OR OR - Jeremy Bright, 14, Myrtle Point, 14 Aug 1986

Before the Coos County Major Crimes Team came along, these kinds of cases were just handled differently in its jurisdictions. It was days before the Sheriff’s Office investigators were even called in to assist in the search.

Coos County Sheriff Craig Zanni and Detective Staff Sgt. Dan Looney, discussing the case that still generates new leads to this day, say the Bright investigation actually played a major role in the creation of the aforementioned multiple agency investigative unit...

“I honestly believe there are people who know what happened, know where he is and who was involved,” S’te Elmore says. “I hope someday they will come forward and not let the fear of those involved keep them from (doing what’s right).”

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Ste1977 said:

Johnny unfortunetly passed away in Jan 2011. He was homeless and found under a bridge in California. What ever information he had went with him.

Terry Steinhoff's father was also questioned on his deathbed by one of the detectives on Jeremy's case. Old man Steinhoff (I think his name is Stan) told the detective that he would not rat out his son and would take the knowledge of Jeremy's disappearance to the grave.

The two other friends I haven't heard much about since that time. The only reason that I can think that they wouldn't come forward is due to the stigma of being victimized in the way that they were. If they really were there I pray that they have the strength and courage to come forward even after all this time.

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Ste1977 said:

Our stepdad Oly was a logger. He would leave at 4am to take the crummy to work and was back after dark each night. My Mom had allowed us to go stay with him during the week of fair. I think Oly was cleared pretty early on. When he saw Jeremy that last time my Grandma was there as well as my Uncle (both from my Mom's side of that family) so if anything out of the ordinary had happened they would have spoken up.

The story that I have heard from numerous people that seems most plausible to me"
I have been told there were 4 guys involved, Terry Steinhoff, David Steinhoff, Hoyt Richardson and one other guy. The 4 guys took Jeremy and 3 of his friends (it may have only been Jeremy and Johnny but I've heard 2 other names) to the woods and victimized them. Jeremy threatened to tell Oly what had happened, they guys panicked because Oly was a logger who knew the back country well and they were afraid of what Oly would do if it was found out and they shot him.

Later that night Johnny appeared at his sisters house freaked out (the sister thought that Johnny had gotten bad drugs) and kept saying that they had to stay out of the windows or something would happen to them. That same night Johnny's other sister Cecilia ran into David Steinhoff covered in blood. He said he got into a fight with his girlfriend. Cecelia went to the police and was told that David had been in a fight, that's where the blood came from and that's where the scratches on him came from but Cecelia says that there was way to much blood for it have come from the scratches.

After that night Johnny was never the same. His parents took him to therapists to try to figure out what had happened with no success. They stated that whatever Johnny knew had been so traumatic and buried so deep that he may never be able to recall what happened. One time when Johnny was passing through town (this was many years later after Johnny had become a drug addict, alcoholic transient) a relative picked him up and was giving him a ride to Roseburg. As they came around a corner Johnny made a comment "If they want to find Jeremy they should look up there" and then clammed up again. Was he talking to himself and didn't realize what he had said?

When I asked a relative about that area I was told that after Jeremy disappeared they had gone to that area after hearing stuff around town. There was an old abandoned house there and they picked up a bloody sleeping bag that was turned over to the police. Did it have something to do with Jeremy's disappearance?

That same night that Jeremy disappeared the 4th guy (I can't think of his name at the moment and my notes are packed) came home. His girlfriend at the time (now his wife) thought it was strange that the guy came in through the back door, put his clothes in the washing machine and headed to the shower. The girlfriend went and looked in the washer and the clothes had blood on them. This same person also had a gun that he asked someone else to hide. That person called the police and turned the gun in. The police currently have that weapon in their possession. Is it the weapon that killed Jeremy?

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Diane's son Jeremy Bright went missing from the 1986 Coos County Fair in Myrtle Point when he was 14 years old.

He’s never been found.

“It’s tough, you know, because you’re grieving," Jeremy's sister S'te Emore says, "and it doesn’t ever stop."

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Sheriff Craig Zanni took over the case in the mid-1990s when he was the Detective Sergeant.

Ever since, he’s tried to piece together Jeremy’s movements that day.

“The last they know of him, he met with his dad or his uncle and got some money at one of the taverns in Myrtle Point, and he was headed to the fair," Zanni says.

Sheriff Zanni says one person of interest has been named in the case, Terry Lee Steinhoff.

“We tried multiple times to talk to him," Zanni says. "He was never forthcoming."

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Zanni also said investigators searched the property where Steinhoff lived, and numerous other sites across the region.

“Lots of times I think we're on the right path," Zanni said. "The problem is I don't have enough information to do anything with."

Jeremy’s sister S’te Elmore believes there are still people in Myrtle Point who could shed light on what happened to her brother.

“Everybody knew each other, everybody knew what was going on with everybody else, and I just can't believe that Jeremy just you know vanished and nobody knows anything,” she said.

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After 30 years, Zanni said what investigators hope to accomplish has changed.

“We're not concerned about identifying who it is and prosecuting them," he said. "We're just trying to bring closure to a family that's suffered for the last 30 years on a daily basis of not knowing what happened to their brother, their son."

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Picachu said:

It would however in such a case mean that Bright was not Steinhoff's first victim, but the mentioned boy, who's name was Duane Fochtman, was 15, and, as said, went missing from Lincoln city the month before Bright at 7/22/1986.

Duane looked like this:

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COOS COUNTY – It’s been 32 years since Jeremy Bright went missing and the Coos County Sheriff’s Office is still pursuing leads.

In fact, one recent tip led deputies and Sheriff Craig Zanni to a Myrtle Point property to search one of the wells. Though it didn’t give them anything new, the CCSO still encourages the public to call in tips.

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