By Natalie Johnson

The Chronicle

The Thurston County Sheriff’s Office now believes a Rochester man missing since 2014 was murdered after recently getting its first real break in the case in several years.

“What I’m hoping is I want this to go out everywhere and I want this person of interest to become very nervous,” said Det. Frank Frawley, of the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office.

Frawley said investigators are not yet ready to charge their person of interest, and have not released his name.

Rochester resident Steven Billman, known as Steev-O, was last seen in Thurston County in January 2014.

He was reported missing several months later. Frawley said his family delayed reporting the disappearance because Billman was involved in the illegal marijuana industry. There was some suspicion that he was going to California.

Jessica Miller, Billman’s older sister, said her brother was spending time with a new group of people around the time he went missing.

“He would always check in with me every three months or so at least,” she said. “I knew when I didn’t seem him for a while something wasn’t right.”

Detectives investigated, but the case soon went cold, Frawley said.

“We figured because of who we was he just didn’t want to be contacted,” he said.

Billman was last seen driving a white 1998 Dodge Ram truck. It was that truck, more than two years later, that gave detectives a new lead in the case, Frawley said.

Late last year, his mother visited Frawley to talk about the case. Frawley decided to run the truck’s plate number once again and learned it was registered to another person.

“We had never been notified by anybody that anything had happened with the truck,” he said.

Detectives interviewed the new owner, who is now their person of interest.

“We just kind of followed the trail because it switched a lot of hands,” Frawley said.

Frawley said information from a number of witnesses points to the conclusion that Billman was murdered.

Miller said Billman’s family appreciate seeing progress in the case.

“We just hadn’t given up hope for finding him one way or another,” she said. “In our hearts we knew he had probably come across some bad ending but at the same time he deserves to be put to rest.”

Blood was found in the truck, he said. A sample has been sent to a crime lab to determine who or what it belonged to.

Frawley is looking for more information on the case and the person of interest.

“I want to get Steven’s remains, I want to know where they’re at,” he said.

To provide more information on the case, call Frawley at (360) 786-5599.