NV NV - Steven T. Koecher, 30, Henderson, 13 Dec 2009 - # 7

[carbuff]

I'm not sure the chocolates site is a real website. I also found this one: http://browntimes.uber.matchbin.com/listings/2813157/test-servicefront Which is clearly just a test and probably not supposed to be visible to the public.

Pa's Chocolates doesn't show up anywhere as a business. It's been picked up by all the aggregators -- I even found one in Korean! -- but there are no licenses, no DBA, no Utah business registration.

The travel agency is legit.

 

[carbuff]

Based upon a TRUE story from some years back involving a friend in Utah who was in law enforcement. Two guys that he pulled over and arrested for transporting a truck load of marijuana from Vegas tom Denver. My friends story presents a distinct similarity to what may have happened to Steven. The scenario, one of SK friend, or someone he worked for, is involved in small time drug trafficing. SK friend or someone he worked for, arrainged for a truck or van,loaded with drugs to be driven from one destinatiion to another. Where thee drug smugglers had dropped the truck off, and where the friend had arrainged for Sk to pick it up.(contents of the vehicle unknow to SK) and for SK then to drive the truck to a place far from vegas(just a city for example) to like, Chicago, sacramento, Denver, etc. and drop the truck off at a pre-determined place in secrecy, where the smugglers would pay him a GREAT sum of money(great incentive for a few days work) and then fly him back to Vegas(example) Problem is, he was chosen for the job, by his friend, because of his single status, no close friends, desperate for work, naieve,etc. and when hehe arrived with the truck, rather than being driven to the airport, he was driven to a secluded spot, and maybe killed(hate to say that). The body being disposed far from his home. It happens too often.

I do not think Steven knew what he was delivering. There are places in the paper that say,"I need dishes delivered to my mom. if anyone is going to (for example) to Sacramento, if you could deliver, i will pay your gas and $2oo.oo."

People are often caught smuggling, and law enforcement finds out they were hired to deliver, furniture, glass items, etc. It happens.

Well, what do you all think? Am I crazy?

Not at all crazy. It happens far too frequently -- a similar murder in Rhode Island a couple of weeks ago.

 

[Lato]

Wonder if he felt like he was living in his Dad's shadow.(if that is him)

If it is...I think it would be tough. Here is same article in another location...
http://tinyurl.com/yeum8go

 

[RubyRed]

FYI : Rex Update (a story) by SK

http://mommieforever.blogspot.com/2008/05/function-refresharticlelisttheform.html



I think Laytonian already put this link earlier


http://whois.domaintools.com/loganburgerandsandwiches.com

 

[fasteddy4]

I'm not sure the chocolates site is a real website. I also found this one: http://browntimes.uber.matchbin.com/listings/2813157/test-servicefront Which is clearly just a test and probably not supposed to be visible to the public.

Pa's Chocolates doesn't show up anywhere as a business. It's been picked up by all the aggregators -- I even found one in Korean! -- but there are no licenses, no DBA, no Utah business registration.

The travel agency is legit.

Looked at the chocolate website. What people will do sometimes before going into a business is do a kind of test using Google Adwords. They put bids on words that people use to search. . .chocolate, candy, sweets, in this case. . .and make small ads that will appear when people search for these words. Then, Google keeps track of how many people click on the chocolate ad and that ad takes them to the site. A prospective business owner can analyze the data Google collects to see if it is a viable business or not based on the amount of hits the test website gets.

 

[carbuff]

Looked at the chocolate website. What people will do sometimes before going into a business is do a kind of test using Google Adwords. They put bids on words that people use to search. . .chocolate, candy, sweets, in this case. . .and make small ads that will appear when people search for these words. Then, Google keeps track of how many people click on the chocolate ad and that ad takes them to the site. A prospective business owner can analyze the data Google collects to see if it is a viable business or not based on the amount of hits the test website gets.

Good point. The way it's linked back into the Clipper website makes me think that might be the case here.

