Latest / The Path Went Chilly / Steven Koecher Pt. One

Transcript

Steven Koecher Pt. One · The Path Went Chilly

0:29
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Pathway Chili.
0:31
Speaker 2: I'm Robin, I'm Jules.
0:34
Speaker 3: And I'm Ashley. Let's dive right into this week's case.
0:38
Speaker 2: December thirteenth, two thousand and nine, Henderson, Nevada. A security
0:44
Speaker 2: camera captures thirty year old Stephen Kocher arriving in a
0:47
Speaker 2: residential neighborhood, where he parks his car and is seen
0:51
Speaker 2: walking down the sidewalk before he vanishes without a trace.
0:55
Speaker 2: Earlier that day, Stephen had made one hundred and thirty
0:58
Speaker 2: five mile trip to Henderson from his hometown of Saint George, Utah,
1:03
Speaker 2: but never told anyone why. Since Stephen was struggling financially,
1:08
Speaker 2: it is theorized that he might have traveled to that
1:10
Speaker 2: area in order to seek employment or earn some money,
1:14
Speaker 2: but there is no conclusive evidence of what happened to him,
1:17
Speaker 2: and Stephen is never found.
1:20
Speaker 1: After that the path went Chiley. So this week we're
1:24
Speaker 1: going to be exploring one of the more baffling missing
1:26
Speaker 1: persons cases of the modern era, the two thousand and
1:29
Speaker 1: nine disappearance of Stephen Kocher. At the time Stephen Coacher
1:33
Speaker 1: went missing, he was residing in Saint George, Utah, and
1:36
Speaker 1: decided to make an unexplained trip to Henderson, Nevada, where
1:40
Speaker 1: he parked his car in an affluent retirement community and
1:43
Speaker 1: was captured walking away by a security camera before he
1:46
Speaker 1: inexplicably seemed to vanish into thin air. What makes this
1:50
Speaker 1: story even stranger is that in the days prior to
1:52
Speaker 1: his disappearance, Stephen would make some other unexplained road trips
1:56
Speaker 1: through Utah and Nevada before he returned home, and one
1:59
Speaker 1: of the trips was nearly eleven hundred miles long. Since
2:03
Speaker 1: Stevo was experiencing financial problems and had trouble securing full
2:06
Speaker 1: time employment due largely to the recession which was taking
2:10
Speaker 1: place in the United States at that time, there have
2:12
Speaker 1: been two primary theories pushed forward to explain his actions.
2:16
Speaker 1: Either Stephen was feeling depressed or suicidal over his situation
2:20
Speaker 1: and this caused him to experience some sort of mental
2:22
Speaker 1: breakdown which prompted him to disappear voluntarily or take his
2:26
Speaker 1: own life. Or he became so desperate for money or
2:29
Speaker 1: employment that Stephen was roped into doing something which compelled
2:33
Speaker 1: him to make these lengthy trips and he wound up
2:36
Speaker 1: becoming the victim of foul play. For the longest time,
2:39
Speaker 1: I found myself completely perplexed by this case. But in
2:42
Speaker 1: recent years, two forms of media have been produced that
2:45
Speaker 1: revealed previously undisclosed information which seemed to shed some more
2:49
Speaker 1: light on what might have happened. One of them is
2:52
Speaker 1: a YouTuber named Aaron Stoner who has done a deep,
2:55
Speaker 1: multi episode dive into the disappearance on his channel, and
2:58
Speaker 1: the other is a long force podcast titled Eyes on Justice,
3:02
Speaker 1: which came out in twenty twenty one and was produced
3:05
Speaker 1: by a team of private investigators who were hired by
3:08
Speaker 1: Stevens family, and they have done extensive work on this case.
3:12
Speaker 1: I learned all this new information when I covered the
3:14
Speaker 1: case on an episode of The Trail Went Cold nearly
3:16
Speaker 1: three years ago, and it caused me to look at
3:19
Speaker 1: things in a different light. In fact, there's so much
3:22
Speaker 1: to talk about here that our series of episodes on
3:24
Speaker 1: The Path Went Chile is going to be a three parter.
3:27
Speaker 1: Well start off by sharing the primary details about this case,
3:30
Speaker 1: which you'll find in most mainstream sources, before we discussed
3:34
Speaker 1: these new revelations that have come out in recent years.
3:37
Speaker 3: Okay, this is incredibly interesting. I remember when we had
3:41
Speaker 3: this incredible depression going on in the United States, where
3:44
Speaker 3: finances were up in the air, where people's retirement accounts
3:47
Speaker 3: were completely wiped out, where stocks had crashed, And so
3:51
Speaker 3: I remember the stress, especially that my parents were in
3:54
Speaker 3: at the time, of scrambling to figure out how do
3:57
Speaker 3: we make ends meet and how do we make up
4:00
Speaker 3: in this moment what we were losing so rapidly, And
4:03
Speaker 3: so to think about Steve and think about the idea
4:07
Speaker 3: that perhaps he had gotten incredibly depressed. That makes sense.
4:11
Speaker 3: You saw incredible rises in things like family annihilations, where
4:15
Speaker 3: the main breadwinner would come home and kill their entire
4:18
Speaker 3: family and then complete suicide to spare them of the
4:22
Speaker 3: financial distress. You saw suicide rates go incredibly high. But
4:26
Speaker 3: this is interesting because this is not the only trip
4:29
Speaker 3: that Steven takes. He's starting to make these really bizarre
4:32
Speaker 3: trips on a pretty regular basis, where he's traveling at
4:35
Speaker 3: this day one hundred and thirty five miles, but another
4:38
Speaker 3: time eleven hundred miles on these just unexplained trips. I'm
4:43
Speaker 3: almost leaning towards the idea that he had gotten caught
4:46
Speaker 3: up in something or there was a group of people
4:48
Speaker 3: that he was involved with for some reason that he
4:51
Speaker 3: was making these these long haul destination trips for no
4:55
Speaker 3: one around him seemed to know what was going on.
4:58
Speaker 3: So I'm really excited to know more.
5:01
Speaker 1: Yeah. I was first introduced to this case when I
5:03
Speaker 1: saw it on an episode of Disappeared many years ago,
5:06
Speaker 1: and I was initially completely perplexed by it and didn't
5:09
Speaker 1: know what to make of it. But I will say
5:10
Speaker 1: that some of the new information that has come out
5:12
Speaker 1: within the past couple years has put some of the
5:15
Speaker 1: pieces of the puzzle together at trying to figure out
5:18
Speaker 1: what happened. But of course Stephen is still missing, and
5:21
Speaker 1: there are still a lot of unanswered questions, so it's
5:23
Speaker 1: still a big baffling mystery.
5:27
Speaker 2: Our story begins in two thousand and nine, and our
5:30
Speaker 2: central figure is thirty year old Stephen Coacher. Stephen was
5:34
Speaker 2: born in Amarillo, Texas to parents Ralph and Dianne Cocher,
5:38
Speaker 2: and as the second of their five children. The Coacher
5:41
Speaker 2: family are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of
5:44
Speaker 2: Latter day Saints aka the LDS Church, and Stephen is
5:48
Speaker 2: very devoted to Mormonism. Following his graduation from high school,
5:53
Speaker 2: Stephen would travel to Brazil to perform missionary work, and
5:56
Speaker 2: he eventually earned a degree in communications from the Universe
6:00
Speaker 2: City of Utah. By this point, the Coachers have relocated
6:03
Speaker 2: to Utah, and Ralph and Dianne live in the town
6:07
Speaker 2: of Bountiful, just outside Salt Lake City, where Ralph works
6:11
Speaker 2: as the editor for the Davis County Clipper newspaper. Stephen
6:15
Speaker 2: wanted to follow in his father's footsteps and publish some
6:17
Speaker 2: freelance stories in the Clipper before he took a position
6:21
Speaker 2: with the Salt Lake City Tribune's digital advertising division. While
6:25
Speaker 2: Stephen liked the job itself, he did not like the
6:28
Speaker 2: fact that it required him to work overnight hours, so
6:31
Speaker 2: he wound up taking a new advertising position with the
6:34
Speaker 2: website match bin dot com. Stephen was also not too
6:38
Speaker 2: fond of the cold winter weather of Salt Lake City,
6:41
Speaker 2: so in April of two thousand and nine, he decided
6:44
Speaker 2: to move to Saint George, which was located three hundred
6:47
Speaker 2: miles away in the southernmost section of Utah near the
6:50
Speaker 2: Nevada and Arizona borders. He would rent a room at
6:54
Speaker 2: a house which he shared with another tenant named Jordan Zirkle,
6:57
Speaker 2: but the two roommates couldn't have had more opposite personalities.
