Criminology - Steven Koecher

Episode Date: January 22, 2023

Steven Koecher disappeared near Las Vegas, Nevada, in December 2009. Steven's 2003 Chevy Cavalier was found parked on a cul-de-sac in a planned development called Sun City. The homeowner's association noticed the car had been there for some time, saw flyers for a window washing service, and called the number. It turned out that Steven worked for the service in St. George, Utah, 120 miles away. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the mysterious disappearance of Steven Koecher. This case has been talked about and debated online for years. The first mystery is why Steven was in Nevada in the first place, and it was revealed that he had made previous trips to the same area. Eyewitnesses and video surveillance add some information to the case but leave more questions unanswered than answered. What was Steven Koecher doing near Las Vegas, and what happened to him? You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised. Hello everyone and welcome to episode 241 of the Criminology Podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Morf, what is going on with you, man? Not a whole lot sitting here, getting ready to sort through some stuff. And I said, you know what?

We're running up against the clock. I've got to jump on here and record this episode. So just some housekeeping, basically. What are you doing? Well, I'm glad you, uh, you join me so that we can actually record. Got to get, got to get that episode out there. You got a busy schedule, but you made time. I, I very much appreciate it.

Hey, let's go ahead and give our Patreon shoutouts. We had John Ellis, Rebecca Bolney, Naja Abiku, Helen Lambert, Kate Smolka, and Sam Gaffee. So that's a lot of great new support. We really appreciate it. Yeah, that's some really great support. Thank you so much to everyone that took the time to do that. And for anyone else that would like to help support the show, they can do so by going to Patreon.com slash criminology.

Now, don't forget about CrimeCon Orlando. It's coming up in just about eight months. We're going to be there to hang out, see our old true crime friends, and hopefully meet some new ones. We definitely are going to be arranging another group meetup. Yeah, that should be fun. And CrimeCon Orlando is happening at the World Center Marriott, September 22nd through the 24th. So time is running out to get your passes. Head over to

crimecon.com to book your trip. And if you want to save some money in the process, use our promo code criminology to save 10% on your standard badges. All right, Morph, so now that we have all that out of the way, let's jump into this episode. You know, we've covered a good amount of missing persons cases on criminology. And it's pretty clear that based on the numbers, the bulk of those cases are sadly women and girls. But every so often, there is a very, very, mysterious and unusual disappearance of a man. And in today's episode, we're talking about one such case, the December 2009 disappearance of 30-year-old Stephen Kosher in Henderson, Nevada. In mid-December 2009, Travis Hanson, the owner of a window-washing service in St. George,

Utah, received the call that would begin a very strange mystery. A homeowners association in Sun City, Nevada, located in Henderson not far from Las Vegas, was trying to track down the owner of a car that had been haphazardly parked on a cul-de-sac for days. Inside the locked White 2003 Chevy Cavalier, there were flyers visible through the windows for the washing service in St. George, Utah, 120 miles away. So the association decided to call the number on the flyer. From the details Travis was provided, he figured out the car belonged to his employee, 30-year-old Stephen Kosher.

Travis had no idea where Stephen was, So he gave the association, Stephen's cell phone number. Stephen's job with the window washing company was to hand out flyers in the St. George, Utah, area, not in Nevada. So this was a little confusing to Travis. The association called Stephen on his cell phone, but he didn't answer. So they left a message for him. Eventually, they were somehow able to contact his mother, the Ann Kosher, who called them back on December 17.

This is when it was realized that Steve. Stephen was missing, and he hadn't been heard from since the morning of the 13th, four days earlier. Obviously, this news was alarming for Stephen's family, so they drove out to Sun City to see if they could find Stephen. Other family members frantically called Las Vegas area hospitals and jails trying to locate him, but they had no luck. When they got to Sun City, Stephen's father, Rolf, tried to start Stephen's car using a spare key that he had. Rolf was thinking that perhaps Stephen had broken down there, but when he turned

the key in the ignition, the car started up just fine, and there was still half a tank of gas in it. As Rolf looked around the car, he saw a scattered Christmas presents Stephen had purchased from Kmart. There were also multiple coats, blankets, and a pillow found in the car, as if Stephen had slept there when it was cold. There was also a shaving kit, but his phone and wallet weren't inside the car. It was as if Stephen parked the car there and walked off. expecting to return, but he never did. That's when police were called in. You know, Morph, in a lot of cases we do, there's always a point in the story where it becomes

very obvious to family members where they get extremely worried because the events or the scenario that is laid out before them is alarming. And obviously, we're at that point right here. they find Stephen's car. And we've heard this before, right? The car starts up. The car has plenty of gas in it. Okay, so that's not the issue.

