect to download. If there are emails dated after he moved to St. George then pretty much means he took his laptop to a wifi hotspot, but from latest description from jaxon there is little to no effort there if did.

I was unemployed a year and a half only a few years ago, lost everything, but I would have been totally unable to job hunt if I'd lost my internet connection.

Although, maybe like Steven, after awhile you do get real depressed.

rd

 

[SleuthyMcSleutherson]

Perhaps this has already been covered, but when was the last time it appeared SK had used his own computer (to send an email or whatever)? Is anyone willing to say what his email address was? If he was using the computers at the library for most of his emailing, that could be why we don't have a trail on his computer. Maybe it was easier to use internet access on the lib computers instead of dragging his own laptop there? Has anyone looked through the emails on his computer to see if he cc'ed any other of his own (possible) email addresses? If he was trying to hide something, he probably didn't do that last thing, but it would be worth a look. I have personal and professional email addresses and sometimes an issue overlaps, so I'll cc myself. Tell me I'm not the only one. Was the library in St. George ever contacted to see if they recognized SK?

 

[RubyRed]

O/T

This isn't about Steven, it is about Chandra Levy, but it mentions WS. An interesting read.

Now, when I cover any high-profile crime, I make sure to check out Web Sleuths

http://www.newsweek.com/id/238159

 

[laytonian]

O/T

This isn't about Steven, it is about Chandra Levy, but it mentions WS. An interesting read.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/238159

She's right when she says "But it also is far more likely that a citizen journalist would think to search public reports of other attacks within days of the disappearance and start connecting the dots."

BUT....back in the Levy days, there weren't nearly as many online resources as we have now. AND...those sources benefit the journalists as well as the bloggers.

Too bad she misspelled this site as "Web Sleuths".

 

[laytonian]

Perhaps this has already been covered, but when was the last time it appeared SK had used his own computer (to send an email or whatever)? Is anyone willing to say what his email address was?

Many of us know it (he posted it himself on some websites), but there's been a tacit agreement to not mention it publicly - to keep incoming stuff to a minimum, since it's still being monitored.

If he was using the computers at the library for most of his emailing, that could be why we don't have a trail on his computer. Maybe it was easier to use internet access on the lib computers instead of dragging his own laptop there? Has anyone looked through the emails on his computer to see if he cc'ed any other of his own (possible) email addresses? If he was trying to hide something, he probably didn't do that last thing, but it would be worth a look. I have personal and professional email addresses and sometimes an issue overlaps, so I'll cc myself. Tell me I'm not the only one. Was the library in St. George ever contacted to see if they recognized SK?

I cc: myself so I can "file" a copy of an outgoing email in a folder, because it avoids the mess of having automatic save of all outgoing emails...which end up being deleted en masse because it's just clutter. So yeah...you're not the only one.

All we know about the St George library, is that LE checked his library card usage and reported three innocuous books he'd checked out.

There was never a mention about them checking his library computer usage. I researched the Washington County Library system, and found that you needed to use your library card to log on to their computers (including wifi usage). That should have left some kind of trail. We all understand privacy, but if you have a search warrant for the library, don't you check it ALL out?

That's a good idea about checking emails for cc: -- and that could be done through a file search, without opening every email.

It'd also be interesting to know the IP address of his (few) outgoing emails; that would show us what internet connection he used.