7:02
Speaker 2: While Stephen was very devoted to his church and faith,
7:05
Speaker 2: Jordan liked to drink and smoke weed and had a
7:08
Speaker 2: prior conviction on his record for possession of a controlled substance.
7:12
Speaker 2: But while they did not become close friends, they were
7:14
Speaker 2: still able to maintain an amicable relationship. Upon his arrival
7:19
Speaker 2: in Saint George, Stephen became a member of the Bloomington
7:22
Speaker 2: Hills Seventh Ward, a local singles ward. While Stephen's siblings
7:27
Speaker 2: had gotten married and had children by this point, he
7:30
Speaker 2: continued to remain single and once broke off a serious
7:34
Speaker 2: relationship with a woman who did not hold the same
7:36
Speaker 2: interest in the LDS church that he did. Unfortunately for Stephen,
7:41
Speaker 2: one month after he moved to Saint George, he would
7:44
Speaker 2: be laid off from his job at matchbin dot com.
7:47
Speaker 2: Since the United States was in the midst of the
7:49
Speaker 2: Great Recession and the job market in Saint George was scarce,
7:53
Speaker 2: Stephen had trouble finding steady employment, though he did manage
7:57
Speaker 2: to get a part time job handing out flyers for
8:00
Speaker 2: a business called Travis's Window and Blind Cleaning. However, this
8:04
Speaker 2: job did not provide Stephen with enough income to pay
8:06
Speaker 2: his bills, and by the end of November Jordan Circle
8:10
Speaker 2: had moved out of their house and he was now
8:13
Speaker 2: three months and fifteen hundred dollars behind in his rent.
8:17
Speaker 3: This that's an interesting layer to the case when you
8:19
Speaker 3: look at his devotion to the LDS Church to not
8:23
Speaker 3: be a married man at that point and to not
8:26
Speaker 3: be able to, you know, live up to what's expected
8:30
Speaker 3: very quickly. A lot of people in the LDS Church,
8:33
Speaker 3: they're you know, introduced to people in hopes of a marriage. It's,
8:37
Speaker 3: you know, the whole goal. You want family to be
8:40
Speaker 3: the heart of who you are. And so he's thirty,
8:45
Speaker 3: which is you see him join this local singles ward,
8:47
Speaker 3: but I guarantee you most of the people and there
8:49
Speaker 3: were not thirty year olds, and so I guarantee you
8:53
Speaker 3: there's that pressure on his shoulders as well, that he
8:56
Speaker 3: has been in relationships where quote he would have been
9:00
Speaker 3: doing the right thing or he would be close to
9:02
Speaker 3: the goal of having the family that is expected, and
9:05
Speaker 3: then he calls it off. He's looking for other people
9:09
Speaker 3: who might be interested in the same kind of things
9:11
Speaker 3: in the local singles ward. But then he gets exposed
9:14
Speaker 3: to this roommate who's not very much like him. And
9:18
Speaker 3: eventually the roommate moves out and he's behind in his rent.
9:21
Speaker 3: So he has got a lot of pressure on his shoulders,
9:24
Speaker 3: losing his job, not being the ideal Mormon young man
9:28
Speaker 3: that he was quote supposed to be, and then having
9:32
Speaker 3: these financial struggles. And so when you describe that the
9:35
Speaker 3: options become turned to something that'll get you money quick.
9:39
Speaker 3: Very that's very that's very possible when you look at
9:44
Speaker 3: this case. And then also when you say, well, wait,
9:46
Speaker 3: what if he made this trip and he went to
9:49
Speaker 3: complete suicide. But again, I think because this was not
9:52
Speaker 3: the only time you saw this kind of trip, that
9:55
Speaker 3: makes me less inclined to think that suicide was the
9:59
Speaker 3: goal at the at the front.
10:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've seen interviews with Steven's family, and they do
10:06
Speaker 1: seem like genuinely nice people, and I think they supported
10:09
Speaker 1: him no matter what, and that even though he probably
10:11
Speaker 1: felt he did not live up to their expectations because
10:14
Speaker 1: he was still single, he couldn't find steady employment, I
10:17
Speaker 1: think he might have felt like a failure in their eyes,
10:20
Speaker 1: even though they loved him no matter what. And I
10:22
Speaker 1: think that would shed a lot of light on many
10:24
Speaker 1: of his decisions, Like you said, either he traveled to
10:27
Speaker 1: a far away location because he thought suicide was the
10:29
Speaker 1: only option, or it became so desperate that he could
10:32
Speaker 1: have been roped into doing something that he ordinarily wouldn't
10:35
Speaker 1: have done just for the chance to earn money or
10:37
Speaker 1: steady employment.
10:39
Speaker 2: I remember when I first watched this, I too, watched
10:42
Speaker 2: this on Disappeared for the first time, and there's just
10:45
Speaker 2: something about it that just is so so sad, because,
10:49
Speaker 2: like you said, Steven's family they seemed to be very successful,
10:52
Speaker 2: and they were living their lives in a certain manner.
10:55
Speaker 2: They were getting married, and they all seem to have jobs.
10:58
Speaker 2: And then poor Steven, just the timing of everything just
11:01
Speaker 2: didn't seem to align for him, and he wasn't able
11:04
Speaker 2: to keep the employment, and he was too proud to
11:07
Speaker 2: ask his family for help. So he's stuck in this
11:10
Speaker 2: situation where Jordan moves out and now he doesn't have
11:14
Speaker 2: a roommate and all the rent is on his shoulders.
11:17
Speaker 2: I can't imagine how he felt. It would have opened
11:20
Speaker 2: him up to the possibility that if somebody had some
11:24
Speaker 2: kind of illegal work that would have been cash in
11:26
Speaker 2: hand quickly, then potentially he would have taken it because
11:30
Speaker 2: I'm sure a lot of people in that time period
11:33
Speaker 2: when they needed work would be open to doing things
11:36
Speaker 2: that they wouldn't normally do just because they needed the money.
11:40
Speaker 1: Yes. In spite of his financial difficulty, Stephen was reluctant
11:43
Speaker 1: to accept assistance from his family, as a check was
11:46
Speaker 1: sent to him by his grandmother which was never cashed.
11:49
Speaker 1: On December ninth, Rolf Kosher received a phone call from
11:52
Speaker 1: Brett Bishop, who was Stephen's landlord. Bishop said that he
11:55
Speaker 1: had been unable to get a hold of Stephen and
11:57
Speaker 1: was calling Rolph because he was listed as a reference
12:00
Speaker 1: on his rental agreement. Bischof let Rolf know that Stephen
12:03
Speaker 1: was way behind with paying his rent, which prompted Rolf
12:06
Speaker 1: to call him on a cell phone while he was
12:07
Speaker 1: out grocery shopping. Rolf told his son that he was
12:10
Speaker 1: willing to offer financial support, but Stephen seemed defended by
12:13
Speaker 1: the suggestion and abruptly hung up. The following day, Steven
12:17
Speaker 1: sent his father a text which read quote, Hi Dad,
12:20
Speaker 1: I'm okay. At six fifty six pm Mountain time, Stephen
12:24
Speaker 1: received a call on a cell phone from his mother, Dianne,
12:27
Speaker 1: and told her that he was planning to come home
12:29
Speaker 1: to visit their family and Bountiful for Christmas and would
12:32
Speaker 1: likely be arriving on December the twenty third. To assist
12:35
Speaker 1: him with his financial issues, Diane also transferred some money
12:38
Speaker 1: to her son's bank account, but it was never touched.
