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

[carbuff]

I know there are a ton of what ifs but I think this is interesting:

Get the ping map and add 450 North Water St, Henderson, NV.

It is a greyhound bus station.

Closed on Sundays.
Opens at 6 am Mondays.
Steve's last recorded phone record was Monday 6am.

Some coaches require passengers to turn off phones.


I think he left his car, walked northward, waited till Monday morning to ride a greyhound bus. He then checked his messages before leaving.

No?

Okay, that is the best theory I've seen yet for disappearing. Do you know where the first bus of the day is bound to?

 

[gsmith]

I don't. So far I've only found basic info on the station.

 

[believe09]

I know there are a ton of what ifs but I think this is interesting:

Get the ping map and add 450 North Water St, Henderson, NV.

It is a greyhound bus station.

Closed on Sundays.
Opens at 6 am Mondays.
Steve's last recorded phone record was Monday 6am.

Some coaches require passengers to turn off phones.


I think he left his car, walked northward, waited till Monday morning to ride a greyhound bus. He then checked his messages before leaving.

No?

This is the direction I was headed in as well-so, gsmith. Close your eyes and think for a second about your friend...where would he go once he arrived at the Greyhound?

 

[gsmith]

IF he did go to that greyhound station, the cell towers found in the north of the ping map would be ideal for transmission verses the earlier towers in the south. The rugged terrain between where his car was left to the bus station would make various towers necessary.

The difference of even one mile is a big deal for cell phones especially when there isn't line of sight.

 

[believe09]

I checked the current schedule for Mondays and there are buses leaving for TX at 6:40AM...$132.00 to west Texas.

Sacramento leaves at 6:20AM and costs between $73.00 and $80.00 depending on how you book. How about San Diego...

In any case, does anyone know if flyers were put up in the Greyhound Bus Stations?

 

[gsmith]

This is the direction I was headed in as well-so, gsmith. Close your eyes and think for a second about your friend...where would he go once he arrived at the Greyhound?

No clue. I didn't even know about his hatred for Utah's climate nor his close friends in Texas.

 

[carbuff]

No clue. I didn't even know about his hatred for Utah's climate nor his close friends in Texas.

Hugs. This must all be very hard for you.

 

[laytonian]

I know there are a ton of what ifs but I think this is interesting:

Get the ping map and add 450 North Water St, Henderson, NV.

It is a greyhound bus station.

Closed on Sundays.
Opens at 6 am Mondays.
Steve's last recorded phone record was Monday 6am.

Some coaches require passengers to turn off phones.


I think he left his car, walked northward, waited till Monday morning to ride a greyhound bus. He then checked his messages before leaving.

No?

It's an elegant theory, for sure. But wouldn't he park closer?
Here's the MAP -- it's a 15-mile walk.
He could have left his car in his own driveway, and walked to a Greyhound pick-up in St George, closer.

Certainly there'd have been a closer neighborhood to leave the car in?

According to the Greyhound Website, it's not a bus depot. But you can buy tickets there (avoiding the online/credit card route), and get right on.

QUICK CORNER MINI MART
450 N WATER ST
Henderson, NV 89015

NOTE: We know that his name does not appear on any airline or bus ticketing records (source: family press conference, see link on the timeline). So...this means he'd have had to use another entity to travel.

I haven't ridden Greyhound since I was about 12; has anyone here traveled by intercity bus since 2001? I'm just wondering if you have to show your ID like you do at the airport, before you board. Are there security checks?

I'm just wondering if he could have purchased a ticket with cash and escaped giving his ID.

 

[laytonian]

No clue. I didn't even know about his hatred for Utah's climate nor his close friends in Texas.

:waitasec: I don't think he hated any of those things.

We know his parents said he quit the Tribune because of the winter weather -- but he didn't move to St George until nearly a year later (after another winter had passed). Yet, he told you (and others?) that he quit because his coworkers were "too worldly".

I've never heard that he hated his Texas friends; only that he avoided TU's FB post and text, asking for his address so TU could send a Christmas card. (That might be the only clue as to pre-planning to leave -- maybe he didn't respond, because he didn't know where he'd be on Christmas.)

I don't see this as a purposeful disappearance, BUT if it is ... I doubt it's because he hated anything. I sense more disappointment with himself (OR maybe expressed by someone else, that he wasn't "measuring up"). He'd just turned 30, still single, lacked a job, can't pay his rent ... and his brother and his wife had just welcomed their first child.

 

[RubyRed]

:waitasec: I don't think he hated any of those things.

We know his parents said he quit the Tribune because of the winter weather -- but he didn't move to St George until nearly a year later (after another winter had passed). Yet, he told you (and others?) that he quit because his coworkers were "too worldly".

I've never heard that he hated his Texas friends; only that he avoided TU's FB post and text, asking for his address so TU could send a Christmas card. (That might be the only clue as to pre-planning to leave -- maybe he didn't respond, because he didn't know where he'd be on Christmas.)

