NV NV - Steven T. Koecher, 30, Henderson, 13 Dec 2009 - # 2

[lost at sea]

I think dated a bit and went on a few dates are different.

He shouldn't be still be crushing on her after all this time from a few dates.

 

[renn3434]

I like the question about not answering his friends/family calls, but answering the church members. I think there is significant reason for this. Maybe his call from Webb was about something unrelated to church (the conversation they had does not make sense to me), and he answered the others call b/c he didn't want to them to think he was with Webb.

Did Webb make it to the meeting?

Does anyone know if the person who called the voicemail was able to get into the voicemail? This would tell us if Steven or someone else had his phone? But Naegle did say it was actually in Vegas. Do we know where the other pings were? Where was he when he talked to Webb? Where was Webb? Where was he, based on the pings, when he talked to other men from church?

Also, Naegle said there were two things we don't know about. One was insignificant to the case she said, and the other the police asked the family not to share while they checked it out. I don't think they need to check out if he had any mental issues if they were the one's that told the cops about it.

Where did we learn that his family tried calling and he didn't answer? I must have missed it. It has also been a while since I have driven that route. How is the cell phone coverage. Is it possible that family tried calling while he was out of range? Did they leave voice mails and he never called them back?

 

[stillLooking]

You've confirmed something else for us: he did use the internet (on a limited basis perhaps) even though he didn't have it at home.

There is internet service available in the area, if you drive around the corner from the house you can pick up open a open service or two.

I think a lot of people will say they are in Vegas even if they are in Henderson, everyone knows where Vegas is, Henderson not so much.


Apparently Steven was driving all over the place for some reason and then the last time he is "seen" it looks to be a place he has been before, he does not seem lost, it looks like he knows right where he is going.

It seems like he knew someone one there and was meeting them at noontime at the conclusion of a trip they may have hired him to take.
Someone in that neighborhood has to know something. Or someone close to that neighborhood has to know something. He was doing all that driving for a reason and that was his last stop before he planned to go home according to his last conversation. He had planned to be home for Christmas as well.

I do like the KISS theory. A more simple conclusion is that he is still there somewhere. All leads AFAIK keep leading back to the last time he was seen and pinged, to that one neighborhood.

I fell asleep last night wishing I was close enough to go spend some time walking around that neighborhood.

 

[laytonian]

Yes, but he could have said that the time of the appointment or meeting or whatever the heck it was that brought him to Vegas would prevent him from getting back to St. George in time for the meeting there. If you KNOW you have no intention of returning at all, why be so agreeable?

I've been working hard on the timeline this afternoon, and dug through newspapers and the "Help Find Steven" Facebook page.

It looks to me, that the meeting was later in the day, because Paul Doxey called him about it, too.
I think these calls were really to wrangle Steven back to St George. THREE people called him, asking him to cover at least two church meeting issues later that day....and the third call wasn't early, either.

http://sites.google.com/site/parallelcooler/home/koecher-html

 

[laytonian]

Where did we learn that his family tried calling and he didn't answer? I must have missed it. It has also been a while since I have driven that route. How is the cell phone coverage. Is it possible that family tried calling while he was out of range? Did they leave voice mails and he never called them back?

Wait. That's not how I said it....although I could have said it better.

Let me put it this way: he was suddenly "spotty" in his contacts.

His good friend Tom (close for years) reports here and on FB that he tried to contact Steven through FB on Dec 9th, and via text message on Dec 10th. Steven didn't reply to either. That was unusual.

Yet, he talked to his mother on Dec 10th, and we know about at least three (maybe four?) calls he answered on the 13th.

Why wouldn't he respond to one of his best friends?

 

[laytonian]

I think dated a bit and went on a few dates are different.

He shouldn't be still be crushing on her after all this time from a few dates.

Depends who cut it off.

He went there to see her, and seemed to be driven (not a pun) to do so. Hundreds of miles without even calling first....when all the time, she was living in the same place they'd met: Salt Lake City.

Unless he had an otherwise close relationship with her family (and it sounds like he'd just gone there once, to the cattle-branding thing on an overnight trip), it's not rational to go that far on the spur of the moment.

 

[Fairy1]

I've been working hard on the timeline this afternoon, and dug through newspapers and the "Help Find Steven" Facebook page.