12:41
Speaker 1: That same day, Stephen also received a phone call from
12:44
Speaker 1: his sister, and both she and Dianne would describe Stephen
12:47
Speaker 1: as sounding like he was in an upbeat mood, but
12:50
Speaker 1: at the time they were both completely unaware that Stephen
12:54
Speaker 1: had taken both calls in the midst of a lengthy
12:56
Speaker 1: road trip. Before we start talking about this trip, I
12:59
Speaker 1: just just wanted to clarify that the locations will be
13:02
Speaker 1: discussing in Utah our mountain time, and locations in Nevada
13:06
Speaker 1: our Pacific time, so we'll try to differentiate between them.
13:10
Speaker 3: Oh, this is so sad. So the family's aware that
13:13
Speaker 3: he's struggling, in fact, they're trying to help him. I honestly,
13:17
Speaker 3: you know, my late husband's family is LDS and they're
13:20
Speaker 3: phenomenal human beings, and the church as a whole really
13:24
Speaker 3: does take care of the people that are in their
13:27
Speaker 3: wards and in their church, and so I can only
13:30
Speaker 3: imagine the way this family operated. They're saying, hey, son,
13:33
Speaker 3: you're struggling, it's okay, Hey Grandma sent you a check. Hey,
13:37
Speaker 3: Dad just wants to make sure you're okay. Mom's checking
13:40
Speaker 3: in with him, and he's sounding upbeat and excited, and
13:43
Speaker 3: he's even making plans that he's going to be home
13:46
Speaker 3: for Christmas. And so to detail those kinds of plans,
13:52
Speaker 3: if you knew that you were going to complete suicide,
13:55
Speaker 3: I wonder if you would continue to play along with
13:58
Speaker 3: those or if maybe his mind would change at some
14:01
Speaker 3: point after he had confirmed those plans. But when you
14:04
Speaker 3: see people who have a purpose and they have people
14:08
Speaker 3: who care about them and who plan and expect them
14:11
Speaker 3: to be home, that's always a good sign. When you're
14:14
Speaker 3: talking about, hey, where's his mental health? That he's communicating,
14:17
Speaker 3: he's making plans, he's seeming like he's upbeat with his family.
14:21
Speaker 3: Now again, people who are having mental health crises often
14:24
Speaker 3: can hide those things. But right now, you know, from
14:26
Speaker 3: this phone call, the family seems to think we have issues.
14:31
Speaker 3: He's struggling, but not to a point where we were
14:33
Speaker 3: concerned to this extent right that he was going to
14:36
Speaker 3: go missing or that something would have happened to him.
14:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I've always used that as the biggest argument
14:42
Speaker 1: against the idea of suicide. It just seems kind of
14:45
Speaker 1: cruel to tell your family I'm going to be home
14:47
Speaker 1: for Christmas when you already know you're going to end
14:49
Speaker 1: your own life. And as we're going to talk about momentarily,
14:52
Speaker 1: he would later buy a couple of Christmas gifts for
14:55
Speaker 1: his brother and his nephew, and it just seems like
14:57
Speaker 1: he would have no reason to do that if he
14:59
Speaker 1: knew he is never going to see them at Christmas.
15:02
Speaker 1: So I do think that possibly the reason he sounded
15:05
Speaker 1: upbeat is because he may have been making this road
15:08
Speaker 1: trip for other reasons that he felt we're going to
15:10
Speaker 1: solve his problems, which is why he was in a
15:13
Speaker 1: much better mood. But I don't think anyone expected that
15:15
Speaker 1: within a few days he would go missing.
15:19
Speaker 2: Just an idea to play devil's advocate. And I'm not
15:21
Speaker 2: saying that this is true because I'm more inclined to
15:25
Speaker 2: think what you just said is correct, Robin. But people sometimes,
15:29
Speaker 2: and it's been studied that they can be in a
15:32
Speaker 2: really bad mood, they can be doing horribly, but once
15:36
Speaker 2: they make that decision to end their life. It can
15:39
Speaker 2: completely turn around their moods and they can seem really
15:42
Speaker 2: upbeat and more relaxed and happier. So I don't think
15:47
Speaker 2: it cancels out that possibility. I think it's not very probable.
15:51
Speaker 2: And also, like we discussed before, the literature supports that
15:55
Speaker 2: people make that decision typically in a very short period
15:58
Speaker 2: of time, based on those people who've survived attempts. So
16:04
Speaker 2: to think that like somebody has to plan it way
16:06
Speaker 2: in advance, that doesn't seem to be true according to
16:09
Speaker 2: the studies. So it could be a situation where there
16:12
Speaker 2: was maybe the intention to do that, but then that
16:16
Speaker 2: intention changed in a split second. But again it's just
16:20
Speaker 2: to play devil's advocate. I don't think that, But I
16:22
Speaker 2: just think that there's always that possibility.
16:25
Speaker 3: Oh, very true. And I think you can have, you know,
16:27
Speaker 3: suicidal ideations or have that depression that feels like would
16:31
Speaker 3: I be better off if I wasn't here, and that
16:34
Speaker 3: can quickly change into action plans when you know, you
16:37
Speaker 3: think you're fine, and then all of a sudden, a
16:40
Speaker 3: plan can come, like you said, in minutes, So definitely possible.
16:45
Speaker 3: And like you said, what if he's what if he's saying, oh,
16:48
Speaker 3: I'm at peace. You know, I don't want my family
16:50
Speaker 3: to worry, and so I'll tell them this upbeat story.
16:54
Speaker 3: But then again, like Robin said, my gut wants to
16:58
Speaker 3: think he's on this mission because he's excited. I'm going
17:02
Speaker 3: to get to go home for Christmas and I'm going
17:03
Speaker 3: to get to tell my family that some of these
17:05
Speaker 3: issues are resolved. And maybe he was doing something a
17:08
Speaker 3: little nefarious that gets him into trouble, but he thinks, hey,
17:11
Speaker 3: I have a solution. Remember, there are not. In that time,
17:15
Speaker 3: it was a really really difficult time financially in the
17:19
Speaker 3: United States. This is people are getting laid off and droves.
17:23
Speaker 3: People's accounts are just completely wiped out. People's you know,
17:27
Speaker 3: resources are completely dried up. People aren't hiring, and so
17:31
Speaker 3: it was a really desperate time for a lot of people.
17:33
Speaker 3: And so I could see someone who would normally not
17:36
Speaker 3: be inclined to do something that's you know, illegal or shady,
17:40
Speaker 3: to say, hey, it's so it's a way to make
17:41
Speaker 3: a buck right now, and I'm desperate.
17:44
Speaker 2: At some point on the evening of December ninth or
17:47
Speaker 2: the early morning hours of December tenth, Stephen left Saint
17:51
Speaker 2: George in his white two thousand and three Chevrolet Cavalier,
17:55
Speaker 2: and debit card records would later show that he traveled
17:58
Speaker 2: three hundred miles to Salt Lake City and purchased gas
18:01
Speaker 2: there at six forty five am Mountain time. He soon
18:05
Speaker 2: crossed the state line into Nevada and proceeded to purchase
18:09
Speaker 2: gas in the town of West Wendover one hundred and
18:12
Speaker 2: twenty five miles away. After that, Stephen traveled another one
18:16
Speaker 2: hundred and fifteen miles to the unincorporated community of Ruby Valley,
18:21
Speaker 2: where at eleven am Pacific time, he stopped at a
18:24
Speaker 2: ranch owned by a couple named John and Cathy Nef.
18:28
Speaker 2: Years earlier, when Stephen was a member of Salt Lake
18:30
Speaker 2: City's LDS Singles Ward, he became acquainted with their daughter,
18:34
Speaker 2: Anne Marie Nef, and while they dated for a brief period,
18:38
Speaker 2: they never developed a serious relationship. Stephen wanted to see
18:42
Speaker 2: Anne Marie, and even though she was not there at
18:44
Speaker 2: the time, her parents still invited him inside for lunch.
18:48
Speaker 2: During their conversation, Stephen mentioned that he was planning to
18:51
Speaker 2: visit friends or family members in Sacramento, California, but he
18:56
Speaker 2: wasn't sure if he would continue in that direction because
18:58
Speaker 2: of the bad weather. This remark would later strike Stephen's
19:02
Speaker 2: loved ones as odd because, as far as they knew,
19:05
Speaker 2: Stephen did not know anyone in Sacramento. After leaving the ranch,
19:09
Speaker 2: Stephen headed back into Utah and deba transaction showed that
19:14
Speaker 2: he purchased food at a convenience store in Salt Lake City,
19:17
Speaker 2: fuel in Springville, in food in Nephi. During the afternoon
19:22
Speaker 2: and early evenings, Stephen received the aforementioned phone calls on
19:26
Speaker 2: his cell phone from his sister and mother, but never
19:29
Speaker 2: mentioned that he was driving through the state at that time.