It's not as if Stephen ran out of gas and had to walk somewhere and they'll find him somewhere else. And then this picture inside the car of it's seeming as though Stephen had been living out of it. I mean, there's blankets in a pillow. Yeah, and I think the concern was probably more than it might be if it was close to home because this isn't an area where he doesn't live where he's not supposed to be at. So I think that may have made them more frantic about where he might be and why it was there. Well, that's a great point because you have to factor that in.

Why is the car even where it's at? What business did he have of being in that area? But I think before we get too far along in the mystery of what happened to Stephen Kosher, we need to talk a little bit about his background. Stephen Kosher was born on November 1st, 1979 in Amarillo, Texas to Deanne and Rolf Kosher. He was one of five children. He had three brothers, Michael, Dallin, and Stephen, and a sister, Lisa. Growing up in Amarillo, Stephen was active in Boy Scouts.

He graduated from Amarillo High School. 1998, he attended Rick's College, which is now Brigham Young University, Idaho, and then went on to attend the University of Utah. Stephen was a dedicated Latter-day Saint, and he went to Brazil for his missionary service and was fluent in Portuguese. In 2007, Stephen started working for the Salt Lake Tribune. In 2008, he moved to St. George because he didn't like the cold weather in Salt Lake. They had a very cold winter that year, and St. George had a little bit warmer climate. He also didn't like the night shift. He was working at the Tribune, so he moved to St. George and worked as an advertiser for the website MatchBin. After one month, though, MatchBin let him go,

and he ended up handing out flyers for the window cleaning service. Once police became involved in the search for Stephen, they tried to build a timeline and connect some dots. The first hurdle was that no one knew why Stephen had headed to Nevada in the first place. The window-washing service said he was passing out flyers for didn't cover that area, so it wasn't a work trip. If Stephen was hoping to expand and find new customers, he never got around to passing out any flyers in the area. No one reported seeing or receiving one.

His friends and family also couldn't explain why Stephen had gone there. Digging into Stevens' past, though, police found that he had recently made a drive to Nevada and back for reasons unknown. On December 10th, Stephen had left his St. George, Utah apartment in the middle of the night, and he drove to Salt Lake City, about 300 miles away, and got gas at a Maverick station. 125 miles later, he stopped for gas again at a Flying J in West Windover, Nevada. And just a quick note about Stephen's car, it was a small Chevy Cavalier, which had a flex fuel system. So it had a regular gas tank and a C&G.

or compressed natural gas tank, the car, if both tanks were full, could go about 400 miles before running out of gas. About 100 miles after getting gas in West Windover, Nevada at around 11 a.m. He traveled to Ruby Valley, Nevada. This is a city about six hours north of Las Vegas. While in Ruby Valley, Stephen stopped at the family home of an ex-girlfriend, Anne-Marie Neff. Anne-Marie's parents were at home, and they had no idea that Stephen was coming by. He told them he had just felt like visiting Anne-Marie.

Anne-Marie wasn't home, but the Neffs had lunch with Stephen and caught up. He mentioned that he had been heading to Sacramento to see some family members, when he decided to stop by. Stephen told the Neffs that he wasn't sure if he would make it to Sacramento or turned back due to bad weather. It's interesting to note that although the Neffs didn't know it at the time, Stephen didn't actually have any family in Sacramento. If he knew anyone there, they were apparently stranger to everyone else that Stephen knew. After lunch with the Neffs, which lasted about two hours, Stephen left.

He didn't head to Sacramento. He headed back to St. George. He stopped for gas in Salt Lake City, this time at a Tesoro station, and again at a Flying Jay in Springville, Utah. Around 7.30 p.m., he had dinner at Taco Time in Nephi, Utah. It seems like Stephen was alone during this trip, or at least all. only paying for his own food. The total of taco time was just $3.64.

This trip to Ruby Valley and back was an 1,100 mile trip. No, Morve, I don't know what taco time is. I assume it's a fast food joint, maybe along the lines of a Taco Bell. I will say this. I miss the days where you could pull in and eat an entire meal for like $3. Those days are long gone, man. I went to McDonald's the other day and got a meal. And I swear it was over $10 for one, like number two at McDonald's.

