Sins & Survivors: A Las Vegas True Crime Podcast - The Disappearance of Steven Koecher

Episode Date: July 9, 2024

Steven Koecher was last seen in grainy black and white camera footage 100+ miles from his home. He walked out of the camera's view and was never seen again. Around noon on Sunday, December 13, 2009, 30-year-old Steven Koecher parked his Chevy Cavalier on a cul du sac in Henderson, Nevada. Security footage showed an adult figure, presumably Steven, walking down the sidewalk, alone, with an unknown item tucked under his left arm. Steven's disappearance has left only questions and half-baked theories about what happened to him. He never returned to his car, and he never made it home for Christmas. For the last 15 years, his loved ones have been trying desperately to find out what might have happened to himhttps://sinspod.co/episode35sourcesDomestic Violence Resourceshttp://sinspod.co/resourcesClick here to become a member of our Patreon!https://sinspod.co/patreonVisit and join our Patreon now and access our ad-free episodes and exclusive bonus content & schwag!Apple Podcast Subscriptionshttps://sinspod.co/appleWe're now offering premium membership benefits on Apple Podcast Subscriptions! On your mobile deviceLet us know what you think about the episodehttps://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2248640/open_sms Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/sins-survivors-a-las-vegas-true-crime-podcast--6173686/support.

To listen ad-free, visit Zinspod.co slash subscribe. Starting at $2.99 a month, you'll also get access to our exclusive bonus content episodes when you join through Patreon or Apple subscriptions. Thanks for supporting the show! Around noon on Sunday, December 13, 2009, 30-year-old Stephen Kosher parked his Chevy Cavalier on the cul-de-sac of Savannah Springs Avenue in the Sun City Anthem Retirement Community of Henderson, Nevada. Grainy black and white camera footage showed an adult figure, presumably Stephen, walking down the sidewalk alone with an unknown item tucked under his left arm. Stephen walked out of that security camera's view and

was never seen again, leaving only questions and half-baked theories about what happened to him. He never returned to his car, and he never made it home for Christmas. And for the last 15 years, his loved ones have been trying desperately to find out what might have happened to him. Hi, and welcome to Sins and Survivors, a Las Vegas true crime podcast where we focus on cases that deal with domestic violence, as well as missing persons and unsolved cases. I'm your host, Sean, and with me, as always, is the one and only John. I am the only John in the room. This week, we are sharing a missing persons case from Henderson, Nevada. This coming December 2024 will mark 15 years since Stephen Kosher was last seen. His family and loved ones deserve answers.

We're hoping that our coverage can bring renewed interest and attention to his case and hopefully generate some new leads. Since we focus on true crime in and around Las Vegas, and we happen to live in Henderson, about a half mile from at least one of the locations we'll talk about, I think we can also help clear up some outstanding questions about Stephen's disappearance for anyone that knows the details of the case but isn't that familiar with the Las Vegas Valley beyond the Strip. As of April 2024, the federal government owns over 80% of the land in Nevada, making it the state with the highest percentage of federal land in the country.

That's about 48 million acres of public land, which is managed by the Bureau of Land Management, BLM. And in some counties in Nevada, the federal government controls more than 90% of the land. In fact, Clark County is the most densely populated area, mostly because it contains Las Vegas and Henderson, but still over 90% of Clark County is managed by the BLM. The Las Vegas Valley includes the city of Las Vegas naturally, but also the cities of North Las Vegas and Henderson, and large areas of unincorporated towns that are a part of Clark County. These cities and unincorporated areas all touch and border each other, and you'd need to consult a map to figure out if you're in unincorporated

Clark County or the city of Las Vegas proper. I know that's a lot, but I want us to keep in mind that most of the details of Stephen's disappearance occur in the city of Henderson, but Henderson is not geographically separated from Las Vegas. It's the second largest city in Nevada, but at this point in time, there isn't any open land between the two cities. Henderson is mainly in the southeast part of the Las Vegas Valley. Sun City Anthem, which we'll talk about in a bit, is best thought of as a neighborhood in Henderson. There are so many theories that have been put forward over the years that John would call fan fiction. Stories people just make up with no supporting evidence at all. But it's important to focus on sharing what we know, and hopefully, that could lead to more concrete leads that might get his family answers. I'm not a fan of when people put

