NV NV - Steven T. Koecher, 30, Henderson, 13 Dec 2009 - # 1

[ella's mom]

I'm sorry I haven't been posting replies. I'll try to get some in today.

EDITED FOR SPACE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOZmHOhGJQc

I'm not sure where you all would dig, but you're the pros. Could you all look at craigs list or something and see if there's anything, job wise, that would appeal to Steven in the area of Henderson in the time range of November and the beginning of December? He's a communications major and has worked in the newspaper business. I don't think he would look for further work in window washing. I think that's just something to pay the bills, but anything is possible.

I have just started looking into the Craigslist stuff. One thing I noticed was the RideShare section. There are several that look for rides from Henderson/Vegas to CA. One that caught my eye was Las Vegas to Sacremento. This was posted on Saturday December 12th. The person was looking for someone to ride with him and share the gas expense. He states he was planning to leave on Wednesday, December 15th. Probably not relevant, but an interesting coincidence.

I will continue to look at the jobs section to and let you know what I come up with.

 

[Naegle]

Both the police and members of my family have searched his computer. We have quite a few computer engineers in the family, but no one has found anything suspicious on his laptop.

I believe there was a receipt from a gas station in mesquite. He bought snacks and gas at pump 8. No video was found with him on it. Also, Steven's car was a hybrid and he told me that there were only a few stations that he could get the hybrid gas. Maybe that's why he stopped at that particular station.

We are in close contact with Steven's bishop and ward. The bishop hasn't reported that Steven was depressed.

For the sake of argument, what if he was depressed and wanted to either walk away or hurt himself? If he walked away, he did without a car a phone or money. It's possible that he had a stash of cash, but where would he get that money when he already had so little to begin with? If he hurt himself how would he do it and where would we find evidence of that?

 

[dreamweaver]

Both the police and members of my family have searched his computer. We have quite a few computer engineers in the family, but no one has found anything suspicious on his laptop.

I believe there was a receipt from a gas station in mesquite. He bought snacks and gas at pump 8. No video was found with him on it. Also, Steven's car was a hybrid and he told me that there were only a few stations that he could get the hybrid gas. Maybe that's why he stopped at that particular station.

We are in close contact with Steven's bishop and ward. The bishop hasn't reported that Steven was depressed.

For the sake of argument, what if he was depressed and wanted to either walk away or hurt himself? If he walked away, he did without a car a phone or money. It's possible that he had a stash of cash, but where would he get that money when he already had so little to begin with? If he hurt himself how would he do it and where would we find evidence of that?

Naegle:
Glad to hear his computer has been searched.

So, he got gas and snacks in Mesquite. Is that very far from where he parked the car?

If he wanted to walk away:
You have said he did not have much money, left the car and phone sitting there.
If he wanted to hurt himself:
I do not believe so.
If he did, I don't think he would have bought Christmas presents.
And he is striding away from the car like he has somewhere to be.

Steven told his friend he would turn around and be there for him. So, whatever his purpose in going there, it does not seem urgent.

1. Was Steven there previously?
2. Did anyone from the homes say they had noticed him?
3. Have they brought in scent dogs?
4. Are you and the police sure it is Steve on the video?
Since he is not seen at the gas station video.
5. Have you walked the area, leaving from where Steven parked the car and going to the spot where he was last seen?

Prayers for Steven.

 

[believe09]

I have just started looking into the Craigslist stuff. One thing I noticed was the RideShare section. There are several that look for rides from Henderson/Vegas to CA. One that caught my eye was Las Vegas to Sacremento. This was posted on Saturday December 12th. The person was looking for someone to ride with him and share the gas expense. He states he was planning to leave on Wednesday, December 15th. Probably not relevant, but an interesting coincidence.

I will continue to look at the jobs section to and let you know what I come up with.

You quite simply rock.

