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

[fridaybaker]

Yes, the final phone ping was approximately 11 miles from where he exited his car, the last search totally dismissed the ping history and only concentrated on searching the area around where he was last seen, which makes no sense. I don’t know how much influence the Koecher family and friends had on the last search but I can tell you from past interactions with them that they have very specific beliefs about Steven and have reacted harshly in the past to suggestions that do not fit into what they believe and from what I gather that is suicide.

Sassy, do you mean to say that you think SK's family thinks he committed suicide?

 

[fridaybaker]

Suicide: How does it make sense?

1. He walks away from his car clutching a notebook/folio-type thing and is never seen again.
2. The car isn't moved, but his phone pings several miles away after his having left the vehicle. So, he takes some other transportation to get some pills or something, then comes back to the area of the car, walks out into the dessert, and commits suicide? Why not just drive his car those miles north?
3. He intends to commit suicide, but offers to go back to St. George to fill in for GW at church?
4. Why bother to go to that place to do it? He purposefully drove to Henderson for something. Is the theory that this something didn't work out, and then he decided to commit suicide? Otherwise, why drive there?

While I can see that there are some general facts that could certainly be congruent with suicide, such as financial difficulty; his having not married, despite the fact that most returned LDS missionaries his age would have; and the odd driving pattern in the last week or so before he disappeared, the specifics seem to point away from that idea quite significantly.

Any thoughts on this?

 

[Fairy1]

The suicide theory has never made any sense to me. He could've done that anywhere during his travels and never be found. Same for around the St. George area - there are tons of places he could have committed suicide and never been found. He didn't need to drive 2 hours away and into a retirement community to accomplish that if that was his intent. Additionally, the desert he is thought by some to have walked into to commit suicide is in the opposite direction of where he was headed in the surviellance video.

I really believe the obvious has been overlooked by family and LE since the beginning. There were no strange numbers found in his cell phone records - all were to/from people known to Steven. Okay - and? People are harmed by those closest to them the majority of the time there is foul play. It also seems to me that whatever happened to Steven was initiated in Utah - not Nevada.

And I agree, the searches that have taken place don't make any sense.

 

[zeusleopoldgalic]

drug runner by instruction of the landlord of his appts. he owed money for rent.

 

[Laughing]

Not Laytonian but I can tell you that the LL has been arrested numerous times for numerous crimes and, yes, a bigger scale is entirely plausible. He also called Steven numerous times when he went missing. I've always wondered why that would be when, according to LL's wife, the issue of the back rent had already been addressed and resolved.

Leopold, I can't find this in MSM but every indication is that Steve's rent was actually taken care of by the time of his disappearance.

:seeya:

 

[ekardh]

drug runner by instruction of the landlord of his appts. he owed money for rent.

Definitely something along those lines.

 

[Fairy1]

Leopold, I can't find this in MSM but every indication is that Steve's rent was actually taken care of by the time of his disappearance.

:seeya:

He still owed the rent - 3 months, IIRC. But it had been discussed and a plan for Steven to get caught up had been agreed upon. At least, this is what we've been told.

 

[Laughing]

He still owed the rent - 3 months, IIRC. But it had been discussed and a plan for Steven to get caught up had been agreed upon. At least, this is what we've been told.

Thanks for clarifying, Fairy1.

I think Steven ended up in nefarious activity by accident. Perhaps GW or the LL could tell us differently, if they only would.

 

[NotNoseyObservant]

Unfortunately, this is very offensive to me as an active LDS member. I have a neighbor who is an active gay "Mormon". Yes, it is hard in many families to "come out". However, for you to say "No wonder he left." is extremely offensive to me.

There is NO evidence that he was gay. There is NO evidence of this so-called theory. There is NOTHING on his cell phone to indicate that he left to be with some stranger to live out a gay life-style. Sorry, but I could not sit by with this comment and allow my religion to be so criticized especially when there is no evidence to indicate this situation.