forth unsubstantiated stories because, of course, Stephen is a real person with a large family that cares about him very much, and they've been feeling his loss on a daily basis since he disappeared without a trace 15 years ago, so we won't be engaging in that kind of speculation. In our Swing Shift Overtime episode, we'll talk through some of the theories that people have come up with over the years and reasons why we think that they don't really make logical sense. But since we deal in facts, let's start with Stephen, who was born in Amarillo, Texas on November 1st, 1979, to his mother, Deanne Kosher, and his father, Rolf. He's the second oldest of five siblings, Matthew, Lisa, Michael,

and his younger brother, Dallin, who has been the main family spokesperson since their father passed away tragically and unexpectedly in February of 2011. By all accounts, Stephen grew up in a loving and supportive family environment. He graduated from Amarillo High School, but his family has roots in Bountiful, Utah, which is a community north of Salt Lake City. His dad was a journalist and the editor of the Davis County Clipper, a paper based in Bountiful. Stephen is very much the outdoorsy type, enjoying water sports, boating, camping, wakeboarding, that sort of thing. He was extremely active in the Boy Scouts, earning their highest rank of Eagle Scout.

He also was learning to play the guitar, and he loved to sing. His life was very much focused on service to others and the community, which is quite common for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was a mentor for Big Brothers Big Sisters and coached youth sports. As you mentioned, Stephen and his family are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who are commonly referred to as Mormons, although apparently it's more accurate to say Latter-day Saints or members of the LDS Church. After graduation, Stephen went on his mission to Brazil, like his father did before him, and in preparation for that mission, he learned to speak Portuguese. When he returned to the United States, Stephen went to Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho,

which is now Brigham Young University, Idaho, and earned his associate's degree, then transferred to the University of Utah, where he earned a bachelor's in communications in 2005. While he was at the University of Utah, he interned at the Utah governor's office, where he worked in public relations with the governor's press secretary. Then, after college, he got a job as a freelance writer for the Davis County Clipper, following in his father's footsteps. It's been reported that he chose to write articles under the name Steve Thel, his middle name, to avoid association with his father. He obviously had a knack for it because he won second place in the 2006 Utah Press Association Annual Awards Contest for Best Feature Article.

Stephen said he didn't like the hours at the Davis County Clippers, so he moved on to work at the Salt Lake City Tribune, where he worked for about 18 months. Then, in October 2008, he started a marketing job at a software company called Matchbin. According to the Kosher, Stephen really disliked the temperature inversions in Salt Lake City. It wasn't something that I knew much about, but it's when, due to geography and climate, warmer air kind of parks itself over colder air and results in pollution and smog being trapped near the ground. And it's a particular problem in wintertime, and it honestly sounds pretty awful.

In the winter of 2008, Stephen decided that he had had enough, and in April of 2009, he decided to move to St. George, a city in southern Utah about four hours south of Salt Lake City, and a two-hour drive from Las Vegas. He was able to continue to work for Matchbin after he moved. I looked up the weather in 2008, and from about December 13th through the week of Christmas, it snowed nearly every day in Salt Lake, and the temperatures barely got above freezing for those last two weeks of December. On Christmas, there was a blizzard that dumped more than eight inches of snow on Bountiful. Salt Lake also has lake effect snow, which I know you're familiar with. Yes. I went to school in Rochester, New York, which is no stranger to Lake Effect Snow. It's so bad there, in fact, and I know you know this, but for anyone who hasn't had the delightful experience of living through an upstate New York winter, my school has tunnels that connect the academic buildings together. So what you do is you make a run for the nearest

building that has an entry point into the tunnel system, and then travel underground in these weird kind of claustrophobic steamy tunnels all day, and then make a beeline back to your dorm after your classes were over. It was a very strange way to spend four years of my life. The snow there was just unrelenting. We live in the desert, so I understand where Stephen is coming from with his views on cold and gray winter weather. As we said, Stephen moved to St. George in April 2009. He rented a house and had a roommate named Jordan Zirkle. These two couldn't have been more different. Of course, Stephen was extremely involved in his church, and due to his religious beliefs, he abstained from alcohol and caffeine,

