Hi, I visit this site occasionally and pray for the missing to be found, and I do want to help if I can. I hope Steven will be found soon, my heart aches for his family.
I'm from SLC Utah and have been to St. George & Vegas many times. Don't know if anyone has pointed this out, but Las Vegas & Henderson are only about 120 miles from St. George Utah, so Steven could have easily gone down & back for an odd job or two in the days BEFORE he went missing (250-270 miles round trip is not considered a long trip in the western states). He was broke but if he thought he had found a way to make some good money fast, he would undoubtedly have felt it worth driving to Vegas for. His car had about 400 miles range on a full tank of gas. When he bought gas in Mesquite NV on Saturday 12/12 at 5:04 p.m Utah time, he had probably been to Vegas & back that day, because people from St. George usually don't go to Mesquite except as a gas stop to or from Las Vegas. He was back in St. George from at least 7:58pm until 10:30pm Saturday night, then left again (to return to Vegas?). See timeline at
http://img.ksl.com/slc/2507/250736/25073699.pdf
I'm sure Steven had been to Vegas plenty of times in his 30 years (don't know why one recent poster on here states that Steven had "never been to Vegas before".....I'm sure he'd been there several times, as I and most other Utahns have). Isn't Henderson almost a suburb of Las Vegas? Many Mormons live in Las Vegas & Henderson, so lots of Mormons visit Vegas, not for gambling, but for other things, and of course Utahns driving to California on I-15 pass through Vegas all the time. And there are surely many more work opportunities in the Vegas area than in St. George. When Steven parked his car on that cul-de-sac, I believe he was walking to a certain house or to be picked up by someone in a car, and probably knew exactly where he was going because probably he had been there the day before and IMHO was going back to get paid for his work. He probably wouldn't have missed church unless there was a good reason. He was apparently desperate for money. What if the people paid him a little on Saturday, enough to cover the gas, and told him they couldn't pay the rest until the next day? Possibly there was more work to finish up, and they promised to pay him after it was all done. I definitely do NOT feel that Steven committed suicide, because of the phone pings in different locations after he walked away from his car, and because of his purposeful stride, and other things. I don't believe either that he intended to disappear and start a new life. Whether he was gay or not isn't really relevant so shouldn't be brought into this at all.
The most likely scenario is that he found what he thought was going to be lucrative short-term work or tasks or deliveries, to earn quick cash to pay his overdue bills and get money for Christmas. Perhaps it was from a craigslist ad that he found using the library computer (since nothing was found on his personal computer). Work such as passing out flyers at various apartment complexes where he was driven to with a group, or helping someone move furniture or other stuff, putting up Christmas decorations, or being a courier (he may even have been delivering drug money without knowing that's what was in the packages, or delivering stolen goods that he didn't know were stolen). Or perhaps he was doing something for his landlord. Please don't be so quick to dismiss any of these possiblities. I think he was duped. Perhaps, when it came time that afternoon to pay him, the unsavory character(s) murdered him instead, then drove somewhere and buried his body in the desert, and threw his cell phone out the window. I hate to say it, but he's probably not alive.
I was very sad to see that the two most likely (IMO) theories for Steven's disappearance suggested on this forum were ignored and/or the people who made those suggestions were slammed as being trolls or worse. One posting said that Steven may have been used as a drug money courier without his knowledge. That sounds like a very, very likely scenario to me, yet the writer was ridiculed and belittled. Even if some details in that story about the cartel seem far-fetched, still, the possibility of unwittingly being used as a drug money courier is valid, and I do hope that the police will look into it thoroughly (the details are in early postings to this thread).
The other likely scenario is detailed in six messages, October 4, 2014 and March 3, 2015, at
http://dogservant.blogspot.com/2012/10/missing-tuesday-steven-koecher.html (information about Jason Shane Blevins and Barbara Burch).
On this WS thread, fasteddy8170 was wrong when he posted on 12-11-2014, "Not to throw a tub full of cold water on the Jason Shane Blevins angle but several things need to be pointed out:
1. The person who wrote the response didn't even spell Steven's last name correctly. He/she spelled the other names correctly, but not Steven's, despite his full name being in the title of the post."
