Steven Koecher Disappearance Analysis

hello this is dr grande today's question is can i analyze the case of stephen kocher just a reminder i'm not diagnosing anybody in this video only speculating about what could be happening in a situation like this if you enjoyed this video please like it subscribe to my channel and consider supporting me on patreon i will put a link to patreon in the description for this video so first i'll look at the background this case i'll move to the timeline of the disappearance and then i'll offer my analysis stephen kocher was born in amarillo texas on november 1 1979. he had three siblings he was raised in the mormon church stephen was active in the boy scouts he would eventually reach the level of eagle scout he graduated from high school in 1998 and would earn a degree in communications from the university of utah in 2002. stephen traveled to brazil as a missionary he even learned to speak portuguese after this he went to work for a small newspaper in the town of bountiful utah then in 2007 he took an overnight job with the digital advertising division of the salt lake tribune he retired that shift and was struggling with the winter temperatures so he moved to st george this is in southwest utah it was warmer there he found a job there with an internet advertising company but they let him go soon after he arrived he was having trouble finding new employment he found part-time work handing out flyers for a local window washing company but that job didn't pay very well his grandmother sent him a check in october of 2009 he never cashed it he wanted to fix his problems by himself stephen was three months behind on his rent by december of 2009 when his father offered him financial assistance stephen became so upset with him he hung up on him but the next day he texted his father and apologized stephen said that he wanted to work things out on his own the power company was threatening to cut off stevens electric because he had failed to pay the bill so we see the financial stressors were really closing in on stephen stephen went on a road trip early on december 10 2009 driving his 2003 chevrolet cavalier he headed north on interstate 15 towards salt lake city he used his debit card to buy gasoline traveled west on interstate 80 and arrived in west wendover nevada here he purchased more gasoline he continued to the ruby valley ranch which was about another 100 miles earlier in his life stephen had dated a woman named anne-marie neff her family owned that ranch steven anne-marie's parents that he had stopped by to see her he had not contacted anybody about his plan he was there unannounced anne-marie was not there but her parents still served him lunch so they were surprised to see him but i guess they wanted to be polite he told them that he was going to continue on to sacramento california to visit family but he was concerned about approaching inclement weather two hours later he left the ranch returning to st george utah along the same route he traveled to get to nevada he purchased gas in salt lake city and springville and had dinner in the town of nephi he had driven about 1100 miles total on his journey during the day of his journey he talked with his mother on the phone he did not mention his trip but his mother said that he was upbeat about employment possibilities and was looking forward to christmas he and his mother talked about him making the trip to bountiful to be with his family for the holidays moving to the next day december 11 2009 stephen was at his job handing out flyers when he came across two girls that had been locked out of the apartment of their family he tried to assist the girls he called their mother but she did not answer he then looked for someone who could take the girls in until one of the family members showed up stephen talked to a bishop from his church who told stephen that he would have a job ready for him starting in january 2010. the bishop said stephen had a positive tone on the next day december 12 stephen embarked on another road trip he traveled to overton nevada in the morning and would end up in mesquite nevada by the evening there he would buy gasoline and food at a convenience store three hours later he was at a kmart near st george he purchased cookies and a baby's bib it's believed that steven bought those items as christmas gifts steven returned to his apartment at about 10 p.m but would leave again only half an hour later it's not clear if he returned to his apartment again no one saw him return but that doesn't mean he did not now moving to the timeline of the disappearance we go to the next day december 13 2009 a friend and fellow church member named greg webb called stephen that morning greg said that he was on his way back from las vegas and was worried he would not make it to saint george utah for the start of a service at 11 am apparently both stephen and greg were supposed to attend that service greg wanted to know if stephen could run the service for him stevens said that he too was in the las vegas area but he would return to saint george if greg really needed him to greg told him to just continue with whatever he was doing he would try to make it back on time later in the morning another church member called to ask stephen to add something to the announcements for a 1pm service stephen informed him that he would not be there for the service which was surprising to the church member as stephen had always informed people well in advance when he wasn't going to attend a meeting moving to 11 54 a.m we see that steven's car was captured on surveillance video driving in a cul-de-sac in a retirement community in henderson nevada at noon just six minutes later a person believed to be stephen was seen walking on the sidewalk carrying something in his hand it may have been a folder another camera would catch him as he continued to walk this was the last time he would ever be seen five hours later his cell phone pinged a tower 10 miles northeast at 7 pm it pinged another tower 2 miles further north on december 14 early in the morning it pinged a tower 2 miles to the north of the last position an hour later the phone was used to check steven's voicemail the phone would stay near that tower for two days after which there would be no more activity stephen was reported missing after his vehicle was found abandoned his family searched all over the las vegas area as did the authorities some time later no trace of stephen kocher was ever found now moving to my analysis i had a number of requests for this case after i released my video on the susan powell case it is believed that joshua powell her husband was involved in her disappearance joshua suggested that stephen kocher had run off with susan powell after all the disappearances of stephen and susan were only about a week apart i'm not aware of any evidence that connects the two cases i think joshua powell was just taking advantage of a coincidence to try to escape responsibility i don't think the two cases are related at all so what happened to stephen kocher steven seemingly disappeared right off of the street his internet search history didn't reveal anything out of the ordinary none of his assets have ever been accessed like bank accounts or anything else he had a diary where he talked about how he was single and had money problems but he also indicated that he was confident those two issues would resolve shortly his apartment was neat there was plenty of food in it a blanket and pillows were found in his vehicle suggesting perhaps he had slept