Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Family of missing Utah man offering $10,000 reward

Steven Koecher’s car found in Sun City Anthem area of Henderson

Area where Koecher's car was found

The family of a missing Utah man who was last seen in Henderson is calling on the public to help in their search, and they are offering a $10,000 reward for the help.

Steven Koecher’s car was found in the Sun City Anthem area of Henderson, and a nearby home’s surveillance video shows him walking away on Dec. 13, but investigators have not been able to find any trace of the man from St. George, Utah, since.

Koecher’s family held a press conference Friday morning on the steps of the Henderson City Hall with Mayor Andy Hafen to announce the award and begin what they are calling a “week of vigilance.”

“We’d like to have everyone who’s aware of this keep their eyes out for us and we’d be thrilled to death to have someone take that $10,000 because we found our son,” Koecher’s mother, Deanne Koecher, of Bountiful, Utah, said.

The family has been working with police in Henderson, Las Vegas and St. George, as well as Crime Stoppers of Nevada and the Nevada Center for Missing Loved Ones. Anyone with information about Koecher is asked to contact police or, to remain anonymous, Crime Stoppers at 702-385-5555.

Koecher, 30, is 5 feet, 11 inches tall and has blond hair and blue eyes. The family thinks he was wearing a white shirt and kaki slacks when he disappeared.

Police have followed every lead, including one from a psychic, Deanne Koecher said, but have still not been able to find anything.

“What makes this situation so difficult is that there are clues that contradict virtually every possible theory, yet none that point in a specific direction,” Koecher’s brother Dallin said.

Police initially thought Koecher’s passport was missing, but it has since been found, and police have checked airline, bus and other transportation records and found no sign of him leaving the area, father Rolf Koecher said.

“We want to be open to any possibility; we’ve tried to not miss any clue,” Rolf Koecher said.

They have not found any evidence that Koecher was hiding things from his family, either, but they do not know why he was in Southern Nevada his father said.

“If there’s a dark side we haven’t found it yet,” Rolf Koecher said. “We can’t find anything that leads to why he would disappear or why he would be in this area.”

The Koechers do have some extended family in Henderson who have been helping with the search, but Steven Kocher did not know them well and probably didn’t even know they lived in Henderson, Deanne Koecher said.

But police and local residents have been helpful, she said. Anderson Dairy has been featuring information about Koecher on their milk cartons, something they have not done in years, and will continue doing so. The family is also going to begin distributing fliers with information about the reward.

“The neighborhood has been kind, they haven’t been able to help us much with actual clues, but very sweet, very supportive,” Deanne Koecher said. “For us to come to this big town – to us it seems a big town – far away, we kind of thought we would get this brusque kind of feeling, and we’re not, people are open, kind.”

For the family, the last two months since Steven disappeared have been difficult, especially at Christmas, but they have tried to keep busy searching, which helps them.

“The nights get very, very long,” Deanne Koecher said. “Sometimes I think, we really couldn’t be in this situation, we couldn’t be in a spot where a son has just disappeared, it’s just surreal.”

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