After that brief appearance on camera, Steven Koechner was never seen or heard from again. It was December 13, 2009. His mysterious disappearance raised a number of questions, many of which would only be investigated sometime after his initial disappearance …
The police pinged Steven’s cell phone and found that it had gone dead a little north of the area where his white Chevy sedan was parked. They examined the cameras and saw that he was carrying a package or a manila folder under his arm. What was inside of it, however, remained a mystery.
Inside the car, authorities uncovered a pile of wrapped Christmas presents which Steven had purchased only a few days earlier. They also found a number of pillows, a few blankets, and Steven’s shaving kit, but no suitcase. What had Steven been up to?
The same authorities were unable to find any evidence of foul play. Indeed, it appeared that Steven had simply vanished into thin air. When asked if he might have been suicidal, Steven’s friends and family made it very plain that he was not and that he was not the type of person to run away from life.
Steven’s inexplicable and impromptu 2,100 mile road trip and his subsequent disappearance, baffled authorities. His abandoned car and presents presented no clue as to what he might have come to Henderson looking for. After they had exhausted all other options, police started looking into Steven’s relationships …
Steven’s friend Greg, whom he had met at church, had apparently spoken to the 30-year-old right before he left his car in that cul de sac. According to Greg, they had both been in the same area for separate reasons, but hadn’t bothered to ask each other why during the course of the conversation.
Steven’s other contacts included his boss at the window washing company where he worked part-time, and his landlord. As for his boss, it seemed that he had given Steven $100 right before he vanished. Had it been what he was owed for a job, a personal loan, or something else entirely?
As for Steven’s landlord, well that was another matter entirely. Steven owed a substantial amount of back rent, as such, he was being contacted by the impatient landlord pretty frequently. He even reached out to Steven’s family after his disappearance to try and collect the late rent payment from them as well.
The landlord had called Steven several times on the day he vanished as well: once at 4 in the afternoon, after Steven had abandoned his Chevy; and once the following day, at 6 am in the morning. Did the landlord know something about what had happened to Steven Koechner that the police didn’t?
The information information regarding Steven’s landlord was not discovered by authorities during the initial investigation. But over the years, police and the Koechers received a number of tips about Steven’s whereabouts. Even psychics weighed in. In May of 2015, after news of Steven’s landlord broke, Steven’s community decided to pick up the search once again.
The renewed search took place in the area where Steven left his car and walked away. It had been nearly six years since Steven vanished and his family were thrilled to see so many people volunteering to help locate their son, even after all that time. They decided to comb the nearby hills first …
Red Rock Search and Rescue was called in to help. Their theory was that Steven might have walked into the hills near Henderson and gotten lost in the cold, unforgiving wilderness. If that was the case though, the 50 volunteers were very likely looking for a body.
‘Life goes on for everybody else except for us,’ says Deanne Koechner. ‘Every day, it’s a part of our lives.’ But that doesn’t mean that the Koechners are giving up hope anytime soon. Of course, in the time since Steven’s disappearance they have suffered other tragedies as well …
Steven Koechner’s father, Rolf Koechner, a newspaper editor in northern Utah, had worked tirelessly to find his son. He followed every lead he received and did his best to keep his son’s story in the public eye. Tragically, Rolf Koechner died from a sudden illness about a year after Steven vanished. He would never know what happened to his son. LifeDaily online article, ‘Strange New Evidence Surfaces in Case of Steven Koechner’
It’s one of the most extraordinary mysteries in recent history. Madeleine McCann is nowhere to be found … Just after 10 p.m. their peaceful vacation is brought to an abrupt halt. The Madeleine McCann Mystery, Quest Red 2019
She [Kate] realised immediately that something was slightly different: there was a lot of light coming through the doorway of the children’s room and she realised that the door was open much further than it had been when she left; and as she approached she could see the window was open, and the shutter was up, and the blinds were pulled back. ibid. reporter
