• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
MENUMENU
MENUMENU
  • Home
  • About
    • Contact Us
    • FlaglerLive Board of Directors
    • Comment Policy
    • Mission Statement
    • Our Values
  • Live Calendar
  • Submit Obituary
  • Submit an Event
  • Support FlaglerLive
  • Advertise on FlaglerLive (386) 503-3808
  • Search Results

FlaglerLive

No Bull, no Fluff, No Smudges

MENUMENU
  • Flagler
    • Flagler County Commission
    • Beverly Beach
    • Economic Development Council
    • Flagler History
    • Mondex/Daytona North
    • The Hammock
    • Tourist Development Council
  • Palm Coast
    • Palm Coast City Council
    • Palm Coast Crime
  • Bunnell
    • Bunnell City Commission
    • Bunnell Crime
  • Flagler Beach
    • Flagler Beach City Commission
    • Flagler Beach Crime
  • Cops/Courts
    • Circuit & County Court
    • Florida Supreme Court
    • Federal Courts
    • Flagler 911
    • Fire House
    • Flagler County Sheriff
    • Flagler Jail Bookings
    • Traffic Accidents
  • Rights & Liberties
    • Fourth Amendment
    • First Amendment
    • Privacy
    • Second Amendment
    • Seventh Amendment
    • Sixth Amendment
    • Sunshine Law
    • Third Amendment
    • Religion & Beliefs
    • Human Rights
    • Immigration
    • Labor Rights
    • 14th Amendment
    • Civil Rights
  • Schools
    • Adult Education
    • Belle Terre Elementary
    • Buddy Taylor Middle
    • Bunnell Elementary
    • Charter Schools
    • Daytona State College
    • Flagler County School Board
    • Flagler Palm Coast High School
    • Higher Education
    • Imagine School
    • Indian Trails Middle
    • Matanzas High School
    • Old Kings Elementary
    • Rymfire Elementary
    • Stetson University
    • Wadsworth Elementary
    • University of Florida/Florida State
  • Economy
    • Jobs & Unemployment
    • Business & Economy
    • Development & Sprawl
    • Leisure & Tourism
    • Local Business
    • Local Media
    • Real Estate & Development
    • Taxes
  • Commentary
    • The Conversation
    • Pierre Tristam
    • Diane Roberts
    • Guest Columns
    • Byblos
    • Editor's Blog
  • Culture
    • African American Cultural Society
    • Arts in Palm Coast & Flagler
    • Books
    • City Repertory Theatre
    • Flagler Auditorium
    • Flagler Playhouse
    • Flagler Youth Orchestra
    • Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra
    • Palm Coast Arts Foundation
    • Special Events
  • Elections 2022
    • Amendments and Referendums
    • Presidential Election
    • Campaign Finance
    • City Elections
    • Congressional
    • Constitutionals
    • Courts
    • Governor
    • Polls
    • Voting Rights
  • Florida
    • Federal Politics
    • Florida History
    • Florida Legislature
    • Florida Legislature
    • Ron DeSantis
  • Health & Society
    • Flagler County Health Department
    • Ask the Doctor Column
    • Health Care
    • Health Care Business
    • Covid-19
    • Children and Families
    • Medicaid and Medicare
    • Mental Health
    • Poverty
    • Violence
  • All Else
    • Daily Briefing
    • Americana
    • Obituaries
    • News Briefs
    • Weather and Climate
    • Wildlife

Body Found in Marsh in Back of House Where Man Was Reported Missing in December

January 11, 2013 | FlaglerLive | 14 Comments

Flagler County Sheriff Jim Manfre with members of his top staff at 16 Covington Lane this afternoon, where a body was discovered, in th marshes, behind the house. (c FlaglerLive)
Flagler County Sheriff Jim Manfre with members of his top staff at 16 Covington Lane this afternoon, where a body was discovered, in th marshes, behind the house. (c FlaglerLive)

Last Updated: 10:31 p.m.

Just before Christmas, the room-mate and long-time friend of the owner at 16 Covington Lane went missing, while the owner was away. The missing man, in his 50s, never turned up.

