NV NV - Steven T. Koecher, 30, Henderson, 13 Dec 2009 - #14

[laytonian]

which email address did he use for ebay?

The same email address he used for everything else.

The same email address I've poked around for months, checking to see if at least it was registered on a website.

BUT (and I'm speaking as a 13+ year eBay seller), just knowing someone's email address doesn't give you their user name. And even if you have the password, you can't log in to eBay with the associated email address.
I have no way of associating that email address with the koecher account, unless someone else verifies it.

 

[webrocket]

this ebay thing has really sparked my curiosity. for this member "koecher" from July 1999 to suddenly stop making transactions right around the time Steven Koecher vanished is beyond coincidence to me.

I would think LE could ask ebay for the identities of the sellers (and ebay should have a record of who they were and what they sold). If they don't give out that info voluntarily, I wonder if LE could issue an investigatory subpoena or the like to obtain the information. I'd be very curious to know what he bought and how he paid for it and how it was delivered.

Also very intriguing is the timing of the feedback from the sellers. Some sellers post feedback immediately upon payment while others do them in batches every few days. Even a lag time of a couple of days would make it very difficult for Steven to have made a purchase, then have it shipped and arrive before he took his road trip through the desert onto SCA.

I'm not aware of that any deliveries were made after he left (at least the subject was not brought up to my knowledge) so this tells me he 1. paid extra for overnight delivery 2. had them shipped to his new address OR 3. it is possible he picked them up in person.

I'm not sure how many ebay sellers would want someone to show up to pick up merchandise, but it is possible that this explains his driving around so much in his last days. It may not have been aimless travel, rather he could have been picking up things he bought on ebay.

All this then raises the next question - once the merchandise is identified, what happened to it? If it did not fit into that portfolio, then he had to have dropped it off somewhere unless he left it at home, but I don't think the latter happened.

 

[Paulette]

Indeed. They didn't tell us anything! I learned from a very credible source ( I will not say who) on my way back that it was believed someone had placed Steven there.
I had never participated in a search before in my life, but am I wrong to believe they should have given us a clue as to WHY we were there and HOW we should be searching?

If Steven had killed himself there, he wouldn't have been buried, right?

And you would think if someone had killed him, they would have buried him and his belongings, right?

IDK. The whole thing irritates me. Even now.

That's the first time I've actually heard someone admit that!

Obviously if Steven had killed himself, he wouldn't be up to burying himself.

If I killed someone and had the opportunity to get rid of them in the desert, I wouldn't bury them, just let the Sun and heat take care of the body.

This PI person doesn't seem to be worth his salt! He hasn't moved one centimeter forward.

 

[justice57]

I think he was. Who keeps emails for five years - especially those he didn't even think were worth opening?
I don't even have 40 saved in my real email (which I do not use here). I use a throwaway email address here, and even that one has only about ten saved emails in it.

WE who are tied to our computers probably don't understand how he used his computer. SK belonged to job-hunt websites, and didn't even bother to get an internet connection or check his incoming emails very often. swjaxon told us that.

The only other email address I've been able to find, used during his employment, was from matchbin.com --- and it barely shows online activity. [email protected] (for those who didn't figure that out months ago.)

I'll eat my keyboard if it turns out there's some secret life on his computer, being hidden by his family.

I saw a [email protected] and also a [email protected] (he used this on a facebook site about public colleges versus church colleges.

 

[laytonian]

I saw a [email protected] and also a [email protected] (he used this on a facebook site about public colleges versus church colleges.

Putting email links in here for us to use - do you think he'll answer?

I'd found that Facebook page by searching for his name -- but didn't notice the email address was different.

When I clicked on it the first time today, it delivered one of those phony malware "your computer is infected" warnings. Be careful. I don't know if it's imbedded in SK's FB page or if FB has an infected ad. (Those things are often imbedded in something controversial, and I can't imagine anything more controversial to many in Utah than an anti-BYU website!)

Did you find what the [email protected] address associated with? I don't see anything on Google, except for webrocket using it "as an example only" HERE ON WS.

 

[laytonian]

this ebay thing has really sparked my curiosity. for this member "koecher" from July 1999 to suddenly stop making transactions right around the time Steven Koecher vanished is beyond coincidence to me.