And I thought, what is going on? You know, thinking about when you and I were younger, at least in the area where I lived, Taco Bell was the place that you could go, kind of late at night. And with just a couple of bucks, you could get something. to eat. Yeah, and I've never heard of taco time. I don't know if it's a regional place, but it sounds good because I like Mexican and I can eat some Taco Bell. So I think Taco Time would have been something that I would have tried out. Oh, if you say tacos, man, I'm all in. Same here. But yeah, the sticker shock you get when you pull up to a drive-thru

nowadays, especially if you've got a full crew, if you're bringing the full family out, it can add up real quick. Yeah, almost like going out to a fancy restaurant. I mean, that's the kind of prices that it seems like we're looking at. I think sticker shock is, is the right word to use. On the 10th, Stephen spoke to his mom, D.A.N. on the phone, they talked about Christmas and about Stephen going home to bountiful Utah for the holiday. They were going to celebrate Christmas and then on the 26th, have a larger family reunion. She recalled that he seemed excited to come home and spend time with the family, even though he had been having trouble finding a good job over the holidays. She also told Stephen that she had deposited some money

into his bank account so that he could pay his rent for his apartment. He never ended up with drawing or touching this money. And Deanne had no idea that Stephen wasn't in St. George when they talked on the phone. On December 11th, Stephen handed out flyers for the window washing service. At around 3 p.m., he saw two kids that had been locked out of their house accidentally with no one home. He used his cell phone to try and call their mom, but there was no answer, so he took the kids to a neighbor's house to make sure they were safe. He also spoke with the bishop at his ward, who promised him a job in early January. The bishop, just like Stephen's mom, didn't perceive any signs of depression or a bad mood when they talked. Stephen also stopped at a jack-in-the-box in Washington, Utah, on the 10th.

He spent just $3.21. And talking about a throwback, Jack-in-the-box was something they had around here, or in the... in New Jersey where I grew up when I was a kid and I missed that place. They closed down when I was still pretty young. So Jack in the Box was always a big mystery to me. I would hear about it. And I would hear about it in somewhat glowing terms. But we didn't have them in Ohio when I grew up, or at least in Southern Ohio, where I live.

And then they came. And I remember when the store opened, I was so excited to go try it. And it was the biggest letdown of any food experience I think I've ever had. It was horrible. And so I was left wondering, why had I been hearing about Jack in the Box all this time when it was nothing special at all? Now, maybe it is for some people. You seem to have pretty fond memories of it.

The one memory I do have of Jack in the Box being younger is seeing on the news that they had some kind of big, what was it, e-coli breakout or something. It was, it was big news. Yeah, I know the rumor when I was a kid was that they got closed down because they were selling kangaroo meat or something like that, but who knows if that's just an urban legend. But what I think is interesting here is that some of these places that Stephen's stopping at, maybe it's a regional thing, but there are restaurants that I haven't seen in my areas that I've lived in, at least quite in quite a while. So maybe just the area that he's traveling in, it's popular out there.

Well, I thought Jack in the Box was a Western chain, like California, you know, Nevada, out that way. That's what I always thought. And then they made their way east. But you're saying that you ate there as a kid. So I'm not sure. I just know I did not like it. And I never went back. It was a one time only thing.

On December 12, Stephen took off on another long trip. His phone pinged in Overton, Nevada, near Lake Mead in the morning. That evening, he stopped for gas and snacks at a shell station in Mesquite, Nevada, near the Arizona border. Three hours after that stop in Mesquite, around 8 p.m. He was in St. George again at Kmart, buying presents for his brother's kids for Christmas. The two cities are only about 45 minutes away. from each other. So there's quite a gap in time there. Around 10 p.m., a neighbor saw Stephen get home and go into his apartment. So this leaves another large gap in time since Stephen's apartment was only a

short distance away from the Kmart, not two hours away. So more, you know, as authorities are putting kind of the timeline of his movements on different days together, obviously they're able to get some good information about where he was on certain days at certain times, but there are gaps. You know, if he's driving around, okay, they don't know what he was doing during that time, but there are, you know, some of these where he's at Kmart and then he goes home, but Kmart is close to his home, but yet it's two hours before he gets there. And so, you know, there's some, mystery to those parts. Yeah, and I think it's important that to really fill in the blanks as much as possible

because you never know if one of those little missing chunks of time holds some kind of clue that might help solve the case in the long run. Yeah, I think it's important, but it's also difficult, right, to really fully vet out what somebody was doing during points in time where no one saw them. Okay. How do you figure it out? At 10.30 p.m. on December 12th, Stephen left his home again. It's unknown where he went or what he did, but the next morning at around 8 a.m. Vegas time

or 9 a.m. Utah time, Greg Webb, the president of the ward Stephen attended, called him asking to attend the 11 a.m. meeting because he was out of town. Stephen told him that he was actually in Las Vegas at the time of Greg's call, so he wouldn't be able to do it. So Webb told Stephen he would find someone else. Unfortunately, Greg Webb then asked Stephen what he was doing in Las Vegas. Perhaps if the conversation had turned in that direction, it may have revealed more clues, where Stephen was or what he was doing. At around 10 a.m. Vegas time, 11 a.m. Utah time, Stephen received a call from the ward clerk, Seth, Aboud, asking him to announce during the 1 p.m. service that there would be a church