I don't see this as a purposeful disappearance, BUT if it is ... I doubt it's because he hated anything. I sense more disappointment with himself (OR maybe expressed by someone else, that he wasn't "measuring up"). He'd just turned 30, still single, lacked a job, can't pay his rent ... and his brother and his wife had just welcomed their first child.

I think gsmith meant that he did not know about Steven's close friends in Texas. Not that Steven hated those friends.

 

[gsmith]

I do think you need to show ID.

 

[laytonian]

I think gsmith meant that he did not know about Steven's close friends in Texas. Not that Steven hated those friends.

Whew! Good.

 

[Fairy1]

I do think you need to show ID.

I think so too - and LE said way back in the PC that they had verified he had not left Vegas/Henderson by plane or bus.

 

[RubyRed]

I think so too - and LE said way back in the PC that they had verified he had not left Vegas/Henderson by plane or bus.

There is always the possibility of a fake ID.

 

[laytonian]

There is always the possibility of a fake ID.

Sure.

But I'm still stuck on how he could have walked 15 miles to that run-down C-store, to get on the bus.

Not so much the distance, but how he'd have done it without getting lost.

We're getting into complicated research territory now: obtain a fake ID, determine where to park the car, and then walk a circuitous route for 15 miles to the other side of Henderson NV ... and pay for a bus ticket with cash before boarding.

All of that done without internet research, phone calls, GPS, a map, carrying something under your arm -- and a fairly large amount of cash.

 

[fasteddy4]

I know I am jumping in here late since the info has been out there a few days but I guess it looks like we got some cell phone ping info recently. I looked at the cellphone map. And I also read from the point where I posted my last post up to the present.

1. Nobody has yet mentioned, I don't think (or I missed it), that if the cell phone left the area it had to do so in a car. So, shouldn't the video tape be looked at again? But, instead of examining the timeframe like an hour before to an hour after. . .maybe the entire day of Dec. 13th should be looked at. And into the 14th as well. At least to the point where the ping goes off the two near Whitney Ranch. I doubt Steven walked there so the one camera pointing on to Evening Lights had to have picked up something. . .a car coming or a car going. . .one that is not connected to any house on that street. And, if it didn't, that means that the "bad guys" knew the camera was there and avoided being seen on purpose. So instead, they took the long way to Evening Lights instead of coming directly down Savannah. That would be they were avoiding it for nefarious reasons. Got to check those camera tapes again. . .


2. I know the Whitney Ranch area. I used to live on E. Tropicana which is not too far from there and went through that area several times. Not the nicest area in town. Not like the ghetto or anything but it is certainly not Sun City Anthem. Lower middle class houses. Lower rent apartments.

3. There is no way Steven walked to Whitney Ranch. If he did, that would have to be the single longest walk in Las Vegas ever. People don't walk in this town. In fact, I am sure if he did walk he would have stuck out like a sore thumb because nobody walks and there would be several people that would remember him. Plus, I don't think he walked because he was headed down Evening Lights and not up Savannah to Anthem Dr. and that would have been the quickest way.

4. That ping way over on Cactus and Bermuda caught my attention. I know it does not mean that he was in the intersection but it was far from the others and it is before he got to SCA. To me, this means he traveled the whole way down the I-15 to St. Rose Parkway and got off. I think it pinged because he was on the highway which is not far from that location. And what that also means is that I was wrong in my assumption that he took the 15 to the 215 to Eastern and then to Anthem Dr. Instead, he took the 15 to St. Rose to Executive Dr (most likely) to volunteer to Anthem Dr. That would be an interesting choice of directions because it is definitely longer and more out of the way.

5. I don't find the LL calling him unusual. I think it was just someone hunting for their money. Even if Steven's stuff was still in that place, the LL could have thought he skipped out, especially since Steven seem to never be home. And they could have kept calling because they were used to Steven calling them right back. And, their worse fears (that he skipped out on the rent) were being realized Dec. 13 when he didn't call them back immediately. So. . .they kept calling. I think the LL is a non-starter. And the reason they didn't mention any of this? What are they going to say. . .that they called him all that day because they thought he skipped out on rent, all the while his family is worried about disappearing. It would just be un-kind if they did that, so they kept their mouths shut. No big deal in my opinion.

6. I'm glad others now have jumped on the "the window washing job was not really a window washing job" bandwagon. One my earliest threads was about that, I think. It could have been a job where Steven was scoping out places for others to rob. It could have been a drug delivery or pickup job. Or could have been collections for a bookie job. Hard to say but from the first time I heard it I barely believed it.

7. Being one of the locals here, I am guessing the route the cell phone took was back down Eastern to the 215. Then, "it" got off at Stephanie then went north to the Whitney Ranch area. That would make more sense to me given those pings than if it went the whole way to the 95 and then went north and got off at Sunset or Russell.