whereas Jordan drank beer, smoked weed, and did not attend church with Stephen. Despite that, though, there is no reporting indicating that their relationship was anything other than amicable. YouTuber Aaron Stoner did a great interview with Jordan in 2021 in order to understand his relationship with Stephen a little better. He didn't have anything at all negative to say about Stephen and even mentioned that he hung out with Stephen to play softball sometimes. It sounds like it was a pretty typical adult roommate relationship. One of my favorite quotes from the interview is Jordan saying, we didn't have a lot in common. He's Mormon. I'm from Chicago. One of the interesting things that

was happening with Stephen and Jordan, too, really, was their living situation. They lived in St. George, as we mentioned, and their landlord's name was Brett Bishop. According to that same interview with Stephen's roommate Jordan, there were some pretty weird things going on with Brett, and things that stuck out to him included, when he moved in, he saw a ton of guns in the home. Brett allegedly was always carrying around a toiletry bag full of prescription pills. And Brett claimed that the house they rented was a vacation home and he was rarely there, but that wasn't true at all. He was there all the time and he would come by the house at strange times and would drop by at 2 a.m. In August of 2009, Brett was arrested for the possession of a stolen

2005 Porsche Cayenne, definitely one of the ugliest cars you'll ever see, possession of narcotics, and possession of firearms. That last charge was later dropped because officers had assumed he was a convicted felon, but according to court records, he was actually not. All of this did not sit well with Jordan at all, who ended up moving out in the middle of the night sometime in the fall of 2009 because he was so uncomfortable with Brett and his weird behavior. But back to Stephen. Like many people at this time, in May of 2009, Matchbin told Stephen that it wasn't working out and he was laid off. It's not a great time to be out of work.

We've talked about the economic meltdown of 2008, which led to the Great Recession before, and we've mentioned that the Las Vegas area was the hardest hit area in the country by the recession and the slowest to recover. The whole country, and really the world, was affected. And in Utah, the unemployment rate hit a 10-year high of 7.9% in December of 2009. Stephen was able to find a part-time job with Travis's Window and Blind Cleaning, a family-owned business that still serves Washington and St. George, while he continued to look for full-time work. Stephen was having some issues making rent and was about three months behind in payments. He owed $1,500.

His landlord, Brett Bishop, actually called Stephen's father, Rolf, to talk about the rent Stephen owed. This, to me, is extremely odd since Stephen was 30 years old and an adult. When Rolf reached out to Stephen to talk about the rent, Stephen was frustrated and probably embarrassed and annoyed. He did not accept help from his dad and told him he was okay. So here's where the story gets a little strange. Starting on December 10, 2009, Stephen began going on some very odd and hard-to-explain road trips across Utah, Nevada, and Arizona. Just for clarity, Utah is mountain time, Nevada is Pacific time, and Arizona is mountain time, but mostly doesn't observe daylight saving time. Very confusing. In the descriptions, I'll just mention the location and the time, and you can assume that it's the local time for whatever location I'm talking about.

So on December 10th, Stephen departed St. George, Utah around 2.15 a.m. and drove north to Salt Lake City, arriving sometime around 6.45 a.m. based on a gas receipt. Then he drove to West Wendover, Nevada, arriving around 8.45 a.m. Remember that specific time now, where he purchased gas again. Next up, Stephen drove to Ruby Valley, Nevada, about two hours to the west, apparently to randomly visit an ex-girlfriend named Anne-Marie Neff at her family's ranch. It turned out she wasn't home, but her parents remembered him and invited him in for lunch. Their visit lasted about two hours. He arrived at 11 a.m. and left around 1 p.m. According to the Neffs, Stephen told them that he was considering driving

to Sacramento to visit family, but because of the weather, he had decided it was a bad idea, so he was going to head back to St. George. Not only is that strange because it's a seven-hour drive from Ruby Valley to Sacramento, but in fact, this was an easily verifiable lie. According to Stephen's sister, Stephen had no friends or family in Sacramento, so why would he tell them that? Stephen then headed back to St. George. He had a phone call with his sister around 3.44 p.m. Pacific time on the drive back home, but she reports there was no mention of his road trip and no mention of Sacramento. He retraced his steps, driving to Salt Lake City, arriving there around 4.40 p.m., corroborated by a gas purchase, and then on to Springville, Utah, for another gas purchase around 5.25 p.m.