basketball game on the 16th. He also wanted to know who was. running the meeting or if Stephen could come and run it. But Stephen told him that he was in Las Vegas and wouldn't be able to do it. And here again, just like with the call with Greg Webb, no one asked Stephen why he was in Las Vegas or when he would be back in St. George. Greg Webb has come under a lot of public scrutiny because he happened to be in the same area as Stephen at the same time and didn't end up making. it to that meeting like he should have. It's a two-hour drive from Las Vegas to St. George,

and Webb said he was already on his way back, but he didn't make it. He also reportedly didn't ask Stephen what he was doing there. So some people have speculated that there was a little bit more than meets the eye with both men being in the Vegas area at the same time. The pillows and coats in Stephen's car have led some to speculate that perhaps somewhere during Stevens travels, he decided to sleep in his car. They could have been left over from another trip, or maybe he was planning a trip to the Salvation Army to donate the coats. But that gap in time being overnight makes it seem possible

that he did sleep in his car for some reason. The low in St. George on the 12th, when Stephen left, was 28 degrees, and the low in Las Vegas on the 13th was 43. You could certainly see with those attempts that Stephen might want things like those coats to keep him warm if he did sleep in his car. Some people also think that if Stephen had gone back to his apartment for any period of time that he would have brought in the Christmas presence that he bought at Kmart and that the only likely reason to leave the presents in the car is if he knew he wouldn't be

going back to St. George before Christmas. Police were able to obtain surveillance footage in Sun City, Nevada, which helped them piece some things together. At 11.54 a.m. on December 13th, Stephen Kosher parked his car on Savannah Springs Avenue in Sun City. This is a 55 plus retirement community with a very active homeowners association located in southern Henderson. A home security system caught Stevens white Chevy as it drove down the road. The camera on Savannah Springs shows that about six minutes later, Stephen got out of the car and walked down the street. He walks away from his car down the sidewalk the direction that he drove from. He was holding something small, but the footage is so grainy, you can't tell.

what it is. Some people think it's a folder, something like a portfolio. Others think it's a small case or bag of some kind. A security camera on evening light street, the first road you can turn on from the end of Savannah Springs Avenue caught Stephen walking. It's just his reflection in the window of a minivan. But it shows that he turned, crossed the street, and started walking north on evening lights. The last sign of him was just before he walked in front of 2260 evening lights. These videos also show a white SUV driving down the cul-de-sac, turning around and driving slowly, stopping directly across from Evening Lights Street, as if the driver was watching Stephen. But police identified the driver of this van, and it turned out to be a realtor on the way to show a house,

and they've been cleared of any involvement in Stephen's disappearance. And here, I think you have a situation that investigators run into a lot. You've got footage of Stephen. And then you have footage of this white SUV. It almost seems as if the SUV is kind of stalking Stephen or following him. I'm sure from the viewpoint of investigators, they were very interested in figuring out, you know, who the driver of the SUV was, what this person was doing. And then it turns out to be nothing, just a realtor on his way to show a house.

I mean, I'm sure that happens day in and day out for law enforcement and investigator. Yeah, I think it just goes to show that when you're looking at little chunks of clues and vehicles of interest, things like that, not everything is nefarious. Sometimes there's a logical explanation, and fortunately, police were able to track down this van. But one thing I wanted to mention was a cul-de-sac is not someplace where, you know, you're not getting a steady flow of traffic. It's a dead-end street that basically is a turnaround where you go back out.

So I used to live on a cul-de-sac, and when we would get people coming in, you paid extra attention to them, because you thought, okay, they're here to see me or one of the neighbors, where if they weren't, then you, what are they doing here? So I think when you're on a cul-de-sac, it's a little bit of a closed-in area. It's easier to pay attention to people, and anyone there is going to get some attention. Police also determined that at around 5 p.m. on December 13th, roughly five hours after Stephen parked his car.

His phone ping near Royal Grande Boulevard, an American Pacific Drive. This was more than 10 miles northeast of 2260 evening lights in Savannah Springs Avenue, where he left his car. At 7 p.m., his phone pinged another two miles north of that location, on a different tower near Whitney Ranch, another subdivision of Henderson. Early on December 14, his phone pinged again. This time it was near the interchange between Interstate 515 Route 93 and Russell Road, yet another two miles north of the last ping. That ping was the result of Stephen's landlord, Brett Bishop, who had sent him a text which caused it to ping. One hour after that text, Stephen's phone pinged again in the same location. Someone used his phone to check a voicemail.