Why are you offended? Being offended is a choice. I'm Lds and am not offended at all, this is someone's speculation and "outsiders" view. Instead if being offended and coming off as close minded. Share your belief as to why you don't think the statement is incorrect.
you could not sit by.... please!!!! Don't be so freaking dramatic. The Lds church does have narrow views. Be Christlike, like we preach, don't be so easily offended. It's ridiculous and self-righteous. I don't feel criticized, I don't feel my religion has been criticized. I don't own other people's opinions, why would I, I have enough of my own opinions to keep track of and own. Lol

 

[NotNoseyObservant]

so glad to see the discussions have continued and SK has not been forgotten. I think a lot of people are drawn to his case. Everywhere I go I still look for him

 

[fridaybaker]

The suicide theory has never made any sense to me. He could've done that anywhere during his travels and never be found. Same for around the St. George area - there are tons of places he could have committed suicide and never been found. He didn't need to drive 2 hours away and into a retirement community to accomplish that if that was his intent. Additionally, the desert he is thought by some to have walked into to commit suicide is in the opposite direction of where he was headed in the surviellance video.

I really believe the obvious has been overlooked by family and LE since the beginning. There were no strange numbers found in his cell phone records - all were to/from people known to Steven. Okay - and? People are harmed by those closest to them the majority of the time there is foul play. It also seems to me that whatever happened to Steven was initiated in Utah - not Nevada.

And I agree, the searches that have taken place don't make any sense.

BBM: Fairy, can you elaborate? Are you thinking this due to the strange, marathon driving sessions, or is there something else pointing you in this direction?

 

[Fairy1]

BBM: Fairy, can you elaborate? Are you thinking this due to the strange, marathon driving sessions, or is there something else pointing you in this direction?

I believe it's all connected somehow. Due to the financial difficulties we know Steven was experiencing, I believe it's possible he was pressured into doing something he wouldn't normally do. If it was something illegal, it could easily have led to him being harmed. I don't believe LE in Nevada or Utah have ever tried very hard to find the connection, but it has to be there.

 

[fridaybaker]

So odd. How does someone just disappear? In broad daylight?

So:
Financial difficulties
Tension with the landlord, regarding rent owed
Tension with father, regarding same
Tension with former roomate, regarding (drugs? Can't remember, but I believe that the roomate eventually moved out.)
Driving All. Over. The. Place. in the weeks before disappearance.
Unexpected visit to folks at whose house there had previously been a work project for, asking about their daughter, whom he'd met during that project. Odd. Out of the blue. Said he was going to Sacramento but, apparently, never got there. Why did he tell them that?
Ends up in a retirement-type housing development outside of Vegas, where he tells a friend that he can return immediately for a meeting, if he's really needed.
Parks his car, walks away, never to be heard from/seen again.
Phone pings several miles away from parked car several times over the next few hours, into the next day.
Messages from landlord on phone the next day, even at around 6am.

Yes, I think it's certainly a good possibility that the previous days/weeks events are connected to the disappearance. I also think that it's highly likely that, considering the tension the financial situation was causing, he did "go the extra mile", venture outside of his "normal" activities, to find a fix to the financial woes. Highly likely, in my book. Put himself at risk. Wondering how he found that "work"? Landlord?????

 

[Laughing]

As far as I know, the Landlord nor GW have had much to say...while they seem to be the last to have contact with Steven.

 

[Caffeine]

So odd. How does someone just disappear? In broad daylight?

So:
Financial difficulties
Tension with the landlord, regarding rent owed
Tension with father, regarding same
Tension with former roomate, regarding (drugs? Can't remember, but I believe that the roomate eventually moved out.)
Driving All. Over. The. Place. in the weeks before disappearance.
Unexpected visit to folks at whose house there had previously been a work project for, asking about their daughter, whom he'd met during that project. Odd. Out of the blue. Said he was going to Sacramento but, apparently, never got there. Why did he tell them that?
Ends up in a retirement-type housing development outside of Vegas, where he tells a friend that he can return immediately for a meeting, if he's really needed.
Parks his car, walks away, never to be heard from/seen again.
Phone pings several miles away from parked car several times over the next few hours, into the next day.
Messages from landlord on phone the next day, even at around 6am.

Yes, I think it's certainly a good possibility that the previous days/weeks events are connected to the disappearance. I also think that it's highly likely that, considering the tension the financial situation was causing, he did "go the extra mile", venture outside of his "normal" activities, to find a fix to the financial woes. Highly likely, in my book. Put himself at risk. Wondering how he found that "work"? Landlord?????

I think ultimately there's two ways to look at it: Steven was behind on bills, the holidays were coming up and he knew he needed steady (perhaps fast?) income. He travels, maybe partly for pleasure considering there's at least 1 person he visited, and then set off to "work" somewhere in Henderson.

