NV NV - Steven T. Koecher, 30, Henderson, 13 Dec 2009 - # 4

[believe09]

Is roomate OK? I mean, he hasnt disappeared either right??

 

[Yeahitsanna]

Is roomate OK? I mean, he hasnt disappeared either right??

noo! the roomie picked up and left in middle of november suddenly.

 

[laytonian]

noo! the roomie picked up and left in middle of november suddenly.

Yes, he moved out of the home in mid-November (leaving unpaid rent).

However, he is still in the St George area, and his whereabouts are known.
The landlord was able to easily find him at his job, after he seems to have absconded with small kitchen appliances.

 

[laytonian]

Steven's father could have been very concerned about him ,understandably so, and asked someone to either check up on him,or keep an eye on him.He had never lived away from home before,

I agree with most of what you said, but need to clarify something:

Steven *had* lived away from home before -- for up to four years.

He spent 18-24 months in Brazil, on his LDS mission.
He then went to college for two years, in Rexburg, Idaho.

 

[laytonian]

KC Naegle have been doing some timeline brainstorming (I promise -- NO secrets are being kept from you).

This has resulted in some additions/refinements to the timeline.

http://sites.google.com/site/parallelcooler/home/koecher-html

Note there's a satellite view showing where Steven's home was, in relation to the rest of the town. River Road, the main route in that area, has numerous businesses and job opportunities.

Just down the road, construction is half-done on the new airport.

St George was having a relatively good time (compared to other cities/states), employment-wise.

 

[liz b.]

Laytonian,

Yes. I meant lived away from home as an adult, with adult reponsibilities. KWIM ?

 

[laytonian]

This makes sense. But I don't want it to. If Steven is "gone" why hasn't he been found? He almost has to be within walking distance of Evening Lights. Are there large trees in Vegas or around this area? I just don't see Steven using a gun.

Don't forget that Anthem Sun City is practically surrounded by low "mountains".

He could have cut through the golf course, or backtracked to Anthem Parkway...and been in the hills, at a walking pace, in less than two hours.

 

[laytonian]

Good points Laytonian. Maybe we can ask Naegle when Steven's dad talked to him at Walmart. However, that won't help us pin down which Walmart. Unfortunately, those things are practically on every corner, especially in St. George. But maybe based on everything else we know we can narrow down his shopping location based on the date of the phone call. It may also be reasonable to ask Naegle when Steven received his last cash payment - but you know her better than I do and I don't want to overwhelm her with questions about facts that might seem unimportant.

Hmm....I see two Walmarts in St George.

Now isn't this interesting:
WalMart SuperCenter: 625 West Telegraph Street, Washington, UT‎
Jack In The Box: 775 West Telegraph Street, Washington, UT

According to Naegle, the 11 Dec purchase at Jack in The Box was "actual purchase date"...but it IS a bank record, rather than a receipt. I now wonder if the Jack In The Box purchase was on the 10th, and that Dec 10th phone call with his mother, also involved his dad.

No. Can't assume

 

[Mia]

Don't forget that Anthem Sun City is practically surrounded by low "mountains".

He could have cut through the golf course, or backtracked to Anthem Parkway...and been in the hills, at a walking pace, in less than two hours.

Based on this information as well as Liz B's finely worded post above, I sadly think the suicide theory makes the most sense. All of the driving around could have been just 'thinking time' for Steven. I know a lot of people find driving therapeutic, and I know some who go for a drive when they need to think something over or make a big decision. I think Steven finally decided to commit suicide, parked his car at Anthem and walked deep up into the surrounding hills. As sad as this is, I find it a lot more likely than any other theory that has been discussed.
Sorry for peeking my head in here. I haven't posted much on this thread because I can't keep up with all of your wonderful but fast-paced sleuthing abilities, but I've read every post and you're all doing a fantastic job for Steven.

 

[laytonian]

Everything I've picked up, is on the sub-page qa-100128-31

Here's the first two -- VERY interesting:

Q: When is the next search scheduled? Who is organizing it?
A: I'm not sure when the search is scheduled, but the Henderson police are organizing it.


Q: Did Steven use computers at libraries or other publicly-available computers? If so, in St George, SLC, other places?
A: Yes, he used the library computers in St George.

 

[Fairy1]

Don't forget that Anthem Sun City is practically surrounded by low "mountains".

He could have cut through the golf course, or backtracked to Anthem Parkway...and been in the hills, at a walking pace, in less than two hours.

I was under the impression this was the area searched at the end of December. They had ATV's, helicopters and dogs. These hills are not heavily forested or anything so I really think it would have been fairly easy to find him if he were there. This is one of the reasons I don't feel it was a suicide.

 

[fasteddy4]

The "walked into the desert to commit suicide" idea did not fly with me until I noticed something on that map. A lot of talk has been about him going across the golf course and into the desert and killing himself. But, now that I look at the satellite picture. How about that pond that is right in the middle of the golf course? I don't know how deep it is but Steven was headed exactly in that direction. He was 5 foot 10 inches. All it would take is a pond 7 feet deep to drown. Did he know how to swim? Couple that with all the news in the last year of the Smiley Face Killers might have put something in his mind about young men and water.