His phone showed activity in that area for two days, presumably before the battery died and it stopped pinging. So, Morph here, I think you have another mystery for investigators. They know where Stephen's car was. And then you have these cell tower pings that, you know, move, sometimes, you know, miles from one ping to another. I think the issue with a phone pinging is that how do you know that the person who owns the phone actually has the phone and is also kind of traversing that path. I don't know how you can say that for sure in every situation. You know, either Stephen was with his phone and he is receiving texts or someone else has

his phone and it's still going to ping because the text comes through. Now, when you get to someone checking his voice mouth, Okay, maybe that's a little different, depending on how hard it is to check the voicemail on that phone. Do you need a code? Do you need a face ID? That part I don't know. And one thing we have to consider, too, is if it was Stephen using the phone, how did he get to this area? Because it's a pretty good distance.

He definitely didn't drive there because his car was parked at this spot the entire time. So it's hard to think that he walked out there. So if he got a ride, who did he get that ride with? According to a police report from the St. George Police Department, the final outgoing call from Stephen's phone was made at 804 a.m. Utah time, 704 a.m. Las Vegas time on December 14th. There is a redacted phone number listed in the report, which is odd because this was supposedly a call to Stephen's voicemail. And his phone number wasn't redacted.

in the report. If Stephen had used the pre-programmed button that is on some phones to call his voicemail, it should have been his number or a standard voicemail number and there would be no reason to redact that. This last call lasted 10 seconds, which is definitely enough time for someone to check for a message, but really not enough time for much else. It's important to note that while this was reported to be the final outgoing call, it's no longer reported as the final activity on his phone. And I think that word activity is very important. We don't know what that activity is. Police haven't said what it is. They haven't released that information. But it's almost as if something else happened with the phone after that call.

There was an additional activity. In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered. I wonder what's emergency. We just walked in the door and there's blood in the foyer. For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020. Blood and water.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts. On December 15th, two days after Stephen's phone stopped pinging, the Sun City's Homeowners Association parking enforcement called Stephen's boss at the window washing service. We talked about this earlier. This is really when the investigation was set in motion. Police next focused on Stephen's personal law. life and whether there were any clues that might explain his disappearance.

They read through a journal that Stephen kept, but there was nothing in the journal that indicated any enemies or any plans to leave, travel, or take his own life. He mostly wrote about finding a job and finding a wife. There was nothing that pointed to why Stephen was in the Las Vegas area, and why he was in Nevada was still a mystery. His search history on his computer and his email account didn't help much either. There were just a lot of job applications and things related to jobs. searches, but nothing that provided clues about what happened to Stephen.

As we see very often in these cases where an adult disappears, one theory is that perhaps Stephen took off to start a new life. 28-year-old Susan Powell had disappeared one week earlier in Utah. Her husband, Joshua, and his dad, Stephen Powell, put forth the theory that Susan was alive and well, and had tried to frame Joshua for her. her own murder. They told the public that they believed that she and Stephen Kosher were in hiding together. To many, it made some sense. Some people thought he may have just helped her get away from her husband, but still had no answer for where he ended up after that. Of course, as many

listeners may already know, it turned out that Susan Powell likely hadn't run off at all. It's presumed that her husband, Josh, killed her and disposed of her body. He eventually took his own life in the lives of his children in an explosion in 2009. At the end of the day, there's really nothing to connect Stevens case to Susan Pals. But you would have to say more that it's a very interesting connection that was made or tried to be made by people. I think there's the timing. There's the fact that, you know,

Susan's case received so much media attention. And it's kind of natural, right? For armchair detectives and in the public to want to try to piece together the dots, sometimes it makes sense, sometimes it doesn't. It's just kind of what we do. Yeah, I think for Josh Pell, too, this was a high-profile case around the same time as his wife's disappearance. So it was a good way for

him to try and deflect attention in another direction rather than pointed at himself. Many people have speculated that perhaps Stephen's sexuality, perhaps didn't line up with his religion, and that he was secretly gay. But not only as his family made it clear that Stephen was loved, no matter what he may have been thinking, feeling, or hiding, his journals were very clear that he was looking for a wife to start a family with. So there's nothing to indicate this being the case with Stephen. It's certainly possible that Stephen could have left his old life behind, but whatever motivated him to do that is unknown. Stephen's landlord's wife, Tina Bishop, has reported that Stephen left behind a loaf of bread with only about four slices missing, a large block of cheese,

a large tub of peanut butter, and a large jug of juice. It didn't seem like he had been planning to leave. He had plenty of food to eat left behind. He also left behind his belongings, including a laptop and a guitar. And this is something we talk about in a lot of disappearance cases. If Stephen was leaving to start a new life, wouldn't he have wanted to take these things with him? Also, Stephen had arranged to be a tutor and he had made a tutoring appointment just days earlier and was expected back in St. George for that by 7 p.m. If he wanted to disappear, why do it on a day when he had obligations and his absence would be noticed almost immediately?