I would think LE could ask ebay for the identities of the sellers (and ebay should have a record of who they were and what they sold). If they don't give out that info voluntarily, I wonder if LE could issue an investigatory subpoena or the like to obtain the information. I'd be very curious to know what he bought and how he paid for it and how it was delivered.

To the discouragement of scammers, eBay is quite responsive to subpoenaes. Anyone with access to SK's REAL eBay account (it may not be the "koecher" account we see), could see a history of transactions going back to day 1. All we're seeing is feedback - and feedback's only left on about half of transactions.

Also very intriguing is the timing of the feedback from the sellers. Some sellers post feedback immediately upon payment while others do them in batches every few days. Even a lag time of a couple of days would make it very difficult for Steven to have made a purchase, then have it shipped and arrive before he took his road trip through the desert onto SCA.

IF that's SK's account, he could have been sending gifts to people. Or having them shipped elsewhere. Or maybe he planned to come back.

I'm not aware of that any deliveries were made after he left (at least the subject was not brought up to my knowledge) so this tells me he 1. paid extra for overnight delivery 2. had them shipped to his new address OR 3. it is possible he picked them up in person.

4. shipped to someone else's address.

5. It's not SK.

I'm not sure how many ebay sellers would want someone to show up to pick up merchandise, but it is possible that this explains his driving around so much in his last days. It may not have been aimless travel, rather he could have been picking up things he bought on ebay.

All this then raises the next question - once the merchandise is identified, what happened to it? If it did not fit into that portfolio, then he had to have dropped it off somewhere unless he left it at home, but I don't think the latter happened.

IF that is Steven's account, I don't think he was driving around, picking up those purchases.

-dasani- is registered in Louisiana.
bbuybsell is registered in Alabama.

eBay only lets you do a limited number of "find a member" searches a day, so if anyone else wants to help, feel free.

No matter whose account it is, they were patronizing sellers who primarily specialize in electronic games. We call that "boy's toys" on eBay.

Those would easily fit inside a portfolio.

Due to a glitch that's showing a couple of pieces of info that usually are hidden, we know that "koecher" also sold a game and a computer, early in 2009.

But we still need to be careful, because this may not be "our" Koecher.

 

[laytonian]

this ebay thing has really sparked my curiosity. for this member "koecher" from July 1999 to suddenly stop making transactions right around the time Steven Koecher vanished is beyond coincidence to me.

Something else I forgot to mention: the owner of that eBay account left feedback for two people on Dec 10th, 2009, about 6:33am. That's when we have him driving to Ruby Valley.

BUT...notice also in the feedback that one transaction is with esmartphone (August 2008). We don't know what was purchased, but I'd guess it was a smartphone or something related.

IF this is SK (and remember we have no evidence), he may have had a smartphone that no one knew about.

Yes, I've asked esmartphone if they could tell me "yes, I sold to Steven Koecher".

 

[carbuff]

Something else I forgot to mention: the owner of that eBay account left feedback for two people on Dec 10th, 2009, about 6:33am. That's when we have him driving to Ruby Valley.

BUT...notice also in the feedback that one transaction is with esmartphone (August 2008). We don't know what was purchased, but I'd guess it was a smartphone or something related.

IF this is SK (and remember we have no evidence), he may have had a smartphone that no one knew about.

Yes, I've asked esmartphone if they could tell me "yes, I sold to Steven Koecher".

We could be looking at the possibility that the smartphone is under a different name, too. If he was planning a bailout.

 

[laytonian]

We could be looking at the possibility that the smartphone is under a different name, too. If he was planning a bailout.

Insert required "we are speculating that this COULD be Steven's eBay account, and we're only looking at public information".

If it's SK who purchased it, the phone's serial number could be traceable.

INSERT another "IF" -- IF it's a phone, and not just some little accessory.

To get really hinky: what if the feedback he left, was a signal? (nah.....?)
If it was him, it was an odd time/place to leave it from.

I wonder if SK ever visited his family member in Louisiana.
Any friends in Alabama?
If you wanted warmer weather, in a conservative area, that's one direction to head.

Those two states are pretty close together, for two eBay feedbacks left within a minute of each other -- the only feedback left by that account in almost a year.

YES, I am kicking myself for not archiving the items purchased when I first saw that page...but I think they were games. I know I mentioned "eBay" here, but no one else took up the flag, either

 

[RubyRed]

Putting email links in here for us to use - do you think he'll answer?