 

[laytonian]

I'm not sure the chocolates site is a real website. I also found this one: http://browntimes.uber.matchbin.com/listings/2813157/test-servicefront Which is clearly just a test and probably not supposed to be visible to the public.

Pa's Chocolates doesn't show up anywhere as a business. It's been picked up by all the aggregators -- I even found one in Korean! -- but there are no licenses, no DBA, no Utah business registration.

The travel agency is legit.

For someone who's not in business, they sure have the websites goin'.

Matchbin put up a video, even:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Matchbin#p/a/u/2/RtxhAnW6BuY

There's another Pa's Chocolate website - using Deanne's review, but done in 2009 by Broadbent Designs in Albuquerque.

In fact, there's a total load of ineptitude going. A place by Pa's address (a pizza place) has a Broadbent-designed website -- and it doesn't even have their address on the main page of the site!

Really really strange. Why pay to register two phony domains for a business that doesn't exist?

Could they be cover for something else? specialops paintball (a phony news story under a different name), now two websites for an apparently nonexistent "Pa's Chocolates".

Sometimes, I feel like I've stepped into an alternative universe, with this case.

Guess it's time I play Fairy1, but only have to drive about five miles

ETA: Pa's may not be in business now, but apparently they were "enough" to put up a cheap banner sign on a strip-mall building: http://www.cityweekly.net/utah/view-place-6470-pas-olde-time-chocolates.html

 

[seekingsusan]

Do we know Steven's middle name?

 

[RubyRed]

Do we know Steven's middle name?

Thell

 

[seekingsusan]

Fasteddy, did your psychologist friend say that Steven probably knew what he was doing or did she give any indication he could have been aloof about the role he was playing in the "drug scenario?"

 

[seekingsusan]

Thell

Really! Don't you think it has to be him? I bet he did have issues working with his father and wanted to isolate himself from the family name. Maybe just so other people wouldn't assume what we've all assumed, that he only got his job at the Clipper and Trib because of his dad.

ETA: I found a TN on facebook, must be Steven's g-pa

 

[laytonian]

I think Laytonian already put this link earlier


http://whois.domaintools.com/loganburgerandsandwiches.com

No, I didn't -- that's one I hadn't found. It's tied into the Logan newspaper, "powered by Matchbin". But I think the business is/was real. I remember seeing it.

 

[RubyRed]

I was reading to see if drug dogs can sniff out prescription drugs and it took me to the craziest site. I sure hope the history on my comp is never checked. They will wonder WTH I am into. LOL

Can Drug dogs smell oxycontin?? - Hip Forums

 

[RubyRed]

Really! Don't you think it has to be him? I bet he did have issues working with his father and wanted to isolate himself from the family name. Maybe just so other people wouldn't assume what we've all assumed, that he only got his job at the Clipper and Trib because of his dad.

ETA: I found a TN on facebook, must be Steven's g-pa

This shows his full name Steven Thell Koecher
and I do think it is him on that other page.


http://www.theyaremissed.org/ncma/gallery/ncmaprofile_all.php?A201005786S

 

[laytonian]

If it is...I think it would be tough. Here is same article in another location...
http://tinyurl.com/yeum8go

.....and THAT TIME, it says the article was "featured in the Deseret News". That's not a Deseret News-style piece of journalism. Maybe a paid ad intended to look like news. Definitely a press release type of thing.
The actual story from the Deseret News is HERE

Wow. I'd hate to be the person Burrell (opsgear CEO) is looking for, in relation to the robbery of their place:
http://catchthescumbags.blogspot.com/

(Yes, there's security video for our entertainment)

-------------------

ETA: Jebus. You don't think the guy doing the PR for them "knows too much", do you?
It looks like a pretty scary pseudo-military place.

 

[fasteddy4]

True. Drug dogs don't ping on *all* drugs. Usually just what....pot and cocaine stashes? Heroin?