19:32
Speaker 2: By the time he arrived back in Saint George, Stephen
19:35
Speaker 2: had driven nearly one thousand miles.
19:38
Speaker 3: And this is a different trip than the one hundred
19:41
Speaker 3: and thirty five miles that he traveled before his disappearance.
19:46
Speaker 1: Yes, like this is a couple days beforehand, Like, he
19:48
Speaker 1: hasn't even made the trip to Henderson, so he's making
19:51
Speaker 1: this unexplained road trip which no one has been able
19:54
Speaker 1: to figure out to this day, and people have wondered, like,
19:58
Speaker 1: what connection did this have to his trip to Henderson
20:00
Speaker 1: A couple days later? It only adds an extra level
20:03
Speaker 1: intrigue to this whole mystery.
20:05
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's really interesting because remember, this is a
20:08
Speaker 3: gentleman who's behind fifteen hundred dollars on his rent. He's
20:11
Speaker 3: making a thousand mile road trip. That's a lot of
20:15
Speaker 3: gas and food and needs that you're on the road.
20:18
Speaker 3: Is he staying over night in hotels or motels? And
20:21
Speaker 3: so this is not a cheap thing to do to
20:24
Speaker 3: hop in your car and to travel for hours and
20:27
Speaker 3: hours and to make a trip like that.
20:30
Speaker 1: And it's always been to explain why he suddenly decided
20:32
Speaker 1: to see John and Kathy Neff, the parents of a
20:35
Speaker 1: girl he had not dated in a long time. I mean,
20:37
Speaker 1: it seems very unlikely that he would decide to like
20:40
Speaker 1: just travel to this location and maybe rekindle the relationship.
20:44
Speaker 1: And if he wanted to do that, why would he
20:46
Speaker 1: call first to say he was coming. So it's always
20:49
Speaker 1: been a big question. Did he go there for the
20:51
Speaker 1: express purpose of seeing them, or did he go to
20:53
Speaker 1: the area for another reason and then just decided to
20:56
Speaker 1: visit them because he happened to be there.
20:58
Speaker 3: And did they allude to anything else other than that
21:00
Speaker 3: trip to California?
21:02
Speaker 1: Not really, No, he didn't provide any explanation for why
21:05
Speaker 1: he was in the area, and the only reason we
21:07
Speaker 1: know where he was is because of his debit transaction
21:10
Speaker 1: showing him purchasing food and getting fuel, But we just
21:13
Speaker 1: don't know why he was at these specific locations. So
21:18
Speaker 1: on December the eleventh, Stephen spent the day handing out
21:21
Speaker 1: some more flyers for the window washing business, and he
21:24
Speaker 1: also had a meeting with the Bishop of the Bloomington
21:26
Speaker 1: Hills seventh Ward, who promised that he would help him
21:29
Speaker 1: find a job by the new year, and would later
21:31
Speaker 1: say that Steven seemed to be in a positive mood.
21:34
Speaker 1: On December the twelfth, Stephen left Saint George on another
21:37
Speaker 1: unexplained road trip to Nevada, and at eight nineteen am
21:41
Speaker 1: Pacific time, his cell phone would ping off a tower
21:43
Speaker 1: near Overton, about eighty miles away. Nearly eight hours later,
21:47
Speaker 1: Stephen used his debit card to purchase gas and Mesquite, Nevada,
21:50
Speaker 1: which is located at the approximate halfway point between Overton
21:54
Speaker 1: and Saint George. Shortly before apm Mountain time, Stephen stopped
21:58
Speaker 1: at a kmart just outside Saint George, where he purchased
22:01
Speaker 1: a baby's bib, little ornaments, and decorated cookies, which were
22:05
Speaker 1: likely going to be Christmas presents for his older brother
22:07
Speaker 1: Matthew and his newborn baby he had drawn their names
22:11
Speaker 1: and the family's annual Christmas gift exchange. One of Steven's
22:15
Speaker 1: neighbors would report that he saw Steven's car parked outside
22:18
Speaker 1: his house at around ten pm Mountain time bo When
22:20
Speaker 1: he looked back a half hour later, the car was gone,
22:24
Speaker 1: and it's unclear if Stephen ever returned after that and
22:26
Speaker 1: spent the night there.
22:28
Speaker 3: Very interesting, you know, I mean, I know we've talked
22:31
Speaker 3: about it takes a split second to change your mental
22:34
Speaker 3: state or to make different plans. But this idea that
22:37
Speaker 3: he draws his brother and the newborn their little names
22:41
Speaker 3: for their Christmas family exchange, and he is early shopping.
22:45
Speaker 3: He is doing a really good job getting out there
22:48
Speaker 3: and getting these presents. He has a plan for making
22:51
Speaker 3: sure that his secret Sama is provided for on Christmas Day.
22:56
Speaker 3: And there's this new baby that he's clearly thinking of
22:59
Speaker 3: and prioritizing life. So it shows in importance of family
23:03
Speaker 3: to him. It shows that desire and expectation that he's
23:07
Speaker 3: going to be able to make that delivery, and very interesting.
23:10
Speaker 3: You know that the neighbor says, hey, the car was
23:13
Speaker 3: parked outside, but then later in the evening I saw
23:16
Speaker 3: it gone again and I can't recall if it ever
23:20
Speaker 3: came back. Fascinating because we know at some point he
23:24
Speaker 3: is seen in his car again in parking in that
23:26
Speaker 3: retirement community. So tell me more about what happens to
23:29
Speaker 3: Stephen after this Christmas shopping spree.
23:33
Speaker 2: Just one more thing, Ash, you brought up that he's
23:37
Speaker 2: going on this long road trip for you know, hundreds
23:39
Speaker 2: or thousands of miles, like almost a thousand miles, and
23:43
Speaker 2: that would require X amount of gas and you've got
23:46
Speaker 2: to stop and get food along the way. And then
23:48
Speaker 2: again he's buying presents. And we know that he has
23:51
Speaker 2: access to that check from his grandmother, but he hasn't
23:54
Speaker 2: cashed that and he could ask his parents for money
23:57
Speaker 2: if he needed it. So where is he getting this
24:00
Speaker 2: cash in hand?
24:01
Speaker 3: And let me tell you this. The LDS Church, like
24:04
Speaker 3: I said, does an incredible job. I knew a family
24:07
Speaker 3: that went to church with my late husband's family, and
24:10
Speaker 3: they had room and board, provided, they had food provided.
24:13
Speaker 3: It was a temporary assistance, but they needed help in
24:17
Speaker 3: the church that absolutely, we have a fund for that.
24:20
Speaker 1: We have a.
24:21
Speaker 3: Kitchen for that where you can come and shop for
24:23
Speaker 3: food and those kinds of things, and it was very
24:25
Speaker 3: important to the church. A lot of their tidying went
24:28
Speaker 3: to saying, we're making a fund to protect the individuals
24:32
Speaker 3: in this church when they hit unexpected life struggles. So
24:35
Speaker 3: that's a good point, Jules. He has family that would
24:37
Speaker 3: help him, he has a church that would help him
24:40
Speaker 3: most likely, and he is doing things that actually cost money.
24:44
Speaker 3: He knows he doesn't have a job, he knows that
24:47
Speaker 3: he's behind in rent, yet he seems to be pretty
24:50
Speaker 3: confident in going to get presents, going to do gas,
24:53
Speaker 3: going on this trip. Is he getting another stream of
24:56
Speaker 3: income and maybe rent just wasn't his priority, or he
24:59
Speaker 3: has this plan, Hey, I'll just do this lump sum
25:01
Speaker 3: payment later and take care of that. But maybe he
25:04
Speaker 3: does have access to money we don't know about.
25:07
Speaker 2: Do we know if he had any credit cards that
25:09
Speaker 2: were maxed out or anything, Robin.