I'd found that Facebook page by searching for his name -- but didn't notice the email address was different.

When I clicked on it the first time today, it delivered one of those phony malware "your computer is infected" warnings. Be careful. I don't know if it's imbedded in SK's FB page or if FB has an infected ad. (Those things are often imbedded in something controversial, and I can't imagine anything more controversial to many in Utah than an anti-BYU website!)

Did you find what the [email protected] address associated with? I don't see anything on Google, except for webrocket using it "as an example only" HERE ON WS.

I have been playing around with both e-mail addresses.


http://www.spokeo.com/email/[email protected]

http://www.spokeo.com/email/[email protected]

 

[laytonian]

I have been playing around with both e-mail addresses.


http://www.spokeo.com/email/[email protected]

http://www.spokeo.com/email/[email protected]

I'm not sure that's giving us valid info. I'm playing with random inputs I KNOW are absolutely wrong:
"[email protected] appears to be a valid email address"
"[email protected] appears to be a valid email address"
"[email protected] appears to be a valid email address"
"[email protected] appears to be a valid email address"
"[email protected] appears to be a valid email address"
"[email protected] appears to be a valid email address"

I don't think he has a websleuths account, works for ebay...and home.com's been dead since 2002.

Here's what the same website (spokeo) says about Steven when you search him by name:
Age "early 30s"
Is married
Is homeowner
Has children
Has elderly parents (harumphh!)

 

[laytonian]

I've found another "suspect" eBay account:
skoecher, registered a few months BEFORE the "koecher" account.
Also from TX.

s.koecher eBay feedback

I'll let you look for yourselves. No comment here, except that the items being sold, seem similar to what was bought/sold under the "without an s at the front" account.

 

[webrocket]

-dasani- is registered in Louisiana.
bbuybsell is registered in Alabama.

thanks, I could not figure out where they were located. so I guess he was not driving there.

 

[webrocket]

Something else I forgot to mention: the owner of that eBay account left feedback for two people on Dec 10th, 2009, about 6:33am. That's when we have him driving to Ruby Valley.

that assumes it was local time. not sure which time zone ebay uses.

 

[webrocket]

I've found another "suspect" eBay account:
skoecher, registered a few months BEFORE the "koecher" account.
Also from TX.

s.koecher eBay feedback

I'll let you look for yourselves. No comment here, except that the items being sold, seem similar to what was bought/sold under the "without an s at the front" account.

the feedback from s.koecher ended right around the time the koecher ebay account began. Hmmm.

 

[webrocket]

I've found another "suspect" eBay account:
skoecher, registered a few months BEFORE the "koecher" account.
Also from TX.

s.koecher eBay feedback

I'll let you look for yourselves. No comment here, except that the items being sold, seem similar to what was bought/sold under the "without an s at the front" account.

for what it is worth, looks like s.koecher paid for at least one item by money order. That would not surprise me at all.

 

[Pondering Mind]

Wow guys, y'all are delving deep, I'm impressed!

I'm going to leave a note in all my important papers requesting my family to contact the folks on this thread to help find me if I ever vanish into thin air...<<knock on wood>> I say that in jest, but the more I think about it, I think I may do it for real!

 

[laytonian]

for what it is worth, looks like s.koecher paid for at least one item by money order. That would not surprise me at all.

In 1999, that's about the only way you could get paid. Check or money order, unless you had your own merchant account that accepted credit cards (as we did).

eBay's BillPoint didn't even go "live" until later in the year, and PayPal wasn't bought by eBay until 2002.

 

[carbuff]

In 1999, that's about the only way you could get paid. Check or money order, unless you had your own merchant account that accepted credit cards (as we did).

eBay's BillPoint didn't even go "live" until later in the year, and PayPal wasn't bought by eBay until 2002.

That means he was on eBay for a long time. Not that that's terribly significant. I think I'm the only person I know who's never bought or sold on eBay -- even spouse bought a golf club once.

Assuming that's our SK, of course.

 

[laytonian]

the feedback from s.koecher ended right around the time the koecher ebay account began. Hmmm.

Yup. That's how it worked back then. If you were into scamming people, you just started fresh with a new account.

It's a little harder, now; they'll cancel accounts of people who merely live at the same address as a scammer.