Hi, I came here via the notice on the front page. I've read what was posted here but I'm very new to the case. Has someone gotten in touch with S'te? Hopefully her brother's case being spotlighted will get more activity here and she might be interested in helping us answer some questions.
If it's not to insentive to ask, what was Jeremy's stepfather like? It sounds like they got along well but the second article quoted here states that Jeremy's mother and him were getting a divorce so I wonder if it's possible that when Jeremy met him the cafe that something happened. Maybe not since I'm sure a lot of people would jump to this conclusion and nothing indicates that he was ever a POI.
I wonder what happened to him, I believe that the other posters are right and it was either someone who travelled around or someone who knew Jeremy. If it's the former does anyone know if Jeremy would have talked to strangers? A carnival worker sounds like a plausible scenario because it's a stranger who wouldn't be immediately connected to the case by locals but at the same time it's someone who has a plausible excuse to be talking to children.
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?
