Koecher

I'm trying as best i can not to break into tears as i read this article by Koecher's Dad as i sit at work... Koecher was one of my best friends a couple years back. We went to the temple every Wednesday because no one else had the day off. (before i was married people, keep it clean) and he had such a testimony of the gospel. He was a good friend, and I'm not just saying that because he's missing, I'm saying it because it's true. He would do anything for anyone. He also gave us our favorite pan for a wedding present, as silly as it sounds, it really is out favorite. Please spread the news. I know it's all over facebook. But help keep an eye out for my friend!


http://clippertoday.com/bookmark/5388187/article-INSIDE%20STORY-%20An%20outpouring%20of%20friends-%20strangers

"Our world was turned upside down by a phone call Thursday evening, exactly two weeks ago.This isn’t the type of column I ever expected to write because bad news happens to other people. And as journalists, we see ourselves as those who report on events but don’t really feel comfortable in the limelight ourselves.Yet owing to reports published in at least two Utah newspapers last week, I feel the Clipper needs to acknowledge what has happened.The phone call was to alert us that my 30-year-old son Steven’s car had been found abandoned in Henderson, Nev., — near Las Vegas — for four days.Having started my journalism career as a police reporter in the Las Vegas area, I knew the implications. Especially after four days.That touched off an odyssey I could have never imagined. That evening, we filed an official missing persons report, but not after doing battle with police agencies over jurisdiction. And that set the tone for all that was to follow.Two of my sons and I drove off into the night so that we could be in Las Vegas to rush to the scene the moment police notified us that my missing son was found in a hospital, morgue, shelter, or jail. But a deeper mystery lay ahead of us. My son’s car was found in a high-end retirement neighborhood for people 55 and older. Filled with nice people, it’s not a place anyone is likely to find by accident and not the kind of place were anyone disappears. In going door-to-door to ask the neighbors for leads about my son, we discovered one of them had a security camera system that caught him on video. It appears his car arrived just before noon on a sunny Sunday morning, then he waited for a few minutes, got out and walked past the house with the camera, turned the corner and strode purposefully across the street to an apparent noon appointment....then out of view and out of our lives.His mobile phone, e-mail, voice mail, text message and debit card records all ended that weekend. The last two calls he answered on Sunday morning were from friends from his home LDS ward in St. George where he was living. He said he was in the Las Vegas area but would be willing to get back to St. George that afternoon if they needed him. He did not hide his location, nor did he seem depressed, disoriented or unwilling to return.What followed for us were days of canvassing the area, uncovering leads and feeding them to police agencies in Henderson and St. George, both of whom (1) took little serious interest in the case and (2) seemed anxious to pass the buck to the other.Also, the case seemed to baffle everyone, but there isn’t space enough here to explain why. Only that three police agencies, four detectives from a private firm our family hired, and dozens of people we talked to all came to a single conclusion: It didn’t add up and no one could figure out why a gentle young man, loved by his friends and fellow church members, vanished without a trace.After having exhausted every clue and avenue of help at our disposal, we sadly returned to Bountiful on Christmas Eve, arriving late in the evening because we stopped in Mesquite, Nev., and St. George, to track down other surveillance tapes and examine my son’s apartment together with police — and to talk with news reporters.Before we left, we had been successful in alerting the Las Vegas news media so that local TV reports and news articles alerted the public to his disappearance.Just while I’ve been writing this, I’ve reviewed and approved a photo and fact sheet of Steven that will appear on milk cartons by Anderson Dairy throughout southern Nevada. This was made possible by the help of our Henderson cousins, the Bradshaws, and many friends we didn’t realize we had.What will happen next is hard to say because things change hour by hour. This weekend it appears that a widespread search effort will occur throughout the Las Vegas area because police agencies have now taken an avid interest in the case — and because Nevada missing persons groups and Steven’s church friends from Utah have banded together, offering their services as searchers.If there’s one huge lesson to be gleaned from this, it’s the overwhelming level of support we’ve received from local friends and church leaders in Bountiful, from Steve’s friends in St. George, and from so many dedicated people in the Las Vegas area — and from across the nation —who have moved mountains to make impossible things possible. When we’ve struggled with the tremendous weight on our shoulders, we found many others who have helped lift the burden.No matter the outcome, we will always be in debt to our extended family and literally hundreds of friends and strangers who have freely come to our aid.

Rolf D. Koecher

Editor"