Frank Chaminade Hoebich, 38, was found wrapped in a rolled-up carpet on January 9, 2000, in a remote area of the Mojave Desert 67 miles west of Las Vegas. An autopsy determined he had been shot twice, including once in the chest with a 9mm bullet, and had likely been dead at least a week before discovery. Hoebich had moved from New Jersey to Lakewood, Colorado, in March 1999 to work in sales and marketing for a company called LectraLite that sold battery-operated lighters.

Hoebich was last seen on December 31, 1999, with business partners Grant Rankin Anderson and James Tex Stansberry at two Lakewood bars. Investigators found size 13 shoe prints near the carpet that were later matched to shoes recovered from Stansberry’s car, and matching dusty prints on Hoebich’s abandoned rental van. A carpet tag showed the rug had been purchased in Denver on either January 3 or January 5, 2000. A grand jury declined to indict Anderson or Stansberry, though DNA from the shoes was matched to Stansberry in 2008. The case remains unsolved and open.

Did anyone in the area know Hoebich, his partners, or the LectraLite business in late 1999?