25:11
Speaker 1: That hasn't been reported unfortunately, So that would make sense
25:15
Speaker 1: because a lot of people when they are having trouble
25:17
Speaker 1: paying rent and they don't have much money, will sometimes
25:20
Speaker 1: max out their credit cards, and that could be like
25:23
Speaker 1: how he paid for these items, because I know that
25:26
Speaker 1: his secret sand items were pretty cheap. But obviously he
25:29
Speaker 1: needed something to pay for all that gas that he
25:32
Speaker 1: was getting in his food during his road trips. So
25:35
Speaker 1: it would not surprise me if he might have had
25:37
Speaker 1: some credit cards.
25:38
Speaker 2: Doesn't it just seem a little bit odd that, Okay,
25:41
Speaker 2: so priority would be putting a roof over your head,
25:44
Speaker 2: You would think that would be number one priority, and
25:46
Speaker 2: then you're going to secure food and all those things
25:49
Speaker 2: if you have room on your credit card to be
25:52
Speaker 2: paying for all this gas. Months later we find out
25:55
Speaker 2: he's months behind in rent. Wouldn't you put that on
25:58
Speaker 2: your credit card?
26:00
Speaker 1: How many places take rent on your credit card? Because
26:02
Speaker 1: I know that when I lived in an apartment, my
26:04
Speaker 1: rent was always direct deposit, like they would only take
26:07
Speaker 1: it from a bank account. The do some places still
26:10
Speaker 1: allow you to pay for rent on credit cards?
26:12
Speaker 2: I don't know.
26:13
Speaker 3: I had to pay with a check, so that was
26:15
Speaker 3: old school though, the credit check.
26:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not sure. I mean, either way, if he
26:22
Speaker 2: had money on his credit card, you'd pay out you know,
26:25
Speaker 2: the wazoo in in fees if you took money out
26:29
Speaker 2: of your account like off your credit card. You actually
26:32
Speaker 2: took cash out to do it, which I think if
26:35
Speaker 2: somebody is really behind the landlord is likely going to
26:38
Speaker 2: be as flexible as possible because they just want to
26:40
Speaker 2: get paid.
26:42
Speaker 1: Yes, you can do cash advances as need be, so
26:44
Speaker 1: as possible. He could have been doing that to make
26:46
Speaker 1: some periodic payments.
26:50
Speaker 2: The next confirmed sighting of Stephen took place at seven
26:53
Speaker 2: fifty two am Pacific time on the morning of December thirteenth,
26:57
Speaker 2: which was a Sunday. Stephen received phone call on his
27:00
Speaker 2: cell phone from Greg Webb, who was the president of
27:03
Speaker 2: his LDS Singles Ward, and told Stephen he was driving
27:07
Speaker 2: back to Saint George from Las Vegas and would be
27:10
Speaker 2: performing that morning service. The service was scheduled to begin
27:13
Speaker 2: at eleven am Mountain time, but Webb wasn't sure if
27:17
Speaker 2: he would make it back in time and asked Stephen
27:20
Speaker 2: if he would take over in his absence. To Webb's surprise,
27:23
Speaker 2: Stephen said that he was currently in the Las Vegas area,
27:27
Speaker 2: and while he said he was willing to head back
27:29
Speaker 2: to Saint George to do the service, Webb told him
27:32
Speaker 2: not to worry about it. At nine fifty three am
27:35
Speaker 2: Pacific time, Stephen received another call on his cell phone
27:38
Speaker 2: from a member of his ward who also heard Stephen
27:41
Speaker 2: say that he was in Las Vegas. Neither caller noticed
27:45
Speaker 2: anything unusual about Stephen during their conversations, but he never
27:50
Speaker 2: told either of them why he decided to travel to Vegas,
27:53
Speaker 2: and it was uncommon for him to miss Sunday services.
27:57
Speaker 2: For the next four days, no one heard from Stephen,
28:01
Speaker 2: but on December seventeenth, Dianne received a surprising voicemail from
28:05
Speaker 2: the parking authority for the homeowner's association called Sun City Anthem,
28:10
Speaker 2: an affluent retirement community located in Henderson, Nevada, just outside
28:15
Speaker 2: Las Vegas, even though Henderson is over one hundred and
28:18
Speaker 2: thirty miles away from Saint George. Diane learned that Stephen's
28:22
Speaker 2: abandoned Chevrolet Cavalier had been found in the cul de
28:26
Speaker 2: sac of a residential neighborhood in Sun City Anthem. The
28:30
Speaker 2: Homeowner's association noticed that the vehicle had been parked there
28:33
Speaker 2: for days, and when they looked in through the window,
28:36
Speaker 2: they saw a flyer for Travis's window and blind cleaning,
28:40
Speaker 2: so they called the phone number on it. This led
28:43
Speaker 2: to them receiving Stephen's cell phone number, and they proceeded
28:46
Speaker 2: to leave a voicemail about his car, but when they
28:49
Speaker 2: were unable to get in touch with him, they decided
28:51
Speaker 2: to call Dianne. Diane soon learned no one else had
28:54
Speaker 2: spoken to or heard from Stephen for days, so she
28:58
Speaker 2: became concerned enough to contact at the Saint George Police
29:01
Speaker 2: Department and file a missing person's report for him.
29:05
Speaker 3: Here's what worries me most about this scenario is that
29:09
Speaker 3: Dianne says she learned that no one else had spoken
29:13
Speaker 3: to or heard from Stephen for days. But remember, even
29:16
Speaker 3: on these trips, he's making purposeful stops. He's stopping to
29:19
Speaker 3: see people you wouldn't actually really think he'd stop to see,
29:23
Speaker 3: like the parents of an ex girlfriend or a girl
29:25
Speaker 3: he used to date. He's making phone calls to check
29:28
Speaker 3: in with his sister, to check in with his dad,
29:30
Speaker 3: to check in with mom, and so he seems to
29:32
Speaker 3: be a pretty good communicator, and he seems to be
29:35
Speaker 3: a very social person who has purpose and makes stops
29:39
Speaker 3: to see individuals. So when Diane learns that no one
29:43
Speaker 3: else has spoken to or heard from Stephen for days,
29:46
Speaker 3: you know that her gut just completely turns upside down
29:49
Speaker 3: and she's thinking, Okay, something's not right, something's happened to him.
29:53
Speaker 3: We know the last time he's seen right is when
29:56
Speaker 3: we see him leaving his vehicle here. But if if
30:00
Speaker 3: he had a mission and he was going to do
30:02
Speaker 3: other things, or he had met with people, that would
30:05
Speaker 3: help us establish that maybe that's not the last time,
30:09
Speaker 3: right that he leaves that vehicle. That's not the last
30:11
Speaker 3: time that we know that he's alive. But from the
30:14
Speaker 3: sounds of it, he didn't live much longer after that,
30:17
Speaker 3: because I think he still would have kept in communication
30:20
Speaker 3: with people, even if he was doing something actively in
30:24
Speaker 3: that city. He still would have been responsive to people.
30:28
Speaker 1: And it makes no sense for him to abandon his
30:30
Speaker 1: car for four days in this retirement community, which, as
30:33
Speaker 1: far as anyone could tell, he had never traveled to
30:35
Speaker 1: before in his life. So it is literally like a
30:38
Speaker 1: case where he climbs out of his car, the camera
30:40
Speaker 1: captures them walking away, and then he just vanishes into
30:44
Speaker 1: thin air. So you can understand the concern and just
30:47
Speaker 1: the fact that he was willing to miss Sunday services
30:49
Speaker 1: and travel to Las Vegas or near Las Vegas, and
30:53
Speaker 1: he never explained to anyone why he was going there
30:55
Speaker 1: is one of the big mysteries of this case. So
31:00
Speaker 1: Rolf Kocher and two of Stephen's brothers traveled to Saint
31:03
Speaker 1: George to check his house and discovered that most of
31:05
Speaker 1: his clothing and personal possessions were still there. He had
31:08
Speaker 1: also left behind his laptop, cell phone charger, and passport,
31:12
Speaker 1: and since there were recently purchased groceries at the residents
31:15
Speaker 1: nothing suggested that Stephen had planned to take off voluntarily.