It seemed from all the clues that Stephen was making plans and appointments and had every intention of coming back to Utah. And I think more often than not, morph, this is what we see. there's at least one theory that a person left to start a new life. But it seems as though kind of everything going on in their life, what they left behind, really points away from that fact. Other people think it's possible that Stephen had some sort of mental break. And this could explain why his disappearance was so odd and disorganized.

And also the seemingly random drive. leading up to his disappearance. Now, obviously, that's not the only possibility. He could have gone to Las Vegas, planning to take his own life. But if he did, where are his remains? The desert areas near where Stephen parked and where his phone later pinged were searched closely, but revealed no sign of Stephen or his remains. And then I think you have to ask the question.

If he was planning to end his life, why Las Vegas? And I think it's one thing we need to point out is there's a large area of desert out there where you could considerably lose yourself and take your own life and not be found. So, you know, it would be the equivalent of searching for a needle in haystack. You know, they knew generally what area he might be in, but it's still quite a big task to try and find someone in that area. If Stephen didn't walk away from his life voluntarily, have a mental break or take his own life, than one other possibilities that he met with foul play.

If this is the case, who would have harmed him and why? Could he have had an enemy in the Las Vegas area, or might Stephen have been the victim of a random violent crime? There were several people that were looked at by police in Stephen's life. Steven's roommate, a man named Jordan, moved out in the middle of November 2009. He apparently didn't pay his rent, and Stephen found small appliances missing from the house and called his landlord to see if he had been robbed. someone online claiming to be Tina Bishop, who was Stephen's landlord, Brett Bishop's wife,

has sort of guided discussion towards Jordan as a suspect multiple times. According to post on web sleuth.com, this person has even said that Orham, Utah police officers told her that Jordan was one of the biggest drug dealers in St. George. Apparently, Jordan had replaced a knob on his bedroom door with one that locked with a key, and once the bishops were able to get into that room, they claimed that there was marijuana inside. Tina Bishop remembers tension between Stephen and Jordan. Apparently Stephen had mentioned to the bishops that whenever he had leftover food, Jordan would eat it.

Jordan also lived a much different lifestyle than Stephen, who everyone described as straight-laced. For his part, Jordan didn't have the best things to say about Brett Bishop, mentioning that he had multiple guns laid out in the house, that he came to the home much more frequently than he said he would to check in, and that Brett always was carrying a case that you could hear pills rattling around it. Jordan described it as a small black case. Some have wondered if this could be what Stephen had tucked under his arm in the surveillance video. There was no evidence linking Stephen's ex-roommate Jordan or his landlord.

the bishops to Stephen's disappearance. 13 years after Stephen's disappearance, a neighbor who lived close to 2260, evening lights at the time Stephen disappeared, and was last seen on camera, came forward. The witness's account was very vague, but they claimed they lived on Savannah Springs, the cul-de-sac that Stephen parked on.

This neighbor lived two houses down from the end of the cul-de-sac. The neighbor said that they spoke to Stephen between 11.54 a.m. when he parked in 12, noon when he walked out of the frame of the surveillance camera for the last time. This neighbor claims they heard their doorbell ring, but by the time they answered the door, they saw Stephen heading out toward the street. When the neighbor came to the door, Stephen called out to him and asked him, do you need money? The resident was confused and didn't recognize Stephen. At that point, it seemed to the witness that Stephen may have realized

that he was at the wrong home, and he saw Stephen walk away to another home nearby. 2260 evening lights. After that, the witness went back inside their home and didn't see Stephen again. So, I mean, to me, this is a pretty odd encounter. And I think this encounter between Stephen and the resident has only led to more questions and theories. Some have theorized that Stephen was led to that area by someone who may have simply said, I'll meet you at the house, two houses away from the corner. of evening lights in Savannah Springs. This could explain the gap between Stephen parking and walking

into frame of the camera. He wasn't sitting in his car for five minutes, making a phone call, or waiting for it to be noon. He went to the wrong house. He waited, and then when no one answered, he went to leave. Then when someone did answer, he thought he was at the right house. Until the neighbor went back inside his house. Confused, he must have realized he was in the wrong spot and decided to just walk over to the other home. This could also explain why Stephen parked where he did. He didn't park around the corner from his possible destination, but perhaps he parked diagonally across the street from where he thought his destination was. We mentioned the home that Stephen was allegedly seen walking to was 2260 evening lights, which was owned by a family by the last name

