This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2010, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

T he last image of Steven Koecher is preserved on a surveillance videotape taken from a home in Henderson, Nev.

Parked in a cul-de-sac, he gets out of his car and walks purposefully past the side of a neighbor's house, then in front, and then out to the street, heading for another house. It's six minutes before noon on Dec. 13, 2009.

"He appeared to be going to an appointment," says Steven's father, Rolf Koecher, "and he disappeared out of our lives. That's the last real clue that ever existed."

It would be four days before Rolf and his wife, Deanne, got word of Steven's abandoned car in that cul-de-sac. And that sparked a months-long, ever widening search that would send friends and family to Henderson, Las Vegas, the deserts and red-rock country of southern Utah, a vast golf course threaded with deep ravines.

Anything to find Steven, then 30 and living in St. George. He was active in his LDS ward there and was a Big Brother, Junior Jazz coach and a Good Samaritan who, on one of his last sightings, was helping out some shivering girls outside the St. George Temple.

"Steven loves to be out and about doing things," says his cousin, KC Naegle. "I love being with him and his siblings. They are all so funny and they just feed off each other and laugh and laugh."

But, she says, "He has a deep side, too. He loves to express himself through music … very heartfelt songs whether he's just playing the guitar or singing as well."

Rolf, Deanne and their family and friends spent week after week in Las Vegas, riding the public bus system, peering into faces aimed at slot machines, scouring airports, bus depots, homeless shelters and the International House of Pancakes.

A cousin persuaded them to put Steven's photo on milk cartons. Television stations aired be-on-the-lookout alerts. On one ride through Vegas, Deanne thought she saw Steven, and Rolf jumped out of the car and ran full-tilt toward a stranger.

Police in St. George, Henderson and Vegas were at first reluctant to get involved — the sad truth is, people step away from their lives every day — but ultimately detectives launched investigations in all three cities. The Koechers put up a reward.

"We wanted to know if he was OK, or in a hospital or jail, even a morgue," Rolf says. "We were hoping to find him, but afraid he'd be there. We were grateful he wasn't, but we were still without a clue."

Christmas was coming, and Rolf and Deanna went home to Bountiful, where Rolf is the editor of the Davis County Clipper. (Steven once worked for The Salt Lake Tribune.) It was the first time Steven hadn't come home for the holiday.

"If he could have been there, he would have been," his father says.

Steven had served a mission to Brazil, and I asked his dad if his passport was missing. Rolf says he couldn't bring himself to look through Steven's things, but someone else did, and the passport was there.

Investigators checked all flight manifests around the time of Steven's disappearance, cracked into his laptop, read his journal. Nothing.

"We still can't bring ourselves to read it," Rolf says.

Monday was Steven's 31st birthday — again, the first time he hasn't been home for the day, Rolf says. "It's difficult for my wife today. It's one of those markers you run into."

Two of the couple's sons were bringing their families to their parents' home, not wanting them to be alone.

I asked Rolf what he might say if he could speak to his son, and he echoed Deanne's words: "Steven, if you're out there, come home, no matter what. Always come home."

Peg McEntee is a columnist. Reach her at pegmcentee@sltrib.com.