31:20
Speaker 1: A search of Stephen's laptop and email account would not
31:22
Speaker 1: turn up anything unusual or shed any light on why
31:25
Speaker 1: he decided to travel to Henderson. However, it's worth noting
31:29
Speaker 1: that since Stephen's residence did not have an Internet connection,
31:32
Speaker 1: he often used computers at the Washington County Library in
31:35
Speaker 1: order to go online. While their system required Stephen to
31:39
Speaker 1: sign in using his library card, it did not keep
31:41
Speaker 1: track of any websites that Stephen visited. Ralph and his
31:45
Speaker 1: sons traveled to Henderson to pick up Stephen's car and
31:48
Speaker 1: discovered that it was in good working order and add
31:51
Speaker 1: half a tank of gas. Items left in the car
31:54
Speaker 1: included Stephen's shaving kit, coats, pillows, a blanket, receipts, flyers
31:59
Speaker 1: for the window washing business, copies of job applications, and
32:02
Speaker 1: the Christmas gifts that Stephen had purchased from the kmart
32:05
Speaker 1: near Saint George. Stephen's cell phone, wallet, and driver's license
32:09
Speaker 1: were never found, and there would be no further activity
32:12
Speaker 1: on his debit or credit cards. It turns out that
32:15
Speaker 1: one of the residents in Sun City, Anthem had a
32:17
Speaker 1: home security camera outside his home, and when investigators checked
32:21
Speaker 1: the footage, they saw Stephen's Cavalier driving west through the
32:24
Speaker 1: neighborhood down Savannah Springs Avenue in the direction of the
32:28
Speaker 1: cul de Sac at eleven fifty four am on December
32:30
Speaker 1: of the thirteenth. Six minutes later, a man could be
32:34
Speaker 1: seen walking down the sidewalk past the camera in the
32:36
Speaker 1: opposite direction. Even though the footage was shot from a distance,
32:40
Speaker 1: it was not particularly clear the man was believed to
32:43
Speaker 1: be Stephen, who was dressed in a white shirt and
32:46
Speaker 1: white slacks and appeared to be carrying something which may
32:49
Speaker 1: have been a file folder or portfolio. It's also worth
32:53
Speaker 1: noting that before Stephen walked past the camera, a white
32:56
Speaker 1: suv could be seen driving down the street and after
32:59
Speaker 1: Stephen disappeared from the frame, the suv suddenly reappeared and
33:02
Speaker 1: pulled up to the curb next to a house. However,
33:06
Speaker 1: the driver of the suv turned out to be a
33:07
Speaker 1: realtor who was ruled out as having any connection to
33:10
Speaker 1: Stephen's case. It's also been reported that another security camera
33:14
Speaker 1: mounted on a garage on the adjacent Evening Light Street
33:18
Speaker 1: captured a reflection of Stephen in the windows of a
33:21
Speaker 1: park minivan, and he could be seen crossing the street
33:24
Speaker 1: and disappearing out of frame.
33:26
Speaker 3: Well, I originally I was thinking, Okay, I wonder if
33:28
Speaker 3: he was doing something like for his faith or something.
33:30
Speaker 3: But he's not dressed correctly. Right, if you're in the
33:32
Speaker 3: LDS and you're spreading your faith, you're in your white
33:35
Speaker 3: shirt and your black pants with a tie in your
33:38
Speaker 3: name tag. And so he's clearly not prophesying at this point, right,
33:42
Speaker 3: He's not in the right attire. He's carrying a folder
33:45
Speaker 3: or a portfolio. I'm wondering if he's hunting for a job.
33:51
Speaker 3: Maybe he's out trying to I don't know, secure a position.
33:57
Speaker 3: He's surely not doing his own work, because he wouldn't
33:59
Speaker 3: be shit caaring flyers about the window washing company over
34:03
Speaker 3: in this city. It has no relationship to where he lives. Oh,
34:07
Speaker 3: I don't know. I just feel sick to my stomach
34:09
Speaker 3: knowing that you see him park, you see him walk
34:12
Speaker 3: with purpose. There's something that he's going to do, and
34:16
Speaker 3: it seems more business related in my opinion.
34:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I do think that the filefolder or portfolio
34:23
Speaker 1: he was carrying is the key to the case, because
34:25
Speaker 1: I think it was somehow connected to the reason he
34:28
Speaker 1: traveled to Henderson, because whatever he was carrying was never found.
34:32
Speaker 1: But of course what's frustrating is that there were no
34:34
Speaker 1: calls on Stephen's cell phone to indicate that he had
34:38
Speaker 1: an appointment in Henderson that day, And of course, because
34:41
Speaker 1: he did all of his Internet activity in the library,
34:44
Speaker 1: they were unable to turn up any correspondence or information
34:47
Speaker 1: to shed any light on why he made the trip there.
34:50
Speaker 1: So if he was going for some sort of job
34:52
Speaker 1: interview or something related to employment, where's the paper trail
34:55
Speaker 1: for it.
34:57
Speaker 2: No one could figure out why Steven would have traveled
35:00
Speaker 2: to Henderson to begin with, and if he went there
35:03
Speaker 2: seeking some sort of employment opportunity, there was no evidence
35:07
Speaker 2: to indicate this. It was speculated that due to his
35:10
Speaker 2: financial difficulties, Stephen may be desperate enough to perform a
35:14
Speaker 2: legal activities such as trafficking drugs, but police performed a
35:18
Speaker 2: thorough search of Stephen's car with the drug sniffing dog,
35:22
Speaker 2: which did not turn up any hits and seemed to
35:25
Speaker 2: rule out the possibility that drugs were ever in the vehicle.
35:28
Speaker 2: When investigators checked Stephen's phone records, they did not provide
35:32
Speaker 2: any additional insights into why he went to Henderson, as
35:36
Speaker 2: everyone he spoke to during his incoming and outgoing calls
35:39
Speaker 2: was accounted for. However, it turned out that at four
35:43
Speaker 2: thirty six pm on December thirteenth, over four and a
35:47
Speaker 2: half hours after Stephen parked his car in Sun City, Anthem,
35:51
Speaker 2: his cell phone pinged off a tower at the intersection
35:54
Speaker 2: of a Royal Grand Boulevard an American Pacific dry a
35:58
Speaker 2: spot which was located over ten miles northeast. Just over
36:02
Speaker 2: two hours later, it pinged off another tower two miles
36:06
Speaker 2: north of that, near Whitney Ranch subdivision. Early that next morning,
36:10
Speaker 2: there was another ping off a cell phone tower at
36:13
Speaker 2: the interchange between Interstate five point fifteen and Russell Road,
36:17
Speaker 2: which was an additional two miles from the previous ping,
36:21
Speaker 2: Stephen's phone pinged off a tower near that same location
36:24
Speaker 2: at six or four am, and most curiously, the phone
36:28
Speaker 2: was then used to check Stephen's voicemail, though it's unclear
36:32
Speaker 2: if Stephen himself did this as far as anyone could tell,
36:37
Speaker 2: The phone remained in that vicinity for the next two
36:39
Speaker 2: days before its signal was lost, likely because its battery
36:44
Speaker 2: went dead. While an extensive search effort was performed of
36:47
Speaker 2: the desert area surrounding Henderson, it turned up no trace
36:51
Speaker 2: of Stephen. Since Stephen had promised his family that he
36:54
Speaker 2: would return home to Bountiful on December twenty third in
36:58
Speaker 2: order to spend Christmas with them, they held out hope
37:01
Speaker 2: that he might show up that day, but he never did,
37:04
Speaker 2: making it a very sad holiday season for them.
37:08
Speaker 3: Absolutely, it's so sad. You think about this family who's like, no,
37:13
Speaker 3: we talked to him, he has a plan, we know
37:17
Speaker 3: that he's coming home. And then the reality is they
37:20
Speaker 3: know him better than anybody else, and when they realize
37:23
Speaker 3: there hasn't been communication, when they realize that they haven't
37:27
Speaker 3: seen any kind of activity on his credit cards or
37:30
Speaker 3: debit cards, then you know, something isn't right, and so
37:34
Speaker 3: the idea that they're trying to be hopeful and they're saying,
37:37
Speaker 3: you know, maybe at Christmas he would definitely come home
37:39
Speaker 3: for Christmas. They're holding out that hope, but just imagine
37:43
Speaker 3: when Christmas comes and he's not there. You know, I
37:46
Speaker 3: was trying to think of what could be in that
37:48
Speaker 3: file folder he's holding, and I was almost thinking like,
37:52
Speaker 3: could he be in some kind of Ponzi scheme? Could
37:54
Speaker 3: there be some kind of financial scheme he's trying to
37:57
Speaker 3: get people in on. But remember this is during that
38:00
Speaker 3: big market crash, and even incredibly wealthy people were feeling
38:06
Speaker 3: completely gutted financially, where every account was just being drained completely,
38:11
Speaker 3: where all the stocks had plummeted, where retirement accounts were
38:15
Speaker 3: you know, just completely reversed. And so that's not possible.