 

[ella's mom]

I forgot to post the link to the ride share information from earlier.
http://lasvegas.craigslist.org/rid/index300.html

It will only let me go as far back to December 12th. So if there were any others, I cannot get to them. Naegle you mentioned you had family members that are tech savvy. Maybe they can figure a way to go further back. A few of the other posts peaked my interests. If they had actual e-mails I was able to do some digging to rule them out. The post I mentioned is using a generic Craigslist account. Someone may want to try to e-mail him to see if Steve possibly contacted him at all. I know, a longshot, but worth excluding at least.

 

[MBLover]

Respectfully snipped:

4. Are you and the police sure it is Steve on the video?
Since he is not seen at the gas station video.

Excellent point - is everyone sure this is really Steve?

 

[webrocket]

hi Naegle, thanks for the updates.

Having seen the videos, a few things come to mind. One, I assume that was a street he walked down on the left as if it was a driveway then they'd have a good starting place. Two, the family must know the address where he left his car and I realize you might not share that with the general public. However, if one did a google map of the area, how near is that cul-de-sac to the main roads? Three, two cars in a couple of minutes on a cul-de-sac is not coincidence to me. That person (in my opinion) was there to pick Steve up.

While it might have been easier to just hop in the SUV right then and there, perhaps Steven wanted some distance between exiting his car and hopping in the other.

Another thing, you say there was nothing "suspicious" on the laptop. I will take that to mean there were no history of gay websites, inquiries about how to disappear, etc? Does that also show nothing about why he was in Vegas that day? Was this search a cursory one, i.e. looking at recent history or was the hard drive forensically examined?

I mean anyone can delete history but it remains embedded somewhere on the hard drive and unless someone does a serious search of the hard drive, you are potentially missing alot of information.

 

[MBLover]

Speaking of the computer being forensically processed...

Was the car processed by LE? Fingerprints, etc.?

 

[ella's mom]

ok, new thought. I am not sold on the gay lover theory. But, what about a female? I am not very familiar with LDS, how do they feel about members dating outside of the faith? Is it forbidden, accepted but frowned upon, no big deal, etc? Maybe Steven was going to Henderson to meet a girl, but couldn't tell anyone about it because she was of another faith. It would explain why he was dressed well.

That still doesn't explain the just up and disappearing, but I am trying to at least figure out why he was there.

 

[ella's mom]

Speaking of the computer being forensically processed...

Was the car processed by LE? Fingerprints, etc.?

I don't know about the car being processed, but I did read that they used drug sniffing dogs to rule out the possibility of transporting drugs.

 

[believe09]

Naegle-thank you again for your insight. I would take the angle/info on the CL stuff and run with it to LE or Steven's family unless you guys have already considered it and LE has eliminated it.

 

[webrocket]

ok, new thought. I am not sold on the gay lover theory. But, what about a female? I am not very familiar with LDS, how do they feel about members dating outside of the faith? Is it forbidden, accepted but frowned upon, no big deal, etc? Maybe Steven was going to Henderson to meet a girl, but couldn't tell anyone about it because she was of another faith. It would explain why he was dressed well.

That still doesn't explain the just up and disappearing, but I am trying to at least figure out why he was there.

I am not going to repeat ad nauseum my feelings on this as I already stated them and the family is aware of them. I would think the family would be happy if Steven "found the right girl" but I am not knowledgable in the interreligious or interdenominational aspects of LDS marriage.

 

[Naegle]

You guys are quick! If Idon't get your questions answered please keep asking. It's not because I don't want to answer it's because I'm trying to be fast.

I doubt a deep forensic search of the hard drive was preformed and the car was never fingerprinted. The car showed no signs of criminal activity so the police had no reason to believe a crime was comitted, therefore no fingerprinting. I think the same goes for the laptop. LVPD probably didn't want to spend the time and money on it. I wish I had my own personal Abby Shuto.

I'm sad to hear that CL won't go back further than the 12. I think if Steven were going to arrange something it would have to be more than a day in advance. I'm still going to mention this possibility to my family though.
Please keep looking though! It's great info.

Personally, I've stayed away from the videos becasue they're so frustrating to me. I'll talk with some of the fam that's been more into that part and see what they've come up with. We are 100% sure that is Steven's car in the video, we are 100% sure it was Steven's car that was found there later, but as you can see it's not the best quality. It looks a lot like Steven, but we're not 100% sure.