Or...he simply have up hope and made a lot of puzzling decisions in his last days.

I suppose there's some chance he started a new life, living secretly on purpose or even ended up homeless...but I get the impression that he was the type who valued his family. His father has since passed, that would be incredibly cold and callous to purposely avoid his family during a hardship like that.

Either way I don't think Steven is with us anyone, sadly.

 

[fridaybaker]

I really agree that he didn't "disappear" himself. I think there would be a trail somewhere. Someone who used to post on this thread long ago, and who had a LE-related background, stated that in this day and age, it would be incredibly difficult to completely disappear off the radar for very long. He certainly has.

I think that everything we've read here suggests that SK loved his family, but felt bad that he had financial difficulties, and felt that he sort of "looked bad" in the eyes of his family. I think most men would, who aren't married by that age (in the LDS or other sort of "traditional" church) and don't have any prospects, the financial readiness to pull the trigger on marriage, etc. He was struggling, and he felt it. He seems like the type, though -college educated, smart, etc. who would be more likely to to try to remedy the situation by looking out for any and all money-making opportunities, rather than to walk away from his family.

 

[SassyBenton]

This may be a long shot but since we’ve got literally nothing to go off of I thought it wouldn’t hurt. Through the search engine familytreenow.com I found Steven’s landlord and many people he is connected with. (Suprisingly this website has quite accurate info from what I can tell). One of the landlord’s friends (I also verified they are connected via facebook) lives in Las Vegas and the location of his house is almost an exact match for one of Steven’s cell phone pings, I mean, literally within a block. This person is a gun dealer. Steven’s landlord got in trouble at one point for being in possession of a firearm when he wasn’t supposed to have one. (Is he a felon?) Again, I know this is a long shot but could the landlord and this person be involved in illegal gun trade and got Steven involved somehow? What is the likelihood that Steven ended up a block from his landlord’s friend’s house in Las Vegas? Also, the next phone call after he is in that location is to his landlord about six hours later. Also, there is a woman connected to the landlord, can’t tell if it’s a sister or wife (they lived at the same address) that has an even longer rap sheet than the landlord, tons of drug, theft and forgery charges.

 

[SassyBenton]

Sassy, do you mean to say that you think SK's family thinks he committed suicide?

The article I read gave the impression that his family was leaning towards suicide because they couldn’t come up with any other reason for his disappearance and they believed at this point if he were alive he would’ve contacted them. I will try to find it, I think his brother even gave a brief statement in it.

 

[Laughing]

This may be a long shot but since we’ve got literally nothing to go off of I thought it wouldn’t hurt. Through the search engine familytreenow.com I found Steven’s landlord and many people he is connected with. (Suprisingly this website has quite accurate info from what I can tell). One of the landlord’s friends (I also verified they are connected via facebook) lives in Las Vegas and the location of his house is almost an exact match for one of Steven’s cell phone pings, I mean, literally within a block. This person is a gun dealer. Steven’s landlord got in trouble at one point for being in possession of a firearm when he wasn’t supposed to have one. (Is he a felon?) Again, I know this is a long shot but could the landlord and this person be involved in illegal gun trade and got Steven involved somehow? What is the likelihood that Steven ended up a block from his landlord’s friend’s house in Las Vegas? Also, the next phone call after he is in that location is to his landlord about six hours later. Also, there is a woman connected to the landlord, can’t tell if it’s a sister or wife (they lived at the same address) that has an even longer rap sheet than the landlord, tons of drug, theft and forgery charges.

Sassy, this is precisely the kind of thing I've been expecting to see here on Steven's thread!!!

Do you think LE assembled this information, and are arranging for "the other shoe" to drop?

 

[Raging Ranter]

His erratic, almost peripatetic driving patterns in his final few days made me think of something:. Is it possible he was smurfing?

That's exactly the pattern you'd expect from some one who was tasked with buying small amounts of "pseudies" from various pharmacies in different towns.

He was in the hock to his landlord. His landlord says it had been resolved or at least that arrangements had been made. What arrangements? Doing something illegal for him? Or does the landlord just say it had been resolved to remove possible motive and suspicion.

I don't find the 7 a.m. call from the landlord particularly suspicious IF he's actually calling about rent. Landlords are like that when you owe them several months back rent. But, his LL says the issue was worked out somehow. Why then the early morning phonecall, after his last known sighting?