I'm not exactly sure. On one hand, if you have one dog trained to sniff for a variety of different drugs, it's not like the dog can tell the trainer what drug it smells if it found something. I suppose the dog could be trained to give like one bark for cocaine, two barks for heroin, (I know that seems totally funny but I can't think of another way to do it). On the other hand, it would seem overtly laborious to have a stable of dogs and each dog can only identify one particular drug. Meaning, you bring in one dog if you are looking for weed, you bring in another dog if you are looking for cocaine, etc.

But, I still go back to what I said: even if you have dogs trained to sniff for prescription drugs, it is not illegal to possess prescription drug. So, if the dog smells them it does not necessarily mean anything. In addition, even if a dog sniffs cocaine, I read somewhere where seventy percent of US cash is tainted with cocaine because dealers only deal in cash. So, even if a dog hits on cocaine, it does not necessarily mean anything. In the end, dogs are usually used when there is already a suspicion that a car has drugs in it. So, all the dog has to do is smell for it. Then, the cops go in and actually find it.

But, in Steven's case, unless drugs were found in the car (and I don't think they were), even if a dog sniffed something it would be difficult for the cops to think Steven was involved in any sort of drug business because the car is empty and Steven isn't around to ask.

 

[laytonian]

Really! Don't you think it has to be him? I bet he did have issues working with his father and wanted to isolate himself from the family name. Maybe just so other people wouldn't assume what we've all assumed, that he only got his job at the Clipper and Trib because of his dad.

ETA: I found a TN on facebook, must be Steven's g-pa

I think he used that name, to separate himself from his real journalism job. It'd be against ethics to pump out PR pieces like those.

Notice how poor the writing is, in those opsgear pieces by S. Thell.

 

[RubyRed]

Police dog sniffs out Rx drugs

http://associationdatabase.com/aws/NADDI/asset_manager/get_file/12407

 

[RubyRed]

Looks like he attended a council meeting in Kaysville. Seems at one time things were happening for him.

http://www.kaysvillecity.com/index....=print&fxn=city_council.2007february20minutes

 

[SuziQ]

Really? Steven could have been running drugs without knowing he was running drugs? How would that work? Sorry, don't mean to sound snarky, I'm actually truly curious. Would the drugs be hidden in some other objects? What would these objects be? Just in boxes? And if the latter, you don't think Steven would open one immediately/check out what he was delivering? I just think in this scenario we're truly not giving Steven enough credit. Yes, he was a Mormon, and yes, he was apparently devout, but I don't think he'd be this naive or unworldy or stupid. He IS 30 years old, lived in a major city (SLC) for a good part of his adult life, spoke two languages, spent a year in a foreign country, worked as a journalist for quite awhile, and spent years away at college and received a college degree. I think Steven was kind-hearted and perhaps his downfall was that he thought everyone else is that way too (I'm a little younger than Steven, have lived alone in NYC for 8 years, and am just now starting to truly realize that no, everyone is not like me, i.e., there really are truly evil and irrational people in this world with no value for human life). HOWEVER, I don't think he was naive enough to be running drugs without knowing it. Besides, he would have had to transport them in his car, and the car was checked out by drug sniffing dogs with negative results, right?

Oh believe me it happens. Honest educated people get snookered into commiting crimes all the time. Why do you think the skycap asks you at the airport whether anyone gave you anything to take on the plane?

I live in Utah, near I-80 and there have been several cases of people in my county pulled over and busted for hauling a box of drugs and didn't know what was in the box. Sometimes they think they were hired to run cars. I don't think most people hired to deliver a van full of what looks like TV's in TV boxes would think to open the boxes and make sure there are TV's in them.

Craiglist and the local classifieds have adds asking if people are going in a certain direction and if they could take something for them for x amount of dollars. I used to know someone who used to drive from Utah to Oregon and back to visit family on a regular basis. He would place an add saying he was doing this on a certain date if anyone had anything they wanted taken up there, for a fee of course.