of DiMaggio. A neighbor recounted that they saw people at the DiMaggio home at 2260. 260 on the day that Stephen disappeared, moving stuff out of the house quickly. Over a three-hour period, they used a moving van, but it still seemed like it was an unplanned moved to the witness because of the speed and how many boxes it took. A private investigator named Kevin Wyatt, who has investigated this case, believes that Stephen may have gotten to his intended location and mentioned to someone there that he had just gone to the wrong house. This mistake could have been fatal if someone there was worried about witnesses to Stephen's movements. Obviously, police wanted to talk to the DiMaggio family to see what they might know or have

to add, but investigators had a hard time reaching them. Eventually, they learned that an adult son had been living in the Casita in the front, but that the rest of the family had moved out. According to 8NewsNow.com, when police contacted the son, he was said to have been nervous and claimed that he didn't know anyone in the area because he didn't trust anyone due to the drug lifestyle that people tend to have. Private Investigator Kevin Wyatt and his team obtained pictures of 2260 taken after Stephen disappeared and some of the interior walls adore and what looks like the side of a bathtub have massive damage to them. How all of this happened

is unknown. So we don't know how many members of the DiMaggio family. The police were able to talk to. We do know that they talk to this adult son. They claim that he was acting nervous. And then you have these pictures taken by the private investigator. They seem a little bit mysterious, right? You have massive damage to parts of the house. Yeah, we don't know what this damage is from. You know, obviously we could speculate. There's probably been a lot of speculation online about that, but whether or not it's connected to Stephen's disappearance remains to be seen, and it could be a red herring.

But no doubt when someone disappears and their last known sighting is essentially walking up to this house, okay, investigators are going to hone in on that. One other interesting detail regarding the time leading up the Stephen's disappearance was revealed. Sometime between December 1st and December 5th, Stephen's landlord Brett Bishop called Stephen's parents home and left the message about his rent situation. Stephen was three months or 1,500 hours behind. At the end of November, Stephen had stopped answering Brett's phone calls, which was unusual. Brett Bishop called Stephen's parents to ask if Stephen had asked them to borrow money, or if he was planning to move and had had to. and told him. Although Stephen's parents were listed on his rental application, this phone call by

Brett Bishop is still considered by many to be an overstep by him. In the opinions of some, Stephen was a grown man, and Bishop basically tattled on him to his parents. Brett Bishop was apparently under pressure because Stephen's roommate had skipped out on rent entirely, and Stephen was behind in rent, causing Bishop to fall behind on his own bills at Christmas time. I think in Brett Bishop's defense, if you're a landlord and someone owes you three months of rent, you're probably going to start looking for them or trying to find them however you can to recoup that money. And this would include calling people listed on his rental application. Yeah, I mean, I get that some people are calling it an overstab.

But I'm kind of with you more. You know, if you're in the situation that Brett Bishop is in, you're going to do whatever you can think of doing to try to get that money back. And if you got to call somebody's parents, you're going to call somebody's parents. you're going to call somebody's parents and say, hey, what's going on here? After hearing the news that Stephen was three months behind, his dad called Stephen to talk about the rent and ask if he needed help. According to Brett Bishop's wife, Tina, in the web slewis discussion, Stephen assured his dad that everything was fine and that he had worked something out.

It was also noted that he corrected his dad, claiming it wasn't that he was three three months behind, and according to Tina Bishop, Stephen hung up on his dad. Post by someone claiming to be Tina Bishop, confirmed that the bishops and Stephen had some sort of plan for Stephen to catch up on the rent, but it's never been stated what that plan was. So it seems that Stephen may have had financial issues. After all, he was behind on the rent. But Stephen's mom gave him money in his account before he vanished that he didn't use. Stephen also had a check from his grandmother that he never deposited. He had received it in September, October when the family visited Cedar City for the Shakespearean fest there.

If he was three months behind rent in December, why hadn't he cashed that check? Why didn't he touch the money that his mom gave him for rent? It's interesting to note that in the time before Stephen vanished, he was only responding to his fellow church members. He ignored texts and Facebook messages from his old friends. and wouldn't respond to his landlord. On December 9th, his friend Tom sent him a message on Facebook that he never replied to. This wasn't out of the ordinary for Stephen, but he was usually more prompt about returning text messages. A text from Tom on December 10th also went unanswered.

It seems like something happened in the fall that disrupted Stephen's life. If we knew what it was, we may know what happened. to him, it's that lack of answers that has led to continued theories and speculation if Stephen was delivering something illegal or secret and it got him killed. Who was he delivering it for? Who was the package for that he seemed to be carrying? And what was in it? It seems according to WebSloose post that Stevens' landlord Tina Bishop and his ex-roomate Jordan both seem to vaguely point fingers in each other's direction. and both have spoken out about the case.