38:19
Speaker 3: And then you see that there were no drugs in
38:23
Speaker 3: that car, that a dog had gone in and sniffed
38:26
Speaker 3: for drugs, no hits on the vehicle. If he was
38:29
Speaker 3: running some kind of drugs and he was actually one
38:33
Speaker 3: of the individuals carrying the drugs, there's no way that
38:36
Speaker 3: his car would have passed that. So does it mean
38:38
Speaker 3: he couldn't be some other role in a drug scheme, No,
38:44
Speaker 3: but it seems like someone who's a low level would
38:46
Speaker 3: be running drugs not necessarily doing some kind of you know,
38:49
Speaker 3: high end business things for them.
38:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll talk more about this angle involving the drugs
38:54
Speaker 1: during our last episode. But during the early days like
38:58
Speaker 1: that was the theory that was pushed forward. And even
39:00
Speaker 1: though Steven's family city was a man of high character
39:03
Speaker 1: who never would have done anything illegal no matter how
39:06
Speaker 1: desperate he was, they also thought, well, he doesn't want
39:09
Speaker 1: to reach out for help, so and he's way behind
39:11
Speaker 1: in his rents, so could he as a last resort
39:15
Speaker 1: relegated himself to delivering drugs? Could drugs have been inside
39:19
Speaker 1: that folder or portfolio he was caring? But they just
39:22
Speaker 1: never found any information at that time to support that.
39:27
Speaker 1: The coaches would perform numerous searches through the Las Vegas
39:29
Speaker 1: area and offered a ten thousand dollars reward for information,
39:33
Speaker 1: which led to Stephen being found. One if Stevens's cousins
39:36
Speaker 1: had a friend who worked for Anderson Dairy, and they
39:38
Speaker 1: agreed to have Stephen's photo and personal information circulated on
39:42
Speaker 1: their milk cartons in January of twenty ten, the coaches
39:46
Speaker 1: responded to reports that a transient matching Steven's description had
39:50
Speaker 1: been seen frequenting an Eye Hop restaurant on Boulder Highway
39:54
Speaker 1: several times over the previous three weeks. The family spent
39:58
Speaker 1: four nights hanging around the eye hooph hoping that this
40:00
Speaker 1: man might stop by again, but he never did. The
40:03
Speaker 1: coachers ultimately concluded that the man was probably not Stephen,
40:07
Speaker 1: since he was described as being shorter than him and
40:09
Speaker 1: displayed some unusual habits at the restaurant, such as wrapping
40:13
Speaker 1: his seat in saran wrap before eating with plastic gloves on.
40:17
Speaker 1: At one point, a private investigator working for the Kocher
40:20
Speaker 1: family received an anonymous tip advising him to search the
40:23
Speaker 1: desert area near Henderson Executive Airport, But even though an
40:27
Speaker 1: organized search effort turned up an abandoned tent containing clothing
40:31
Speaker 1: and trash and some bones, these bones actually belonged to
40:34
Speaker 1: an animal and no trace of Stephen was found. When
40:37
Speaker 1: the one year anniversary of Stephen's disappearance arrived, his family
40:41
Speaker 1: made a vow to keep the lights on their Christmas
40:43
Speaker 1: tree lit until Stephen returned home, and the lights remained
40:47
Speaker 1: on until they burned out. In July of twenty eleven,
40:51
Speaker 1: the investigation Discovery true crime series Disappeared agreed to produce
40:55
Speaker 1: an episode about Stephen's case, and it featured interviews with
40:58
Speaker 1: his parents rolfin but tragically, on February tenth, twenty eleven,
41:04
Speaker 1: only three weeks after Roll filmed his interview, he suddenly
41:07
Speaker 1: passed away at the age of sixty one. Prior to
41:11
Speaker 1: his death, Rolf would suffer through a brief illness, and
41:13
Speaker 1: he may have died as the result of toxic shock syndrome.
41:17
Speaker 1: The Disappeared episode would air two months later on April eleventh,
41:21
Speaker 1: and was dedicated to Rolf's memory.
41:25
Speaker 3: So when you look here and they think this idea
41:27
Speaker 3: that it's it's possible that Stephen was this person at ihop,
41:33
Speaker 3: it doesn't really seem like a very convincing kind of argument. Now,
41:39
Speaker 3: could it be could he have wandered off and then
41:41
Speaker 3: had some kind of mental break. Could he have had
41:43
Speaker 3: some kind of psychosis get triggered, possibly, and then he
41:47
Speaker 3: really is as transient. But remember there's no communication, there's
41:51
Speaker 3: no movement on his cards, there's nothing that shows any
41:56
Speaker 3: kind of access to a Stephen who's alive. And functioning.
42:00
Speaker 3: I think even if you were you, you had a
42:03
Speaker 3: break or you had some kind of delusions in your head.
42:05
Speaker 3: If you're holding a cell phone or you have a
42:07
Speaker 3: wallet in your back pocket and you need something, I
42:11
Speaker 3: feel like you would still show some kind of movement
42:13
Speaker 3: for at least a short period after you disappeared.
42:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm kind to believe that this person's scene in
42:20
Speaker 1: the eye hoop was not Stephen and just happened to
42:23
Speaker 1: match his description. I mean, if he had a mental breakdown,
42:26
Speaker 1: that could explain why he's doing these unusual things that
42:28
Speaker 1: he ordinarily wouldn't do, such as wrapping the seed in
42:31
Speaker 1: saran wrap. But we see this all the time in
42:34
Speaker 1: missing persons cases, where sightings pour in of someone who
42:37
Speaker 1: looks like the victim and it turns out to be
42:39
Speaker 1: a false lead.
42:42
Speaker 2: Over the next decade, more search efforts were performed for Steven,
42:46
Speaker 2: but they did not seem to bring the case any
42:48
Speaker 2: closer to a resolution. However, on November twenty first, twenty
42:53
Speaker 2: twenty two, the Las Vegas based media outlet eight news
42:57
Speaker 2: Now produced a segment about Stephen's case containing some surprising
43:02
Speaker 2: new information. The segment contained interviews with Kevin Wyatt, James Burke,
43:07
Speaker 2: and Dannia Livingstone, who all worked for the Utah based
43:10
Speaker 2: company Eyes On Private Investigations and had spent the past
43:15
Speaker 2: few years interviewing new witnesses and combing through documents about
43:19
Speaker 2: Stephen's disappearance at no cost to the coach or family,
43:23
Speaker 2: and like we mentioned in the intro, the group produced
43:26
Speaker 2: a long form podcast about the case in twenty twenty
43:29
Speaker 2: one titled Eyes on Justice. During the eight News Now segment,
43:34
Speaker 2: Kevin Wyatt stated, quote, there's not one shred of evidence
43:37
Speaker 2: that suggests that Stephen did this to himself or that
43:41
Speaker 2: Stephen walked away. We'll be going into more detail about
43:44
Speaker 2: this in part two of our series, But long story short.
43:48
Speaker 2: On the very same afternoon Stephen went missing, a resident
43:52
Speaker 2: who lived on Evening Light Street in Sun City, Anthem
43:55
Speaker 2: reported that they saw what appeared to be someone moving
43:58
Speaker 2: out of the house across the street, and they seem
44:00
Speaker 2: to be doing so rather quickly. Police soon went to
44:04
Speaker 2: this house and knocked on the door, but there was
44:06
Speaker 2: no answer, and when they looked in through the windows,
44:10
Speaker 2: they did not see any furniture in there. It took
44:13
Speaker 2: two months for investigators to finally track down and interview
44:16
Speaker 2: the person who'd lived there, and while he appeared to
44:19
Speaker 2: be nervous, he claimed that he did not know Stephen
44:22
Speaker 2: and denied having any knowledge of what happened to him.