She felt what she described as a ‘sickening breeze’ and she knew something terrible had happened. ibid. reporter #2
The mystery of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance became the biggest or at least the most enduring news story of the year. Eight month on, detectives still don’t know if Madeleine is alive or dead … Detectives were investigating another more chilling theory … People in Portugal and in the UK began to question their sympathy for the couple. Is it Possible the McCanns are Involved? Sky News 2007
The headline that grabbed everyone’s attention: a 60-year-old bookkeeper, just an ordinary guy, steals almost a million dollars. And he gets away with it. Someone who never broke a law in his life. Where did he go? For two years police wanted him, journalists tracked him: no-one could find him. We did … Kenya. The Fifth Estate: David Reiner: Disappearing Act, CBC 2008
This film is about atomic power … 1) Anyone with an expert knowledge of physics can make an atomic bomb with that much of a substance called plutonium; 2) A speck of plutonium causes cancer; 3) There is no absolutely safe way of storing, protecting or transporting plutonium. And you may have read recently that enough plutonium to make fifteen atomic bombs has officially disappeared from nuclear research centres in Britain. John Pilger, An Unjustifiable Risk, 1977
More than 100 ships and aeroplanes have been lost in the Bermuda Triangle taking with them 1,000 lives. There is no explanation for the disappearances. In Search of … Ancient Mysteries, 1973
July 2nd 1937: Amelia Earhart and her navigator are bound westward over the lonely mid-Pacific. It is the final leg of a gruelling round the world flight. Within several hours they will disappear. In Search of s1e15: Amelia Earhart, 1977
Among the Asmat people of New Guinea there exists a way of life that has remained unchanged since the Stone Age. In 1961 it drew the attention of a restless young man named Michael Rockefeller. In Search of s2e6 … Michael Rockefeller, 1978
In their midst he disappeared and was never seen again. ibid.
116 people landed on a island off the coast of North Carolina. They established a foothold long before the Jamestown colony was founded in Virginia, before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. But the fate of the Roanoke settlement remains a mystery. Is it possible for all these people, all these buildings, this entire community, to disappear without a trace? In Search of s4e6 … The Lost Colony of Roanoke, 1979
December 15th 1944 Bedfordshire England: Glenn Miller, the most popular musician in the world, is serving as commander of the army air-corps band. Determined to fly to France to prepare for a concert, he accepts an invitation to make the journey in a small plane. Poor weather has already delayed the flight for several days … Glenn Miller will never be seen again. In Search of s4e23 … Glenn Miller, 1980
What were the circumstances around the disappearance? And why was there never a search made for the aircraft? ibid.
Four conspiracies, disappearances and murder offer a fantastic canvas on which to speculate. Conspiracy: Disappearances, Blaze 2019
Was the death of the world’s most famous baby [Lindbergh] the result of the Nazi science of Eugenics? ibid.
Was Britain’s most flamboyant media tycoon [Maxwell] a victim of a special-forces operation? ibid.
Britain’s most famous fugitive: Lord Lucan: On 7th November 1974 in the heart of one of London’s most exclusive neighbourhoods a brutal murder took place: in the basement of 46 Lower Belgrave Street 29-year-old Sandra Rivett was bludgeoned to death. The perpetrator of the crime was her employer, an upper-class gambler by the name of Richard John Bingham, the 7th Earl of Lucan. ibid.
According to Suzy, as soon as Lucan’s establishment friends at the Clermont Club found out he wanted to return, they gave Mr X another task: to dispose of the problem. ibid.
‘One columnist even said it was the greatest crime since the crucifixion of Christ.’ ibid. old boy
Some people believe that Hauptmann was no more than a bit player in the case and that the person who should have been held to account was no other than Lindbergh himself. ibid.
On 30th July 1975 Jimmy Hoffa disappeared: and ever since then people have been looking for a body. ibid.
The billionaire owner of the Daily Mirror hit the front pages in November 1991 after he went missing from his yacht. ibid.
Some people think the cause was far far darker. ibid.