About an hour and a half later, his mom called, according to phone records. His mom has said that Stephen seemed upbeat and positive, but they did discuss Stephen's finances, which were obviously a problem. She deposited some money in his account, which he never ended up using. There was also evidence that Stephen had received a check from his grandmother to help him out, but he never cashed it. There are multiple examples of this type of thing. It was pretty obvious Stephen really wanted to live financially independent, and who wouldn't? He stopped one more time in Nephi, Utah around 7.24 p.m. for dinner at a Taco Time fast food restaurant, according to the receipt, and then headed back to St. George when he arrived just after 11 o'clock p.m. The entire trip was nearly 1,100 miles and 21 hours. And it's unclear exactly why he went. It had to have

been an expensive trip with that much gas, especially if he was having financial problems. Before we go on, we're going to pause here for a second and hear from our friends at PNW Haunts and Homicides. Hey, creepy people. This is PNW Haunts and our interpretations. You can find our episodes featuring true stories from infamous cases such as the misdeeds of Boeing, as well as lesser known true crime cases like the murders in Tunnel 13, as well as our spooky stories from Pike Place and Raven's Manor on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and anywhere else you'd like to listen. Have a creepy ass day. And now back to Stephen. That first road trip was a little odd, but both his sister and his mother didn't report anything

out of the ordinary. His landlord, Brett, lived in Orem, which is right along his path that day, so there's some reasonable speculation that he might have had some contact with him, but there isn't really any proof of that. The next day, he spent in St. George passing out flyers for the window and blind washing company. And while he was out that day, we have another example of him just being a truly nice and caring guy. He happened upon two young girls who had gotten locked out of their house. After helping them search for a missing key, he offered to call their mom to let her know what had happened and then help them get to a neighbor's house where they could go inside and get warm. There really are multiple examples of his pattern of helping

and being of service to others. He also spoke to the bishop in his ward, which is essentially the local church congregation, who reported that he had a good conversation with Stephen, and they talked about the bishop having some good leads on work for him in the upcoming year. Again, nothing out of the ordinary that raised any red flags. The next day, though, December 12th, he was back on the road for another road trip. This time to the south. He drove to Overton, Nevada, which is about an hour and 15 minutes south of St. George, about halfway to Las Vegas from St. George. It's a very small town where the only thing of note that we could think of is the Moapa Valley corn maze, which runs through October and November these days. After that, he headed back north, buying gas in Mesquite, Nevada, around 4.04 p.m.,

then arriving back home in St. George around 7.58. We know that because he went to a Kmart and bought some presents for his brother's family, including a bib for the baby and some Christmas ornaments. That suggests he was fully intending to be home with his family for Christmas. Stephen's car was seen out in front of his house at 10 p.m., but of course there's a two-hour gap where his whereabouts are unknown, and that same neighbor who saw the car said that his car was gone by 10.30 p.m. And again, it's unclear where he was. And maybe he came home after that night, and the neighbor just didn't see or notice his car. We just don't know. On December 13th at 7.52 a.m., a leader in his church named Greg Webb called Stephen. Greg was

driving home from Las Vegas, and he was afraid that he'd miss the church service he was supposed to lead. He was calling Stephen to ask if he could cover. Stephen told him that he was in Las Vegas, that he could head back if needed. But Webb said it wasn't necessary. Interestingly, according to Webb, there was no discussion like, Hey, you're in Vegas, I'm in Vegas too. Why are you here? When he was interviewed, Webb said that in retrospect, he wishes that he'd asked Stephen

what he was doing in Vegas. Stephen got another call from a member of the ward named Seth Abbott at 9.53 a.m. asking him to make an announcement at the church service. But again, Stephen told him he couldn't because he was in Las Vegas and would be missing the service. Again, strangely, there was no conversation about why Stephen was in Las Vegas. At 1015 Pacific, he got another call from the ward asking him about running the service for Greg, but he explained again that he was in Las Vegas and couldn't. They believe that this is the last time anyone spoke to Stephen. And again, he was in Las Vegas and couldn't. They believe that this is the last