If Steven did find a girlfriend that wasn't LDS he wouldn't feel that was a reason to disappear. There are quite a few members of my family who aren't members of the LDS church or who have married someone who isn't a member when they themselves are. It's not an issue in our family.

The neighborhood and area around Steven's car has been searched as much as possible w/out a warrant to enter homes. No one living there has seen him. The search dogs found nothing.

As for a spiritual wilderness treck... maybe not in those exact terms. He has been big into family history down there. We have quite a few relatives who settled the area around southern Utah, southern Nevada, and Northern Arizona. It's possible that he found a site that he wanted to check out, but I haven't been about to find any such site myself. Certainly not one in a Henderson neighborhood.

 

[ella's mom]

Ok. I think I have gone as far as I can on Craigslist. I found a few items of interest, however, I am having trouble getting any dates prior to the day Steven was last seen.

Jobs: There are several postings for Property Maintenance Men. I was wondering if that's what may have brought him to Sun City Anthem. In our area, the Maintenance Men live on site and are provided room/board as part of their salary. Would be a good opportunity for someone like Steven.

- Can't find much in the communications area. I did look at Radio/Video and T.V. But not much there.

Personals: I did find an add from a 36 yo LDS married male looking to be friends with other LDS married males.

It read "interested in chatting with other lds guys who are married and attracted to men. we dont have to meet in person, just want to chat, any age.

Not that this would apply to Steven, but it does show that WebRocket's idea does have some basis.

Sorry, I couldn't do more, but without being able to get to older classifieds I am stuck.

 

[ella's mom]

I am not going to repeat ad nauseum my feelings on this as I already stated them and the family is aware of them. I would think the family would be happy if Steven "found the right girl" but I am not knowledgable in the interreligious or interdenominational aspects of LDS marriage.

Web sorry if you thought I didn't like your opinion. I absolutely respect it. I think this is definitely something that needs to be "put in the hat" so to speak and dissected until we can prove or disprove. I was just stating that I personally wasn't leaning towards that idea.

 

[webrocket]

no offense Ella's mom. I did not take it that way. Once we had family on board who said they had passed all the ideas along to family, I felt that absent anything else, I was not going to beat it to a pulp.

I still think it highly unlikely for a 30 year old guy to meet foul play in an age restricted community in broad daylight. So to me, he chose that spot to abandon his car for whatever reason.

 

[Fairy1]

ok, new thought. I am not sold on the gay lover theory. But, what about a female? I am not very familiar with LDS, how do they feel about members dating outside of the faith? Is it forbidden, accepted but frowned upon, no big deal, etc? Maybe Steven was going to Henderson to meet a girl, but couldn't tell anyone about it because she was of another faith. It would explain why he was dressed well.

That still doesn't explain the just up and disappearing, but I am trying to at least figure out why he was there.

This was my thought originally too, ella's mom. Maybe an older, well-off woman. Sun City Anthem is a rather upscale community and I just can't think of another reasonable explanation for him being there specifically. Las Vegas is a large city and there are lots of other areas that would have been more logical in terms of dumping a car if you DIDN'T want it found soon. Perhaps Steven did want it found soon?

That being said, webrocket's theory is certainly just as viable and wouldn't be unheard of.

I was thinking back to the Nicholas Francisco case in WA. I always believed he purposely chose to walk away, which we now know he did - leaving a pregnant wife and two small children. They found his car and computer too and he didn't leave any kind of paper trail either - in terms of bank or credit cards. I'm not sure how long it was before his wife and family learned he had just walked away, but it came to light publicly just a few months ago. He had changed his name (and appearance!) and moved to CA, IIRC. It should also be noted that Nicholas and his family were very much involved in their church just prior to his going missing. Not LDS - but just sayin...

I don't believe Steve has committed suicide. It just doesn't make sense for him to make a special trip to Vegas solely for that purpose.

 

[Fairy1]

You guys are quick! If Idon't get your questions answered please keep asking. It's not because I don't want to answer it's because I'm trying to be fast.

