[Note: this is one of my “pet cases” so I’ll be posting a follow-up to this case with more analysis.]
Wrapped Christmas gifts. A pile of resumes. A shaving kit. Blankets and pillows.
The items found in 30 year old Steven Koecher’s car were more than a random assortment of items. They were symbols of a life frozen in time. Steven’s car was found abandoned on a cul-de-sac in a retirement community in Henderson, Nevada, 135 miles away from St. George, Utah, where he lived. Steps away from this car were two home security cameras which showed Steven walking down the streets of this community, evaporating into thin air, and never to be seen or heard from again.
The year was 2009, and the college-educated Steven, eager to make a name for himself away from his family, had been laid off from his sales job, and couldn’t find work. He was passing out fliers for a local window washing company, and doing odd jobs to make ends meet. Those jobs weren’t cutting it, as Steven reportedly had $2 in his bank account, and was three months behind in his rent. The desperation of not being able to find work and the humiliation of not being able to support himself, may have ultimately led to his disappearance.
It’d be easy to write off Steven as someone who simply fell into the hands of a Craigslist scheme gone wrong, if it wasn’t for his mysterious movements the days before his disappearance. He made several road trips for seemingly no reason through out the Utah / Nevada border. His reason for his visit to Las Vegas on that December day is also not known.
It’s these details that draw me to this case. The private moments which no one ever sees, the secrets we keep while just trying to get by. I think of those moments of Koecher alone in his car, driving to nowhere, while the people in his life had no clue.
Steven’s case is also remarkable in that even the most promising of leads don’t go anywhere. Steven was a clean-cut, devout Mormon. He had no connection to drug activity. His cell phone records had no unknown numbers. He used the Internet at libraries, so forensic investigation of his laptop yielded nothing. His diary had no indication of what was going on in his life. There weren’t even directions in his car that led to the Anthem community.
Weeks of omitted details, actions Steven probably thought would spare his family embarrassment, has led to a situation in which no one can really pinpoint what happened to him. His acts of self preservation have directly led to this tragic situation.
When a case has this few clues, speculation runs wild. Some think Steven was in the closet and is now living with “Big Daddy Warbucks” (an actual phrase used on WebSleuths) in Vegas. Others think he simply got fed up with his unsatisfying life and committed suicide somewhere in the desert. Some think he witnessed a crime in Henderson and was killed. Others think he was involved in delivering drugs and got caught up with the wrong people.
It’s possible we’ll never know. Did anyone know the real Steven Koecher? Did he confide in anyone these dark moments, what led him to take those drives, what led him to Vegas? One one of his road trips, he stopped at an ex-girlfriend’s house. The woman wasn’t home and he had lunch with her parents. Could she have known what was going on?
I think someone in St. George knows something and isn’t talking. I think someone in Henderson knows something and isn’t talking. The twist of fate here is that the one thing Steven didn’t want — his secrets coming out — is the one thing that could lead to giving his loved ones a modicum of peace.
A very common theory in true crime communities when it comes to missing adults is that they ran away to start a new life. I don’t think Steven has run away. He planned to go to church that evening. He’d bought gifts for his relatives. He had resumes in his car. He had a shaving kit to make himself presentable for interviews. He continued to try. And it was this persistence, this insistence on remaining proud, that I believe led him to that cul-de-sac, and whatever happened next.
[Postscript: You may notice I did not bring up Susan Powell, another Utah Mormon resident who went missing at the same time as Steven. Susan’s husband planted stories in the media that their appearances were connected to deflect attention from his own involvement. Given what happened in the Powell case, it’s obvious there was no connection, and I decided not to include those theories in this post.]
TrueNoir’s great post on the case
Article discussing the latest search, from 2015
Trailer for Steven’s Disappeared episode
What a perplexing mystery with this one. Steven simply vanished, with virtually no clues left behind. I’ll admit, it’s tough to speculate here but here’s my 2 cents…
The idea of Steven getting involved in some sort of risky situation is nothing new. I’ll admit, the Craigslist gone wrong scenario is a long shot but one way or the other, I think he went to Nevada under the guise of earning a quick buck and it went horribly wrong. There were 2 people he knew with criminal records. Could this be why we’ve found no trail leading him to the Vegas area? Is this why all his phone records “checked out”? Maybe this was all arranged by a known associate, in person, all in Utah.
I think at this point, if the family wants any closure they really need a fresh set of eyes to start from the beginning here…especially with all the people in his life.
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Yes, I completely agree that there is someone in Utah who knows the real story but has yet to talk (perhaps the cops know this but don’t have enough to pin it one particular person).
The phone records are highly mysterious as Steven’s phone continues to ping for at least a day after he’s last seen and there are calls made, including to check voicemail. If he died in the subdivision (which the family PI believes is the case), then why would voicemail be checked? Why would a perp care about the voicemail?
I also wonder about his email activity. Steven made websites at one time and was probably more Internet savvy than his family realizes, they made it seem like he was not super techy but that is doubtful.
Really hoping one day we get a break in this case. It’s heart breaking that his dad died before they got any answers.
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While his driving seems to make no sense to anyone here, I think he was on a very specific delivery route of sorts and that afforded him a lot of down time to head back home during late hours, stop and visit the family of that girl he knew and to voluntarily head back to Utah to help at church (although this wasn’t necessary, but Steven still offered on the morning of his disappearance).
While it seems like aimless driving to most of us, I can’t imagine him being in a tough financial situation and just joy riding for no real reason. There was obviously some goal or monetary incentive to do this as he was putting a lot of miles on his car at the time with all that driving.
Although many speculate he was perhaps depressed and eventually harmed himself, it seems like a really unusual way to do so, with an absurdly long road trip, ending up in a residential neighborhood he had no ties to and just walking away from his car. Some have mentioned he may have had a job interview in that neighborhood and he did poorly and that was the last straw. But honestly, any legitimate employer would have likely shared information like this with police.
Regardless, I think Steven got mixed up with doing work for someone that wasn’t safe or maybe not even legal. This could have easily made him a target for robbery or being taken advantage of but one way or the other I think he met with foul play.
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