time anyone spoke to Stephen. And again, there was no conversation about why he was missing the service, which was very rare for Stephen. Obviously, all his friends in the church are calling him to be back up for them, and no explanation as to why he was in Las Vegas. Just before 1154 AM, Stephen drove into into the anthem neighborhood in the very southernmost end of henderson and parked at the end of the savannah springs avenue in a cul-de-sac and it's unclear why or what he was doing there he was captured by a home surveillance camera around that time walking away from his car with some unknown item under his arm he turned up evening light street he was seen from one other camera and in a reflection

of a car, and his mother is fairly sure that it is Stephen, given his gait, height, and general size, but the footage is quite blurry and grainy. But he appears to be walking with a purpose, not lost or wandering. There were two cell phone pings from Stephen's cell phone later that day, one at 4.36 p.m. near American Pacific and Arroyo Grande, about nine miles north of where he had parked in Sun City Anthem, and another one two hours later, around 6.30 p.m. near Whitney Ranch, two miles up the road. Those two locations are very close to where we live in Henderson, and we feel that those times are a little weird. The second ping is only two miles from the first one, but it happens two hours later, so it really isn't clear what was happening with the phone and who might have had it.

The next day, there were several more cell phone pings from Stephen's phone indicating that it was still moving. The first was early in the morning near Interstate 515 in Russell Road, and then around 6.04 a.m., some unknown person, maybe Stephen, maybe not, called his voicemail. The phone remained in that location, according to cell phone tower records, for two days until the signal was lost and the battery died. By Monday the 15th, the Sun City Anthem HOA had taken notice of the apparently abandoned car in the neighborhood and started to try and find the owner. There were flyers in the car from the window and blind washing business in there, so that's where they started. They got in touch with the business and they were able to figure out who Stephen was and finally left a message for his mother on December 16th. She didn't hear the message till the 17th, and that's when she reported

Stephen missing right away. I want to stop for a moment here and talk about the neighborhood where Stephen was last seen and where his car was found. For people who have never been to Las Vegas or never left the Strip, you might not be familiar with some of the towns or suburbs we have here. Sun City Anthem is a planned community that was constructed between 1998 and 2008 for active adults over 55. It's built around a world-class golf course. It has some pretty great amenities like a clubhouse and tennis courts, swimming pools, group fitness classes, events, things like that. There are more than 7,400 homes in the development. The homes vary widely in size and price, ranging from under $500,000 to over a million dollars. But at the time they were built, they were selling for closer

to $300,000. And during the housing market crash here in Las Vegas in 2008, 2009, the prices were down to the low $200,000. The neighborhood isn't gated, and the homes aren't what you might consider to be huge, opulent mansions. Many of them are two-bed, two-bath, single-story homes with a garage and less than 2,000 square feet. And they're really aimed at retirees and empty nesters looking to downsize and be part of a community with amenities they don't have to maintain themselves. I've heard it called an affluent community, but I wouldn't necessarily think the residents are wealthy. As I said, it's not gated, so Stephen would have been able to drive

into it with no issues. He wouldn't need a code or someone to buzz him into the neighborhood. Sun City Anthem was fully completed long before Stephen pulled into the area. So if you look at Google Maps or zoom in on the cul-de-sac at the end of Savannah Springs, or if you go and visit the area, what you see is exactly what Stephen saw all those years ago. Stephen's family searched everywhere to try and find him. They contacted shelters, jails, and hospitals, and even city morgues. Rolf visited Stephen's house in St. George to see if there was anything at the house that could tell him where Stephen may be or where he went, but he found nothing

that was out of order in the house at all. Stephen's possessions were there and nothing was packed or missing. His cell phone charger and laptop were in his room, and none of his belongings were packed, which might have indicated that he was planning to go somewhere. On December 17th, a massive search began. Officers and the family searched in Henderson, St. George, and Mesquite, searching in the desert areas and the nearby golf course, and also going door-to-door in Sun City, Anthem, asking if anyone had seen Stephen. There was no sign of him, and no neighbors said they had seen him in the neighborhood on the day of his disappearance, but the police did secure the surveillance footage we mentioned. This is weird that no one saw him on that day,