8. Also. . .to any cell phone experts. . .a cell phone "pings" even if it is not being used, right? If I am just riding around with it on then somebody could trace my movements from it, right? Even though I never used it and nobody tried to call me, right? Or, does it only ping when it is used, receiving or sending a call?

9. And this is where I'm going from #8, am I reading this cell phone map correctly when I say that at least the cell phone spent the night somewhere in the Stephanie/Sunset crossstreets area? Is that our best guess? Because Sunset Station is right there and I can imagine that if someone was up on a higher floor that any of those cell phone towers could be hit. The big Galleria at Sunset Mall is right there. There is also a Wal-Mart to the East of Sunset Station.

10. What this is going to make me do is to go back to that time of December and see if anything unusual went on in that area. Break-ins. Murders. Drug activity. Etc. LAYTONIAN-can we get a map of all 911 calls for that area for that timeframe just like we did for the SCA way back when. I think you compiled one or something up through Oct.09 at one time. Isn't there some site where we can check that? Or, will I just have to rely on the newspaper?

 

[webrocket]

I hear you. It's the most comforting scenario.

I just don't see him having the resolute tenacity or perseverance to carry off something like this. He quit his only career-type job in LDS-friendly Utah, where the handshake can take you places.

If he didn't have the drive to succeed here, how would he survive somewhere else? I really don't even see him capable of living on the streets; he was spinning his wheels in St George (creating a stack of job apps, but never sending them out).

Why didn't he just drive to where he was going?
He had half a tank of gas in the car, snack food, pillows, blanket, coats.

Unless he had a secret stash of cash, I don't see how he could have gone far on his own -- and what other person would want to babysit someone who couldn't keep a job?

I still think the brains behind this was Big Daddy Warbucks. BDW picked Steven up in SCA they spent the night at a hotel/motel or some home known to BDW, then they drove off the next morning to BDW's home, estate, ranch, whatever. They probably even went out for a bit to eat late Sun afternoon.

Too bad the area was not checked out had LE known about the ping data.

 

[laytonian]

5. I don't find the LL calling him unusual. I think it was just someone hunting for their money. Even if Steven's stuff was still in that place, the LL could have thought he skipped out, especially since Steven seem to never be home. And they could have kept calling because they were used to Steven calling them right back. And, their worse fears (that he skipped out on the rent) were being realized Dec. 13 when he didn't call them back immediately. So. . .they kept calling. I think the LL is a non-starter. And the reason they didn't mention any of this? What are they going to say. . .that they called him all that day because they thought he skipped out on rent, all the while his family is worried about disappearing. It would just be un-kind if they did that, so they kept their mouths shut. No big deal in my opinion.

Actually, they WERE used to him not responding. According to the LL's wife, the LL tried calling him several times during the first week of December -- and that's when the LL left the message on his parents' phone.

At some point, SK worked out a plan with the LL to do "legitimate work" (unspoken as to what it was)..... but after SK's dad retrieved the message and called SK, things got weird. SK only passed out flyers one day after that (Dec 11th, length of work day unknown).

10. What this is going to make me do is to go back to that time of December and see if anything unusual went on in that area. Break-ins. Murders. Drug activity. Etc. LAYTONIAN-can we get a map of all 911 calls for that area for that timeframe just like we did for the SCA way back when. I think you compiled one or something up through Oct.09 at one time. Isn't there some site where we can check that? Or, will I just have to rely on the newspaper?

It wasn't a 911 call map; it's the Henderson City PD map that you can use to determine reported crimes within a one-mile radius of a certain address....and the search capability only goes back 90 days. So basically, there's no data.

 

[laytonian]

I still think the brains behind this was Big Daddy Warbucks. BDW picked Steven up in SCA they spent the night at a hotel/motel or some home known to BDW, then they drove off the next morning to BDW's home, estate, ranch, whatever. They probably even went out for a bit to eat late Sun afternoon.

Too bad the area was not checked out had LE known about the ping data.

I'll bet LE had it from the very start; it's one of the first things they'd logically do....and if they interpreted it the same way some here are doing, all it'd do is cause them to say "He really DID walk away."

I'm sure everyone else, once they saw that ping data, saw a familiar last name living within about a mile of that last tower ping.

 

[fasteddy4]

Laytonian, so then, what you're saying is that Steven not calling back his LL was not unusual at all. Okay, somehow I missed that. But, I don't think that changes anything. It's hard enough to try to look into Steven's motivations. So, trying to figure out his LL's is even harder. Seems to me they were just calling him looking for their money. I mean, unless one of them was in Vegas on Dec. 13, I just don't think it means anything. Who knows. . .maybe the LL is OCD and could not stop dialing Steven's number over and over and over. And that they didn't mention it upon questioning once again does not catch my attention as being odd.

As for the other thing, I guess I will just have to go back through the Review Journal archives. Very well. . .