On Friday afternoon, the neighbors, at 16 Covington, called in the report of a dead body in the marsh behind the two-level house at 18 Covington. It is the body of a white man in his 40s or 50s. The body has not been identified, but it is in an “advanced state of decomposition,” according to Flagler County Sheriff Jim Manfre, who was at the scene with his undersheriff and other members of his top staff at the end of an unusually hectic week on the police beat, that included Manfre’s inauguration.

There were no indications of a weapon anywhere near the individual, nor, as yet, of any trauma to the body. But the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s crime lab team arrived at 4:30 p.m. and has only now began investigating the scene. The scene had been roped off, and restricted to very few people–including the sheriff–before the arrival of the crime lab, to prevent compromising the area.

The sheriff’s office is terming the death “suspicious.” But there is as yet no indication, other than circumstances, that the body of the man is that of the individual reported missing.

“We basically secured the area,” Manfre said, moments before FDLE arrived at the scene. “We have not examined the body. We just viewed it to ensure that the person was, in fact, deceased. It’s in a marshy area, a swampy area.” Manfre himself, he said, did not get close to the body to avoid contaminating the area.

“Nothing to indicate at this point that a weapon was used in the death, or that it was anything other than a natural death,” Manfre said.

Manfre explained how the body was discovered: “The neighbor saw vultures, I believe, flying over, sort of looked over, apparently there’s a path behind her house I guess that’s used by neighbors to go out into the wetlands. She went out and smelled–if you go out, it’s a very significant odor–and she called 911.”

The smell suggests that the body had been there for some time. He was reported missing before Christmas. “We’re not even sure of the identification. We have a report of a missing person of someone in mid-December, we have not identified if that’s actually the person who is deceased in the marsh. We just have a supposition. We have a missing person from this particular home that someone was missing from middle of December.”

The body was “in some state of decay,” Manfre said, posing somewhat of a challenge for immediate identification.

It would be many hours before the body was to be removed and taken to the medical examiner’s office.

The house is owner by Daniel and Sandra Kochevar, who have reportedly gone through a divorce recently. The couple was going through foreclosure proceedings before Flagler County Circuit Judge Dennis Craig.

The missing man was Daniel Kochevar’s roomate, and a friend of his for years, according to a friend of Daniel Kochevar’s. A neighbor said the house had unusual activity of the sort not common in residential neighborhoods–lots of vehicle traffic, many cars parked out front, in and out activity. “It’s been a weird situation for a long time,” an ex-member of the Palm Coast Planning Board, who stopped and talked with Manfre as he was driving by, said of the house, mirroring what a neighbor had said.

A call was placed to Flagler County’s 911 center the afternoon of Dec. 31 to report the missing man. Kochevar said he reported the man missing. According to 911’s transcript of the conversation (the names of those reporting the case, and of the missing man, are redacted from the transcript the sherif’s office made available this evening) Kochevar told the dispatcher he had last talked to the missing man two weeks previously, and that the missing man had been looking for a place to live. In that call, the missing man’s age is placed at 59 or 60. Kochevar told authorities he had not had contact with the missing man since Dec. 17, and that he is “not suicidal and did not have any mental conditions that he is aware of,” according to the transcript.

An autopsy of the body is scheduled for Monday. As of late Friday evening, the sheriff’s office had no publicly available identification. Even if it had been able to positively identify the body, it would not release the identity before notifying next of kin.

Joseph Alvarez is a friend of Daniel Kochevar’s, who lived with Kochevar’s son-in-law in Palm Coast’s F Section. “He’s been actually selling the house. He’s moving to [South Florida], and he had a roommate for, I don’t know how long, they’ve been friends for over 20 years,” Alvarez said. “He wasn’t sure if he was going to be moving or not while he was gone to [South Florida], getting established. So he asked me to come and help with the pool, clean the pool. But after just a little shy of a month ago, the other tenant wasn’t around. So we started inquiring to other people that he might have known: have you seen him? And there’s nothing. His birthday is December 25th. So nobody heard from him. Nothing.”


Alvarez appeared aware of the missing-person report, which Lt. Robert Webber, the sheriff’s office spokesman, later said was not an actual report, but a be-on-the-lookout notice.