The adult son who lived at 2260 evening lights, who won't talk about the case, is alleged to have a violent criminal record. But then again, apparently so does Stephen's landlord, Brett Bishop, and Stephen's roommate, Jordan. It seems as if a lot of people in this case have checkered past. The leading theory online is that Stephen made a deal to deliver something for Brett Bishop,

perhaps to clear his rent debt, and ended up at a murderer's house. Normally, the drug deal gone wrong theories are pretty far out there. But this time, there's actually a little bit that might make you buy into that theory a little bit more. In August 2009, Brett Bishop's neighbor in Orm, Utah reported a suspicion that Bishop was trying to hide a stolen 2005 Porsche SUV. It turned out to be a Porsche stolen from a car. car dealership in Scottsdale, Arizona in April 2005. The plates on it belonged to a Toyota Tundra, and the van had been altered to attempt to

hide the theft. A search of Brett Bishop's home revealed multiple guns, scopes, a homemade silencer, marijuana, scales, pipes, rolling papers, a medical marijuana ID card in Bishop's name, pills without prescriptions on the bottles and prescriptions for multiple different people, for things including Xanax, Valium, hydrocodone, percocet, morphine, and two different muscle relaxers. Clearly, this is some serious and hardcore stuff. Many people think that Stephen could have been dup into delivering something illegal, like being told it was something else or being told it was somehow legitimate,

or that Stephen had no idea what he was doing at all. Others say that perhaps he knowingly was involved in delivering drugs to help himself financially. But those who knew Stephen say he never would do anything illegal. And maybe Stephen had this one secret or other secrets. And so far, those secrets that may help solve this case have remained buried. If you have information about the disappearance of Stephen Kosher, you can submit anonymous tips through crime stoppers by calling 702-385.

5-5-5-5. I think in this case there's a lot to dissect and try and sift out. From all accounts, Stephen Kosher was a good guy and had a good reputation, wouldn't be mixed up in anything shady. But at the end of the day, we're left to wonder what brought him out there in the Las Vegas area. And from what police could gather, he was out there before this time that he disappeared. He was out there days earlier. So whatever was bringing him out there could hold the clue to what happened to him. Yeah. One of the things that I look at are the people surrounding Stephen Kosher. You know, his roommate had a record.

His landlord seemed to be a little shady. He had a record. You know, this theory about Stephen being behind on his rent and maybe making a deal. with his landlord to deliver something out to Las Vegas. I can see why a lot of people, you know, put some weight behind that theory. You know, Stephen may have had no idea what he was delivering, basically only knowing that by doing so, he was getting out from under, you know, this back rent. You could see that scenario playing out.

And then obviously, depending on what he was delivering, it could have. have put him in a situation that he normally would have never found himself in, associating with someone who ultimately intended to do him harm. One of the things that really piqued my interest is this 2260 evening lights. Obviously, it comes up again and again in the story. Why did these individuals move out so quickly as some neighbors, said they did, and then you have the adult son who stayed behind. What role, if any, did he play in the disappearance of Stephen Kosher?

Yeah, I think that's one of the most frustrating parts of this whole case, is you have an eyewitness saying that Stephen walked to this house and then he's never seen again. Now, that doesn't mean people at that house had anything to do with his disappearance, but they might hold crucial information. And if they shared that with the police, we don't know. That's something that hasn't come out, what level of cooperation there was, or if they could supply police with any kind of answers. And then we have another little piece of the mystery right after that is how does his phone start pinging in this area that's, you know, miles away from this location over a certain period of time and seem like it's moving out there? Was it Stephen with the phone out there or did someone else take it out there?

And I think that's a whole another piece of the mystery. Well, at the end of the day, this is a very mysterious case. So you can see why, you know, people are going through it and discussing it and talking about it on places like web sluice and things like that because people are trying to put the pieces together. We have a lot of pieces to the puzzle, but there are lots of. lot that are missing. And I think that's one of the things that's very tough about the case of Stephen Kosher. I think for the truth to be revealed, some of those missing pieces are going to have to fall into place. And I think that's only going to happen if somebody decides to come forward who can shed light on what really happened. Hopefully that happens sooner than later.

Yeah, and we did see the one witness who came forward years after Stephen went missing with some important information, so maybe it's not too late. But that's it for our episode on Stephen Kosher. If you love the show and you haven't done so yet, just take a minute, go out, give us a rating, a review. Keep telling your friends. That word of mouth about the criminology podcast really helps us out. If you want to find us on social media, we're on Twitter with the handle at Criminology Pod. You can also find us on Facebook by going to facebook.com slash criminology podcast, or you can join our Facebook discussion group, criminology podcast discussion and fans. To Morph, that is it for another episode of criminology, but we'll be back with everyone next Saturday night with an all new episode.

So until then, for Mike and Morph. We'll talk to you next week. Take care, everyone.