because he was definitely there based on the surveillance footage. The family even hired a private investigator to help them in their search, which continued right up until Christmas. Stephen's mom, Deanne, has said that it really sunk in with her that he was missing once December 23rd had come and gone. Stephen had said he'd be home to spend the holidays with the family, and they'd all been holding out hope that he would come home as he'd promised. On December 30th, another four-day search began with more volunteers, dogs, helicopters, and ATVs. Despite all of this effort, the search did not turn up anything. There were some frustrating elements of the investigation. For example,

when Stephen's car was found, the police did not process it as a crime scene. At that time, the car was just believed to be abandoned. There was no reason to suspect a crime had been committed, so that means that the car was never fingerprinted or processed formally. It's worth mentioning that the car worked and it had gas in it. Stephen's family did have a drug sniffing dog inspect the car and there was no sign that drugs had been in the car. Inside, they had found flyers for the window washing company like we mentioned, snacks, the Christmas gifts that he bought at Kmart, his shaving kit, various receipts, and a pillow and blanket. Stephen's loved ones dug into the details of his life, hoping to find any clues.

Stephen's brother went through Stephen's email and laptop, looking for any signs or hints as to why Stephen was in Henderson or where he could be now. There was nothing in his email or browser history that provided any leads or answers. Stephen would use library computers often to access the internet. Computers at the library were searched as well, and nothing unusual was uncovered. Police even investigated what he had checked out of the library, which included a biography of basketball player Pete Maravich, a book about early settlers in southern Utah, and a DVD of The Lord of the Rings. They even decided to read Stephen's personal diary. He wrote about some of his concerns,

but he didn't seem despondent or overly frustrated. He was worried about being out of work and expressed that he was eager to find a wife and start a family. Rolfe told reporters, If there's a dark side, we haven't found it yet. We can't find anything that leads to why he would disappear. In February of 2010, Stephen's family worked with Anderson Dairy, a Vegas-based dairy, to put Stephen's photo on milk cartons. The dairy hadn't put missing photos on milk cartons in years, but they agreed to do so for the family. They held a press conference with the mayor of Henderson asking the community to come forward with tips. They announced a $10,000 reward in the kickoff of what they were

calling a week of vigilance. Deanne said, we'd like to have everyone who's aware of this keep their eyes out for us, and we'd be thrilled to death if someone would take that $10,000 because we found our son. One of the first things we often hear when there's a missing person in the Las Vegas area is usually along the lines of, they're an adult, they can disappear if they want to. And looking at Stephen's life circumstances, many web sleuths developed a similar theory. Stephen was down on his luck, he was out of work and behind on his rent. Could it be possible that out of frustration and desperation, Stephen walked away from his life. During the course of the investigation, Stephen's family and other investigators discovered several things that

show that wasn't a very likely scenario. One, Stephen's passport was left behind in his house. There's no evidence of him searching for flights or buying plane or bus tickets, nothing that would indicate he was planning on traveling. He didn't make any large withdrawals of cash or have any transactions on his credit cards to raise any red flags. He didn't have any unusual emails, call history, and there was nothing unusual in his internet search history either. The only items his family could tell were missing from his things were his cell phone, his wallet, and his keys. As we mentioned, his cell phone charger was left behind in St. George along with his laptop. He had recently gone grocery shopping

and there was a loaf of bread and a large jar of peanut butter at his place. He also had bought those Christmas gifts for his nieces and nephews. Both of these purchases seemed to indicate that Stephen had every intention of returning home and celebrating the holidays with his family. A frozen pizza was found in the car. It had likely defrosted by the time it was discovered, but it makes me think that it's pretty likely that when Stephen walked away from his car in Sun City Anthem that afternoon, he was planning on coming back. Many of these same facts also point away from the idea that Stephen died by suicide. One of the related unsubstantiated theories about what happened to Stephen was that he just

walked into the desert, either intentionally to end his life or perhaps he just got lost and wandered away. We find that one to be quite a stretch, that someone would just walk off into the desert as a means to end their life. This is especially odd given that it was December in Henderson, meaning that the temperature was probably between the mid-40s and the mid-50s. Secondly, Stephen wasn't really near the desert in the way you might imagine it. He was in the middle of a suburban neighborhood. He was a two-mile walk from the desert or any undeveloped land or even hiking trails. If he did want to wander off into the desert, he probably would have chosen to park a little bit closer. There's a lot of Vegas-related lore and myths attached to Stephen's disappearance,

and while they may be well-intentioned, they aren't practical. For example, people have asked if anyone has checked surveillance videos from casinos. Well, it turns out there are more than 60 casinos on the strip alone, with smaller casinos located all over the valley. Without any leads to say he was in one particular casino that week, it would be impossible to review all of the footage that existed to determine whether he was there or not. Many of the theories we read were similar to the speculation that surrounds the disappearance of Maura Murray, with people making accusations and assumptions about Stephen, his motives, and his personal life, as armchair detectives have with Maura and her family. We don't want to give any of those wildly speculative theories any oxygen whatsoever.