44:26
Speaker 3: Interesting, So the idea that they tracked this person down,
44:30
Speaker 3: they're saying, look, yeah, he was nervous, but he doesn't
44:32
Speaker 3: know Steven. Do you guys think that this is this
44:36
Speaker 3: idea that I mean, do you guys really think that
44:39
Speaker 3: this is somebody who is going to be connected to him?
44:41
Speaker 3: I feel like they're stretching and they're looking for really
44:45
Speaker 3: thin stories to kind of link to this case. It
44:48
Speaker 3: doesn't seem again like one where I'd say that's it.
44:51
Speaker 3: That seems like exactly what would have linked him to
44:54
Speaker 3: this person.
44:56
Speaker 1: We're going to share more information about this guy on
44:58
Speaker 1: future episodes, and when you learn more about his background,
45:01
Speaker 1: the idea of him possibly being responsible for Stephen's disappearance
45:04
Speaker 1: is not all that implausible. Well. According to the eight
45:09
Speaker 1: News Now segment, shortly after Stephen parked his car in
45:12
Speaker 1: the cul de Sac, he apparently spoke to a witness
45:14
Speaker 1: at one of the houses on Savannah Springs Avenue and
45:17
Speaker 1: may have realized he went to the wrong address. Before
45:20
Speaker 1: he rounded the corner and headed down Evening Light Street.
45:23
Speaker 1: The segment contained this cryptic quote about Stephen from Kevin Wyatt.
45:27
Speaker 1: Quote he says, hey, guys, do you want some cash?
45:30
Speaker 1: Something about money? I think he went to the home
45:33
Speaker 1: he was supposed to go to and actually says, oh,
45:35
Speaker 1: kind of funny. I told the guy and asked him
45:38
Speaker 1: if he wanted some money. I think that's what resulted
45:40
Speaker 1: in Stephen's disappearance. Was that error? End quote? So the
45:44
Speaker 1: implication seems to be that due to his financial issues,
45:47
Speaker 1: Stephen received an offer from someone to travel to Anderson
45:50
Speaker 1: and make a delivery to an individual in Sun City, Anthem.
45:54
Speaker 1: But because Stephen initially went to the wrong address, he
45:57
Speaker 1: inadvertently wound up putting his life at risk, and this
46:00
Speaker 1: led to his disappearance. The new segment also showcased some
46:04
Speaker 1: photographs that the private investigators had obtained of room inside
46:08
Speaker 1: the aforementioned house on Evening Light Street. These photos were
46:12
Speaker 1: taken shortly after Stephen vanished and showed noticeable damage, including
46:16
Speaker 1: several holes in the walls and doors, suggesting that a
46:19
Speaker 1: violent struggle might have taken place there. However, it's worth
46:22
Speaker 1: noting that the Henderson Police Department declined to be interviewed
46:25
Speaker 1: for the segment, claiming that they had no updates to provide.
46:29
Speaker 1: They have never named anyone as a suspect or person
46:32
Speaker 1: of interest or publicly commented on this theory about Stephen
46:35
Speaker 1: being a victim of foul play. The investigation continues to
46:39
Speaker 1: remain at a standstill, and after nearly sixteen years, there's
46:42
Speaker 1: still no conclusive answers about what actually happened to Stephen Kocher. So,
46:47
Speaker 1: I guess you could say the path went chili, okay.
46:51
Speaker 3: The comment where he talks about cash and alludes to
46:56
Speaker 3: financial situations and then the idea that there's that definitely
47:02
Speaker 3: does raise the hair on my arms. So how would
47:05
Speaker 3: he know that about Steven or how would he have
47:07
Speaker 3: gotten into such a conversation where he felt like finances
47:11
Speaker 3: were something he would talk about. If this is just
47:13
Speaker 3: someone that's a passer.
47:14
Speaker 1: By, well, I think the implication seems to be that
47:17
Speaker 1: the private investigator spoke to this residence who actually interacted
47:22
Speaker 1: with Steven on the day he went missing. I don't
47:24
Speaker 1: know if police neglected to interview this person during the
47:27
Speaker 1: original investigation, but this person said that Steven showed up
47:31
Speaker 1: at the door, made these remarks about cash, but then
47:34
Speaker 1: seemed to realize that he was at the wrong address.
47:36
Speaker 1: So the theory seems to be that Stephen had been
47:40
Speaker 1: pushed into doing something illegal, but initially went to the
47:43
Speaker 1: wrong address, and then when he went to the right address,
47:46
Speaker 1: Stephen told this person that he had gone to the
47:49
Speaker 1: wrong address beforehand. That person might have gotten really paranoid
47:52
Speaker 1: and overreacted, and this ultimately caused Stephen's death. Yeah, so
47:57
Speaker 1: it just could to be a thing where the key
47:58
Speaker 1: to his disappearance is him I'm going missing because he
48:01
Speaker 1: made a mistake and told the wrong person about it,
48:04
Speaker 1: and this person overreacted in a huge way, and that
48:07
Speaker 1: could be the reason they add all these signs of
48:09
Speaker 1: violence inside that particular house. So I think that about
48:13
Speaker 1: brings an end to Part one. During our next episode
48:16
Speaker 1: will provide our analysis of all the information we have
48:18
Speaker 1: shared thus far, and in part three we'll start discussing
48:22
Speaker 1: the new information about this case which has been unearthed
48:25
Speaker 1: in recent years. So join us next week as we
48:27
Speaker 1: present part two of our three part series about the
48:30
Speaker 1: disappearance of Steven Kocher.
48:34
Speaker 2: Robin, do you want to tell us a little bit
48:36
Speaker 2: about the Trail Went Cold Patreon.
48:38
Speaker 1: Yes, the Trail Cold Patreon has been around for three
48:40
Speaker 1: years now, and we offer these standard bonus features like
48:44
Speaker 1: early ad free episodes, and I also send out stickers
48:47
Speaker 1: and sign thank you cards to anyone who signs up
48:50
Speaker 1: with us on Patreon. If you join our five dollars
48:53
Speaker 1: tier Tier two, we also offer monthly bonus episodes in
48:57
Speaker 1: which I talk about cases which are not featured on
49:00
Speaker 1: the Trail Went Cold's original feed, so they're exclusive to
49:03
Speaker 1: Patreon and if you join our highest tier tier three,
49:06
Speaker 1: the ten dollars tier. One of the features we offer
49:09
Speaker 1: is a audio commentary track over classic episodes of UNSAWD Mysteries,
49:14
Speaker 1: where you can download an audio file and then boot
49:17
Speaker 1: up the original Unsolved Mysteries episode on Amazon Prime or
49:20
Speaker 1: YouTube and play it with my audio commentary playing in
49:24
Speaker 1: the background, where I just provide trivia and factoids about
49:27
Speaker 1: the cases featured in this episode. And incidentally, the very
49:30
Speaker 1: first episode that I did a commentary track over was
49:33
Speaker 1: the episode featuring this case. So if you want to
49:36
Speaker 1: download a commentary track in which I make more smart
49:39
Speaker 1: ass remarks about Jewel Kaylor, then be sure to join
49:42
Speaker 1: Tier three.
49:43
Speaker 4: So I want to let you know a little bit
49:44
Speaker 4: about the jeweles and Nashty patreons. So there's early ad
49:47
Speaker 4: free episodes of The Path Went Chili. We've got our
49:50
Speaker 4: Path Went Chili mini's, which are always over an hour,
49:53
Speaker 4: so they're not very mini, but they're just too short
49:55
Speaker 4: to turn into a series, and we're really enjoying doing those,
49:58
Speaker 4: so we hope you'll check out those patreons.
50:00
Speaker 2: Will link them in the show notes.
50:02
Speaker 1: So I want to thank you all for listening, and
50:04
Speaker 1: any chance you have to share us on social media
50:07
Speaker 1: with a friend or to rate and review is greatly appreciated.
50:10
Speaker 1: You can email us at The Pathwentchili at gmail dot com.
50:13
Speaker 1: You can reach us on Twitter at the Pathwink. So
50:16
Speaker 1: until next time, be sure to bundle up because cold
50:19
Speaker 1: trails and chili pass call for warm clothing.
50:21
Speaker 2: Music by Paul Rich from the podcast Cold Callers Comedy