“The owner actually didn’t get back until just around New Year’s. So I mean there’s that big window of opportunity,” Alvarez said. The owner had left a couple of days before Christmas, around Dec. 15 or 16, Alvarez said. Kochevar, he said, “had built the place many years ago, then he’d gotten divorced, so he had a couple a friend, his friend, Denny, move in, and they’ve been roommates for a long time. There’s been a couple of other people here and there. I don’t know the extent of all the information.”

Denny’s last name is not known. Only that he disappeared some days before Christmas–and that neighbors would see him, even in December, biking in the neighborhood, going to the BP station and convenience store nearby.

“The owner’s daughter and son-in-law left for Indiana, where she’s from,” Alvarez said. “Her father, the owner, and her, they grew up, they went back to go see her mother for the holidays, so they left the week before Christmas and came back Christmas night. After that, there was no contact with Denny whatsoever. I mean, went straight to voicemail, I mean, nothing.”

Denny, Alvarez said, did not want to go down to South Florida. Denny worked construction and remodeling work. A neighbor said he’d worked on his lawnmower, and was seen working on cars out front. Alvarez himself did not know him well, other than going to a couple of car races together, though he said Denny was “very talkative, hard to understand, Bayou boy”–that is, an Alabaman who’d spent some time in the Bayous.

Covington lane has been the scene of a succession of unusual events, and some crime, over the past year. The house at 94 Covington was the scene of the shooting death of Stefanie Merrill by her husband, in a bathroom in the house, as William Merrill was training an AK-47 at his wife’s chest, thinking it was not loaded. He pulled the trigger and killed her. That was last February. Merrill was sentenced to 25 years in prison in October. That month, the house at 105 Covington was the scene of a brazen burglary, caught on the homeowner’s surveillance video system. That video helped lead to the arrest of the suspects, after a car chase all the way to St. Johns County.

Flagler County Sheriff Jim Manfre, left, speaking with members of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's crime lab soon after the unit arrived at the scene Friday afternoon. Undersheriff Rick Staly and Jack Bisland, the head of investigative services, are to the right. (FlaglerLive)
Flagler County Sheriff Jim Manfre, left, speaking with members of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s crime lab soon after the unit arrived at the scene Friday afternoon. Undersheriff Rick Staly and Jack Bisland, the head of investigative services, are to the right. (FlaglerLive)
Print Friendly, PDF & Email
You and your neighbors collectively read our articles about 25,000 times each day (that's not a typo) with up to 65,000 daily reads during emergencies like hurricanes. Flagler County residents rely on FlaglerLive for essential, bold and analytical journalism that cannot be found anywhere else. But we depend on your support. Please join our December fund drive! If you donate the cost of a scoop of ice cream, you will be helping us continue to provide comprehensive local news and honest, serious journalism for our community. If you can donate more or become a monthly donor, even better. Donations are tax deductible since FlaglerLive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit news organization. Donate by clicking anywhere in this box. Think of it as buying a scoop, in every sense of the term!  
All donors' identities are kept confidential and anonymous.
   

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. confidential says

    January 12, 2013 at 8:11 am

    Finally we see our Sheriff and Undersheriff present in ongoing new investigations from the start.

    Reply
    • johnny taxpayer says

      January 12, 2013 at 6:30 pm

      You expect Manfre to pull a Colombo and solve this himself? Thats not what we’re paying him for!

      Reply
  2. Anonymous says

    January 12, 2013 at 10:32 am

    Only problem is our Sheriff has no law enforcement credentials

    Reply
  3. confidential says

    January 12, 2013 at 11:17 am

    @ Anomymous. This time with the absence of witch hunting…Manfre’s higher standards and plenty more credentials than Fleming ever had, will show you his success, wether you would like to see it and accept it or not.

    Reply
    • Reality Check says

      January 14, 2013 at 7:04 am

      @ Confidential : Manfre was a joke and will continue to be a joke; He has ZERO law enforcement skills. Please do not credit him with something he is not, at best he was a mediocre attorney. He ran for Sherriff because he needed a job that paid more. He is an egomaniac, you will see him anywhere he might get his picture in the paper or possibly get on TV. Get your facts right, Fleming was decorated law enforcement officer for many years in NJ before he came here. We do not have to accept it, he is a once proven loser who will serve one term, he has a proven track record of no cooperation among cities, and other agencies. Like stated during his last term, he needs to go, and no doubt after a year or two this same song will ring out, his ego will destroy him again.