Regardless of what made-for-TV-movie scenario people want to draft in their heads, we need to focus on finding Stephen so his family can have answers. I agree with you 100%, but I think there's one other debunked theory in this case that I want to mention briefly. A week before Stephen went missing, Susan Powell went missing. For those of you who aren't familiar with Susan Powell, her husband Joshua reported her missing on December 6, 2009. Susan was 28 years old and lived in Utah with Joshua and their two young sons. Joshua was always a person of interest in Susan's disappearance, but during the investigation, Joshua's father put forth the theory that Stephen Kosher and Susan knew each other and that the two had run away together, possibly to Brazil.

Both Stephen and Susan were members of the Church of Latter-day Saints and both had lived in the same town several years ago. She was 28, he was 30. As John described earlier, Stephen had traveled up to the Salt Lake City area on December 10th. On those facts, it would seem plausible that maybe they did know each other, but there's one issue with this theory. There's no evidence that the two of them had ever even met, let alone carried on an affair. They didn't know each other. As Rolfe told Deseret News in 2010, everything they say is not founded in truth or reality. It's just scenarios. Their assertions have opened up wounds that were healing. If you want to hear more about Susan's case and how there is zero doubt that

Joshua murdered her, I'd recommend you listen to Generation Y's episode on Josh and Susan Powell or the Murder Diaries episode on Susan. Stephen's mom has shared that just a few weeks before Stephen disappeared, he spent Thanksgiving in Bountiful with his family. While he was home, he decorated a tree in front of their house with some white Christmas lights. The family left them on until they burned out that summer. They repeated the tradition of putting the lights on the tree and leaving them lit, and in 2011, the AP reported that Deanne had once again decorated the tree and lit it in Stephen's honor. The family encouraged others

to do something similar in honor of Stephen. Sadly, in February of 2011, Stephen's father, Rolf, passed away after a sudden and brief illness. His death was another indication to the family that Stephen wasn't voluntarily missing. They strongly believed that Rolf's death would have brought Stephen home again. This December will mark 15 years since Stephen vanished. Stephen Kosher was 30 years old when he was last seen in 2009. Today, he would be 45 years old. He has blonde or strawberry blonde hair, blue eyes, is 5'11 and 180 pounds. He also has a unique birthmark on his abdomen. If you have any information that can help Stephen's family locate him, please call Henderson Police Department at 702-267-4750, or you can remain anonymous by calling Crime Stoppers at 702-385-5555. As we said, we don't need more theories,

we need leads. We urge anyone with information to come forward. Please also be sure you are following us on social media so you can share Stephen's photos. You never know. Someone you know might have information that can finally bring answers to Stephen's family. Thank you as always for listening and remember what happens here happens everywhere. Thanks for listening. Visit sinspod.co slash subscribe for exclusive bonus content and to

listen ad-free. Remember to like and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Threads at Sins and Survivors. If you're enjoying the podcast, please leave us a review on your podcast platform of choice. You can contact us at questions at sinsandsurvivors.com. If you or someone you know is affected by domestic violence or needs support, please reach out to local resources or the National Domestic Violence Hotline. A list of resources is available on our website, sinsandsurvivors.com. Sins and Survivors, a Las Vegas true crime podcast, is research written and produced by your hosts, Sean and John. The information shared in this podcast is accurate at the time of recording. If you have questions, concerns, or corrections, please email us. Links

to source material for this episode can be found on our website, sinsandsurvivors.com. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the podcast creators, hosts, and their guests. All individuals are innocent until proven guilty. This content does not constitute legal advice. Listeners are encouraged to consult with legal professionals for guidance.