It looks to me, that the meeting was later in the day, because Paul Doxey called him about it, too.
I think these calls were really to wrangle Steven back to St George. THREE people called him, asking him to cover at least two church meeting issues later that day....and the third call wasn't early, either.

http://sites.google.com/site/parallelcooler/home/koecher-html

Why? Is it possible they were worried about him? What reason would they have? It does seem a bit odd that three friends called him that morning. What time was Doxey's call to Steven? Wasn't it early? Why wouldn't he think he could just ask Steven when he saw him at church later - unless he knew Steven wouldn't be at church....

Can't wait for that timeline!

 

[Fairy1]

Depends who cut it off.

He went there to see her, and seemed to be driven (not a pun) to do so. Hundreds of miles without even calling first....when all the time, she was living in the same place they'd met: Salt Lake City.

Unless he had an otherwise close relationship with her family (and it sounds like he'd just gone there once, to the cattle-branding thing on an overnight trip), it's not rational to go that far on the spur of the moment.

And then why didn't he visit her in SL on his way back? Surely her folks would have let her know he came by and must have given her contact info to Steven when he was at their place.

Oh dear. I'm asking so many questions - I'm annoying myself!

 

[webrocket]

Not to speak for the group here, but I think his bizarre and secretive behavior in the days and weeks leading up to his abandoning the car in Sun Anthem City solidify what I think is a growing consensus here that he us up to something that he was hiding and that it was his intention to leave the car in Henderson.

On the one hand he was trying to maintain some veneer of normalcy while knowing what he was planning. Must have been terribly taxing on him emotionally.

 

[Fairy1]

I'm kinda new to this...do you change threads often???

I like the question about not answering his friends/family calls, but answering the church members. I think there is significant reason for this. Maybe his call from Webb was about something unrelated to church (the conversation they had does not make sense to me), and he answered the others call b/c he didn't want to them to think he was with Webb.

Did Webb make it to the meeting?

Does anyone know if the person who called the voicemail was able to get into the voicemail? This would tell us if Steven or someone else had his phone? But Naegle did say it was actually in Vegas. Do we know where the other pings were? Where was he when he talked to Webb? Where was Webb? Where was he, based on the pings, when he talked to other men from church?

Also, Naegle said there were two things we don't know about. One was insignificant to the case she said, and the other the police asked the family not to share while they checked it out. I don't think they need to check out if he had any mental issues if they were the one's that told the cops about it.

See - we do need a timeline.

A new thread is started when the last one gets too long. It's easier to manage and navigate the info that way - you don't want to have to go back a thousand pages trying to find an article someone posted a week ago!

Hope that makes sense.

 

[laytonian]

Apparently Steven was driving all over the place for some reason and then the last time he is "seen" it looks to be a place he has been before, he does not seem lost, it looks like he knows right where he is going.

I'm still not convinced he went there purposely.

Say I drive to a strange town, and take a couple of random turns.
I might have slowed down at one intersection, to see if it was a good place to leave the car...but then, right ahead of me, there's that cul-de-sac. Perfect. I park. Then I leave.

Later, people going *to* that address (after my car's been reported as abandoned), will say things like "she MUST have known where she was going, this is a hard place to find!" or "This makes NO sense unless she had a destination."

Nope. I drove, then turned right, then left at the next street.

 

[stillLooking]

Where did we learn that his family tried calling and he didn't answer? I must have missed it. It has also been a while since I have driven that route. How is the cell phone coverage. Is it possible that family tried calling while he was out of range? Did they leave voice mails and he never called them back?

When you are driving between Vegas area and St. George there is a section of roadway called the gorge. There is not cell service in the gorge as far as I know because you are driving through a canyon with red rock walls towering on both sides.

My husband also tried to call Steven around the 10th to 14th and his call was not answered.

 

[laytonian]

See - we do need a timeline.

I'm sorry we don't have one

 

[Fairy1]

I'm still not convinced he went there purposely.

Say I drive to a strange town, and take a couple of random turns.
I might have slowed down at one intersection, to see if it was a good place to leave the car...but then, right ahead of me, there's that cul-de-sac. Perfect. I park. Then I leave.

Later, people going *to* that address (after my car's been reported as abandoned), will say things like "she MUST have known where she was going, this is a hard place to find!" or "This makes NO sense unless she had a destination."

Nope. I drove, then turned right, then left at the next street.

Yeah - but then what? Now you have no car and you're in an unfamiliar area in an unfamiliar city - on foot. What's the next move?

 

[Fairy1]

I'm sorry we don't have one

No worries - we will!