      Reply
  4. Anonymous says

    January 12, 2013 at 2:14 pm

    What is going on in this neighborhood? Is it the economy? Money problems pushing folks to the brink? I thought this area was highly sought after??

    Reply
  5. RNYPD says

    January 12, 2013 at 4:06 pm

    I have to tell you, this little news outlet is nearly always the first on scene. Not sure about how independent it is yet but it is very efficient.

    Reply
  6. Stu Pedaso says

    January 12, 2013 at 4:53 pm

    It is too bad Denny did not get to see Alabama win the title game. Roll Tide

    Reply
  7. annonymous says

    January 12, 2013 at 5:15 pm

    People, this article was not about who is in office as sheriff, it is about a man found deceased with suspicion. Focus on the facts. This is not a political article.

    Reply
  8. Madison says

    January 12, 2013 at 10:08 pm

    Thank you! This article isn’t about law enforcement. Lets focus on the real issue here. Shouldn’t we be more concerned with a possible murder in our town? Not to mentioned a possible murderer?

    Reply
  9. Anonymous says

    January 12, 2013 at 10:50 pm

    sounds like the guy killed himself

    Reply
    • fool says

      January 14, 2013 at 5:02 am

      yeah just like the family in hammock dunes who zip tied and bagged them selves right ?

      Reply
  10. Anonymous says

    January 16, 2013 at 1:46 pm

    There is a murderer on the loose! Possibly still living in the house down the street and we can’t gett answers!!!

    Reply
  11. iceman says

    September 23, 2013 at 11:07 pm

    I grew up with Dennie & we were brothers thru high school & after he returned from California…He was Great guy that had a tough road….he had an infectous laugh & was a very good running back in high school….He was a very funny & caring guy who loved life so I will say ( even though I hadn’t seen in the last 20 yrs ) I wouldn’t say he committed suicide…careers & life took us in different directions but I inquired & thought of my FRIEND often…God Bless Dennie !!! My Friend ,My Brother

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Advertisers

  • grand living realty
  • politis matovina attorneys for justice personal injury law auto truck accidents
  • WNZF Creekside Festival

Recent Comments

  • Skibum on At Root of Palm Coast’s Affordable Housing Crisis: We Got Our Own. Screw the Rest. 
  • Land of no turn signals says on At Root of Palm Coast’s Affordable Housing Crisis: We Got Our Own. Screw the Rest. 
  • PEGGY MRUS on Harry Kuleski Jr. Garlanded in Awards, Including Lifetime Achievement and Bunnel Police’s Medal of Merit
  • Dave on At Root of Palm Coast’s Affordable Housing Crisis: We Got Our Own. Screw the Rest. 
  • Paul on At Root of Palm Coast’s Affordable Housing Crisis: We Got Our Own. Screw the Rest. 
  • Celia M Pugliese on Palm Coast Council’s Pontieri Makes Startling Move to Annex Malacompra Park: ‘Our Citizens Are Entitled to Their Own Beach’
  • DaleL on Covid Deaths in Florida Near 91,000
  • JimboXYZ on At Root of Palm Coast’s Affordable Housing Crisis: We Got Our Own. Screw the Rest. 
  • No light Tim on Up to 210 Homes Approved on Old Kings Road South of SR100 But Polo Club West Neighbors Have Worries
  • JC on At Root of Palm Coast’s Affordable Housing Crisis: We Got Our Own. Screw the Rest. 
  • Dennis C Rathsam on At Root of Palm Coast’s Affordable Housing Crisis: We Got Our Own. Screw the Rest. 
  • M.J. Shim on Building Plans for BJ’s Wholesale Club, Gas Station and Several Stores on SR100 Clear County Board
  • BLINDSPOTTING on Up to 210 Homes Approved on Old Kings Road South of SR100 But Polo Club West Neighbors Have Worries
  • Cross That Bridge on ‘Faith’ Bridge Over SR100 Goes from Maligned to Acclaimed as It Opens, But in the Absence of Its Champion
  • Stretchem on At Root of Palm Coast’s Affordable Housing Crisis: We Got Our Own. Screw the Rest. 
  • Bee on At Root of Palm Coast’s Affordable Housing Crisis: We Got Our Own. Screw the Rest. 

Log in