I doubt a deep forensic search of the hard drive was preformed and the car was never fingerprinted. The car showed no signs of criminal activity so the police had no reason to believe a crime was comitted, therefore no fingerprinting. I think the same goes for the laptop. LVPD probably didn't want to spend the time and money on it. I wish I had my own personal Abby Shuto.

I'm sad to hear that CL won't go back further than the 12. I think if Steven were going to arrange something it would have to be more than a day in advance. I'm still going to mention this possibility to my family though.
Please keep looking though! It's great info.

Personally, I've stayed away from the videos becasue they're so frustrating to me. I'll talk with some of the fam that's been more into that part and see what they've come up with. We are 100% sure that is Steven's car in the video, we are 100% sure it was Steven's car that was found there later, but as you can see it's not the best quality. It looks a lot like Steven, but we're not 100% sure.

If Steven did find a girlfriend that wasn't LDS he wouldn't feel that was a reason to disappear. There are quite a few members of my family who aren't members of the LDS church or who have married someone who isn't a member when they themselves are. It's not an issue in our family.

The neighborhood and area around Steven's car has been searched as much as possible w/out a warrant to enter homes. No one living there has seen him. The search dogs found nothing.

As for a spiritual wilderness treck... maybe not in those exact terms. He has been big into family history down there. We have quite a few relatives who settled the area around southern Utah, southern Nevada, and Northern Arizona. It's possible that he found a site that he wanted to check out, but I haven't been about to find any such site myself. Certainly not one in a Henderson neighborhood.

Thank you, Naegle.

I can't think of any historical sites that would be located within Sun City - or Henderson for that matter. That certainly doesn't mean there aren't any. There is one in the downtown area near the Cashman Center, but that's quite a distance from where Steven's car was found.

If they haven't already done so, could your family check Steve's computer to see if he was a member of any genealogy sites? Maybe he left some notes around or in his car indicating who he was visiting in the Sun City area? That could also explain the portfolio he was carrying.

If that is Steven on the first video you posted today, he sure did look like he knew exactly where he was going.

Has anyone checked in at the temple? Genealogy is an integral part of the Church of the LDS and, if I'm not mistaken, a temple may be a helpful resource for someone doing specific research. It's quite a distance from Henderson, but you never know.

I admit to taking a little detour to the temple on Saturday - just to see if anyone was around. It's just a few blocks from my house!

 

[Fairy1]

Sorry for the back-to-back posts, but it's difficult for me to post from work during the day so I have to catch up with my thoughts in the evenings!

If the family believes Steve may have been here seeking employment, we should also check the classified ads from the Review-Journal. That's our only newspaper and would be the most likely source for folks looking for jobs.

Is Steve's professional expertise such that he would have a portfolio of his work?

Also - I've just noticed that December 13 - the last date of contact - was a Sunday. It seems odd to me that Steve would have had a legitimate job interview on a Sunday. If he had such an appointment on Monday, he seems to have had somewhere to stay Sunday night.

Going to check the paper...

 

[jbirddinky]

I went to craigslist and under neveda, las vegas, search steven under the personals and this is what I found: (you could go there and contact that ad just in case it could be him)

I am looking for Mr. Steven - Black Jack expert - 30 (Excalibur)
Date: 2010-01-05, 11:47PM PST
Reply To This Post

We met at Excalibur in Las Vegas on 12th of Dec - we were two hungarian girls who asked your help to learn playing Black Jack..
And you were very kind and didn't give it up teaching us as long as we needed...We had really a great time: laughing a lot next to the table!
There was only one thing: you were said about something - even though you won.. I hope everything is fine with you.

Actually I was smiling at you and that was it..., as I was not brave enough to step forward (I was the one who didn't play).
But here is the New Year, so I decided to try to find you and tell you that you impressed me a lot.. more than anyone else ever...when shall I say it if not this time, eh?

Happy New Year - when all your dreams come true!
Truly Yours,
The hungarian girl


* Location: Excalibur
* it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests



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