there at some point or was intending to sleep there in the future his family believed that stephen was in henderson looking for a job this would explain why he was carrying what looked like a folder perhaps it contained his resume in the video surveillance steven appears to be walking intentionally like he knew where he was going he was not lost or uncertain the timing also makes it seem like he was going to some type of appointment like a job interview he exited his car right at noon nothing in his internet search history suggested where he was going that day it's not clear how he arranged that meeting if that in fact was a meeting the surveillance footage did not capture which house stephen entered assuming he entered any house the police put a lot of energy into one particular house they made many attempts to talk to the people who lived there a neighbor reported there was suspicious activity at the house on the day stephen went missing and the residents of the house moved away what about all of steven's unexplained travel steven's family believed that he may have been traveling to conduct research on his ancestors like going to cemeteries he was looking for gravestones but this is really just a theory the travel right before his death was actually i think quite mysterious some have suggested that perhaps steven was involved in some type of illegal activity like he was driving around to pick up and deliver drugs the police brought in dogs trained to detect drugs to inspect steven's car they found nothing but of course stephen could have been dealing in prescription medication like illegally obtained prescription medication with all this in mind let's take a look at the theories about what could have happened in this case theory number one stephen just walked away from his life he is still out there alive somewhere in the modern age this is very hard to do especially without extensive planning and resources where would he have gone how would he have survived this theory offers an unlikely explanation theory number two somewhere in the neighborhood where he parked his car or nearby he encountered one or more criminals they murdered him and disposed of his body steven appeared to be law-abiding but perhaps he was getting into some illegal activities this would explain his travel he was naive he did not understand how dangerous criminals could be he was an easy target one difficulty with this theory is that steven's phone was used to check his voicemail the next day his landlord had left him a message why would somebody murder him and then check his voicemail although of course he could have been murdered after he checked his voicemail another question would be why would somebody kill him and then leave his phone on until it ran out of battery power a second difficulty with this theory is motive maybe stephen was carrying money from illicit transactions or something but available evidence seems to indicate he didn't have anything these criminals were foolish enough to murder somebody for nothing but sophisticated enough to hide his body so that it was never found it seems a bit inconsistent the third difficulty with this theory is that stephen was last seen in a retirement community typically retirees are not active in criminal behavior and do not act impulsively statistically if you look at crimes committed by men only one percent of crimes are committed by men over the age of 65. even criminals have to slow down at some point this is why nobody's complaining about the geriatric delinquency problem there isn't one i actually did find a story on a retiree gang that was selling a fake substitute for viagra i think eventually of course the gang failed as they just couldn't keep it up moving to theory number three depressed from his financial and romantic failures stephen walked for several miles which explains why his phone appeared to be moving for several hours consistent with walking speed he eventually brought an end to his own life there are a few reasons he may have done this for example he had just been rejected by whoever he was meeting like it was a job interview and he was unsuccessful he just couldn't handle one more rejection it could have been that the voicemail from the landlord was the straw that broke the camel's back was the message a reminder that stephen was months behind on his rent maybe the message contained something more definitive and frightening like a notification that stephen was going to be evicted christmas time was approaching and he had promised to spend time with his family maybe he didn't want to deal with the humiliation he felt like a failure he didn't want to face them stephen was lonely he wanted a romantic partner but had not been successful in finding one in addition his prospects may have been diminished by his financial status stephen had turned 30 just over a month before his disappearance maybe for him this was a critical milestone for expectations that he did not live up to i believe this theory is the most likely among the three theories i've talked about here steven was driving a lot spending money on gasoline even though he didn't have a lot of money he could have been wandering and looking for a sense of purpose taking some time to think about life looking to come to peace with his time on earth visiting a few places that had special meaning for him perhaps this is why he attempted to see his ex-girlfriend unannounced maybe he was looking to find or provide closure or it could have been that he was hoping they would reunite which would give him a sense of purpose when she wasn't there this was yet another perceived rejection or a message that he should just give up the reality is that stephen was headed for a change one way or the other his lifestyle was unsustainable given his income he was going to have to move back in with his family or be homeless there are problems with this theory too though this is not a perfect explanation for example how did he do it it could have been something as simple as exposure where is his body there are a lot of rural areas in nevada he could have caught a rye with somebody out to the middle of nowhere why did he seem so future oriented like buying christmas gifts and being happy about an upcoming job people who are depressed often hide their feelings from others moving to my final thoughts if theory one was true that is stephen just took off and started new life then he was truly remarkable starting his life over like that would be very difficult to do and have it be undetected if theory two was true he ran into a bad element it's a reminder to the world it's a dangerous place if theory 3 is true steven brought an end to his own life it's a reminder that stress has to go somewhere there's always some type of consequence for stress stephen was under a lot of pressure and he did not see a way out he did not want to take money from his relatives he did not want to be a burden perhaps this is why his body was never found that too would have been a stressor on his family it would have been a burden and he wanted to spare his relatives from that experience maybe he believed it was his final act of kindness those are my thoughts on the case of stephen kocher please put any opinions and thoughts in the comment section they always generate an interesting dialogue as always i hope you found my analysis on this topic to be interesting thanks for watching

Channel: Dr. Todd Grande

Views: 189,359

Keywords:

Id: gQ4lBiMn4b0

Length: 16min 4sec (964 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 30 2021