 

[fasteddy4]

To go along with my last post. It may seem outrageous that somebody would just walk right out on to a golf course and drown in a pond at noon on a Sunday but many suicide stories are just as bizarre. A girl I had been friends with for six years got married in Oct. 2008. Happiest day of her life. Month and a half later she hung herself in her bathroom. And she had made plans to do things that upcoming week, was networking some artistic things she was doing, etc. and still hung herself. Suicide. . .don't know if we will truly ever understand it.

 

[fasteddy4]

Man, I'm on a roll. I realize that a body would probably come to the surface eventually so the chances of him not being found in that or some other nearby lake is remote. But, I did not read anything about divers being included in that list of people who searched for Steven. And we should not take for granted that Steven died "on land". There are a lot of ponds and man-made lakes in this town.

 

[Fairy1]

To go along with my last post. It may seem outrageous that somebody would just walk right out on to a golf course and drown in a pond at noon on a Sunday but many suicide stories are just as bizarre. A girl I had been friends with for six years got married in Oct. 2008. Happiest day of her life. Month and a half later she hung herself in her bathroom. And she had made plans to do things that upcoming week, was networking some artistic things she was doing, etc. and still hung herself. Suicide. . .don't know if we will truly ever understand it.

Fe4 - I believe that pond and the golf course have been searched. I also believe that golf course would have been quite busy at noon on a sunny Sunday. I don't think there's any way he would have gone unnoticed. And he was close to Lake Mead - why not just go there? Why would he choose that golf course?

 

[laytonian]

I was under the impression this was the area searched at the end of December. They had ATV's, helicopters and dogs. These hills are not heavily forested or anything so I really think it would have been fairly easy to find him if he were there. This is one of the reasons I don't feel it was a suicide.

It's thousands and thousands of acres, up and down. Unless you worked in a closely-spaced grid, it would be easy to miss something.

Things can be hard to find. Ted Bundy kidnapped and murdered the clerk at a nearby convenience store - while travelling from SLC to see his girlfriend in Ogden. All around are mountains and foothills, Bundy's favorite kind of area to dump a body in. 35 years later, her remains haven't been stumbled upon by hunters, hikers, or the many residents of homes built since.

Search dogs are limited to short shifts, as are horses.

 

[Fairy1]

It's thousands and thousands of acres, up and down. Unless you worked in a closely-spaced grid, it would be easy to miss something.

Things can be hard to find. Ted Bundy kidnapped and murdered the clerk at a nearby convenience store - while travelling from SLC to see his girlfriend in Ogden. All around are mountains and foothills, Bundy's favorite kind of area to dump a body in. 35 years later, her remains haven't been stumbled upon by hunters, hikers, or the many residents of homes built since.

Search dogs are limited to short shifts, as are horses.

Yes, but he was on foot - in tennis shoes. How far in could he have been? There's not a lot of vegetation, but it's very rocky and rugged. Not easy to traverse. And they were looking for HIM.

 

[fasteddy4]

Like I say, I am sure he would have been found by now if he had some plan to drowned. The fact, though, is that if he was grabbing a bus or looking to go out into the desert he would have walked back up Savannah not head down Evening Lights. (By the way, this idea that that is not Steven in the videos does not fly with him. I mean, what are the odds that a guy with Steven's similar height, weight, skin color, hair color, etc. assaults him and hijacks his car? Possible but remote.) As far as why not go to Lake Mead, maybe he does not want to give any sign that he swam out into Lake Mead and drowned? That religious and suicide thing. Like I said, I don't think I'm going to completely stand by my golf pond hypothesis but not a lot of mentioning of water has gone on in this thread. And the fact is that he was headed directly toward a body of water when we last saw him.
As far as going unnoticed, it seems like he wasn't noticed anywhere after he went off camera by anyone on the streets nor anyone on the golf course. So, if he go unnoticed on a populated street at noon on a Sunday, he can surely go unnoticed on a golf course. Not likely but possible. And that seems to be the entire theme of this disappearance: A lot of things that seem possible but not likely.

 

[fasteddy4]

That one sentence in the last post should have read ". . .not Steven in the videos does not fly with me." I can assure you. . .Steven is not here in my room and I'm not bouncing ideas off of "him". But that's what happens when you're thinking way faster than you can type.

 

[fasteddy4]

laytonian, you are right that it would be hard to cover every square inch in that area. But to think Steven could outwalk the area covered by all those people, helicopters, and ATV's would be a bit incredible. However, out in the desert around Vegas there are sinkholes that could swallow up an adult if he is not watching his step. But, to fall into one on a bright sunny day would almost have to be done on purpose. I guess that is a possible suicide method but one of the most terrible ones I can think of. Surely, he would have done something a bit more "easy".

In addition, and this could lend some credibility to the desert theory. There are MANY and I do mean MANY wolves on the fringes of Las Vegas. I hear many stories about how wolves come into people's backyards and run off with people's pets. So, if Steven did possibly walk out into the desert and kill himself, a pack of wolves probably would have come upon his body pretty quickly. And in that case, it would be very hard to find or identify, from the air especially. It might be gone period.

Still, he walks out into the desert and does what? Waits to die from starvation? From dehydration? From cyanide poisoning? Hypothermia when night falls? It doesn't seem to me that he was hiding a gun in those videos? Stabbed himself? Do any of those or any other method work for this scenario?