 

[Fairy1]

When you are driving between Vegas area and St. George there is a section of roadway called the gorge. There is not cell service in the gorge as far as I know because you are driving through a canyon with red rock walls towering on both sides.

My husband also tried to call Steven around the 10th to 14th and his call was not answered.

Hmmm - I'm sure you're right - no cell coverage through the gorge. But it only takes 15 - 20 minutes to get through there and you say your hubby tried to call Steven for 4 days? That's odd, IMO.

 

[laytonian]

And then why didn't he visit her in SL on his way back? Surely her folks would have let her know he came by and must have given her contact info to Steven when he was at their place.
Oh dear. I'm asking so many questions - I'm annoying myself!

Heh. There's no such thing as too many questions.

Maybe they *didn't* give him her contact info, on purpose? Perhaps things ended badly, or he wasn't the right "fit" for her. That happens. It's no one's fault, but maybe there was unrequited love. She's an independent outdoorswoman; he seems just the opposite.

This is what she wrote on the FB page. It's very distant (she mentions "my family's thoughts and prayers" but not her own).

"i met Steve a couple of years ago in my ward in Salt Lake. He came out to my house in Ruby Valley, NV a couple of years ago with a group of people to our family's cattle branding. My mom informed me that he stopped by my house in Nevada on Dec. 8th around 11 a.m. I was in Salt Lake at the time and didn't know he had stopped by until a day later. He asked if I was home, but my mom told him I was living in Salt Lake, but invited him in for lunch. He visited with them for a couple of hours. He said he was on his way to Sacramento. He said that he was currently living in St. George and had a job washing windows. I personally did not have any contact with him about these events, just the information that my mom gave me. My family's thoughts and prayers are with him."

NOW...remember what Naegle wrote here:

"From what I can recall Annemarie lived in Sacramento at one time. I think that Steven was tring to make small talk like "Oh, yeah I have family out there. Maybe Annemarie and I could go out there some time." I think he's interested in her and was trying to find common ground. (Steven, if you ever read this I'm sorry!)"

So he decides spur-of-the-moment to go see her, but doesn't make any plans because he doesn't want her to know he's coming. THEN, he gets there and she's not there.

He knows he can't be chasing her around everywhere, 'cos that'd look really bad. "Surprise! I drove all the way to Ruby Valley to see you and you weren't there so then I drove all the way to Sacramento and THEN I came here and found you!"

 

[laytonian]

Hmmm - I'm sure you're right - no cell coverage through the gorge. But it only takes 15 - 20 minutes to get through there and you say your hubby tried to call Steven for 4 days? That's odd, IMO.

There's cellphone coverage at the rest area, halfway through the Virgin River Gorge on I-15. So you're really not out of touch for more than 7-8 minutes at a time.

I'm sure StillLooking's dh left messages...and they were ignored, like his friend Tom's were.

 

[laytonian]

Why? Is it possible they were worried about him? What reason would they have? It does seem a bit odd that three friends called him that morning. What time was Doxey's call to Steven? Wasn't it early? Why wouldn't he think he could just ask Steven when he saw him at church later - unless he knew Steven wouldn't be at church....

Can't wait for that timeline!

I'm sorry.
I didn't realize everyone here was waiting for someone else's timeline.

I apologize.
I tend to jump in and do things, and now realize I should have asked for permission.
Again. If I offended someone, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to step on someone else's timeline by posting mine here.

I admit I was wondering why it was met with such stony silence, every time I posted the link.

 

[ella's mom]

Ok new thoughts.

I find it odd that he went shopping and bought gifts for his neice and nephew. That could mean one of two things: #1 He was planning on coming back from Henderson to deliver those gifts.
#2-He bought them as one final gesture, knowing they would be found in his car/apartment after he was gone.

I also find it odd that he bought those gifts that early in December when he was short on funds. Most men I know (whether short on funds or not) wait until the very last minute to buy Christmas presents.

All of this time we have been looking at what he did before he went missing. Do we know of any plans that he made for after the 13th?

Naegle, where does the neice and nephew live in relation to Steven's apartment. Tom mentioned that Steven would stop in Texas to visit when he was on his way to/from his sister's house. Our the children hers? Maybe they had plans to do an early Christmas, like December 15th or something which is why he bought the presents on the 12th. If those plans were made in advance, it could mean he actually planned to come back.

ETA: I see in Latyonian's timeline, children belong to brother. Above questions would still apply as to location and any plans made.