Please note that the "Anonymous" poster (whom I'll call AP) said that Jason Shane Blevins and Barbara Burch, whom AP found out later were con artists, stayed for two weeks in the house in the Sun City Anthem neighborhood at AP's invitation, and that AP stayed there with them and they all would sometimes drink. It was AP's mother's house, but she was out of town. By the end of the two weeks, AP said that Jason & Barbara often joked about their "friend" "Steven Kosher", saying that it's too bad that he disappeared and he's not there to help them out anymore, he really helped them out tremendously but then he "disappeared". Then they'd laugh as if it were some inside joke. AP explains that the reason he/she spelled the name as "Kosher" is because he/she was quoting the way Jason & Barbara pronounced it, and AP wasn't at all sure that they were referring to Steven Koecher at all. So AP didn't misspell the name.
fasteddy8170 says:
"2. After a look-see at ussearch.com and a couple other sites, there's no record of Jason Shane Blevins ever living in Utah. That would be the only way he would know Steven since Steven never lived anywhere else but in Utah. Yes, there is one Barbara Burch in Utah but that isn't an uncommon name. So, I'm not sure how they would be able to call Steven a good friend."
Actually AP never claimed that Jason & Barbara lived in Utah or had any connection to Utah at all. Fasteddy8170 apparently missed the "inside joke" that AP says Jason & Barbara were making. Of course "Steven Kosher" wasn't their "good friend" or even a friend at all, they were making a cruel joke by calling him that, making fun of him and of the fact that he "disappeared" after they took advantage of his naiivete in helping them (doing work for them)! They sound like despicable people.
FastEddy8170 goes on to say:
"3. The writer claims he/she had comps to a hotel. As someone who lived in Vegas for over 13 years, this sounds like something an out-of-towner would say who's trying to sound like an LV resident. For the record: citizens of Southern NV don't have comps just lying around for themselves or others to use. They may get some free tickets to some shows if they know someone inside the entertainment industry, but that's it. And employees of hotels don't get comps for rooms either--these days they're lucky to have an employee dining room."
So we all know that you don't get comps just by living in Las Vegas, but if you go to casinos and gamble a lot, you do get comps, whether you live in Las Vegas or not. AP went to casinos and gambled, so he/she got free comps.
FastEddy8170 says:
"4. The writer says he got all sorts of info about Jason and Barbara over those two weeks, even ex-girlfriends? I mean, really? So, on one hand the writer admits the two are con artists but on the other hand the writer believes they gave him accurate info?
I could go on but I think the whole thing smells of some troll. Furthermore, that the writer hasn't appeared on that blog again since 2012 tells you all you need to know."
Not true. None of AP's writings were in 2012. One was on Oct. 4, 2014, and five were on March 3, 2015. And not true that it smells of some troll. Lots of people surf the net and don't revisit sites they happen across and post to. And staying in the house with them for two weeks, and drinking together, they were bound to mention to AP some names and personal details here and there....they wouldn't have any reason to make up fake names of ex-girlfriends, even if they were con artists. And I was under the impression from what AP said, that he/she looked into their wallets or cell phones when the two weren't aware, and copied down the driver's license info. & etc. "in case they turned out to be shady." And many of the facts about them AP found out later, from their arrest records online, not necessarily from info. that the two said. AP was mainly focused on the fact that they stole all the stuff out of the mother's house after AP told them to leave. No wild allegations. It really was true that they were con men and that they had been arrested many times, as he/she found out later, and that they stole stuff from AP's mother's house.
Another person on there said PLEASE report this to the Henderson Police, but AP seems to ignore that. And AP says on his/her second post, "not the same Jason Blevins", but I think it IS the same guy. And AP says that the two were joking about a Steven Kosher instead of Steven Koecher, so "it might mean nothing". Therefore AP was minimizing the possible connection to Steven Koecher....quite the opposite of making wild allegations. And AP said he/she had already given all the information to the police, but he/she meant the personal details about the two and what they stole from the mother's house was given to the police, not necessarily any possible connection to the disappearance of Steven Koecher. AP did have a job so apparently he/she wasn't home a lot of the time that Jason & Barbara were staying at the house. It's not clear whether J&B met "Steven Kosher" during the time they were staying at the mother's house, or just previous, but it seems important to find out exactly when J&B stayed at that house, and whether that house is near the cul-de-sac. Did AP work on Saturdays? Steven might have come to that house on Saturday 12/12/09, to do some kind of errands or deliveries for them in his car. J&P had use of the computer at AP's mother's house.....I wonder if that computer could be checked, to see if the two had posted ads on Craigslist? AP says his/her mother still lives in Sun City Anthem. Could someone please give this information to the Henderson police? They should have all of the information already in their files somewhere, details about the two con artists and the incident of stuff being stolen out of the mother's house, so they could easily check whether or not that robbery occurred during December 2009, and they should have the address of the house in their files somewhere, in association with this con artist case but not necessarily being aware of the possible link to Steven Koecher's disappearance.
