When 53-year-old Mike Stevens recently went missing, his brother filed a report with Walkerton police. How Stevens was ultimately found is causing a lot of pain for those who loved him.
Warsaw police confirm that Stevens was found dead in his car July 27, parked in the visitor lot of Kosciusko Lutheran Hospital. Officials say they don’t know when he died but it could have been at least three weeks before he was found.
His longtime friend Brian Nicodemus spoke about receiving the news.
“The devastating part of the news is to learn that your long-time buddy was there for so long with nobody noticing," Nicodemus says. "In a very public place, nobody walked by, nobody checked on it.”
Nicodemus says he met Stevens in 1994 in Rochester where they both grew up and they quickly became best friends.
”His heart was so big, he would be the first guy you would call for help. Everybody’s got a long list of friends but if you really needed someone to give you the shirt off your back, that friends list usually shortens up pretty quick. But with that being said, Mike also was extremely proud and did not want to take other people’s help like he would give it to you.”
Nicodemus says that despite their efforts, the friend group lost touch with Stevens in recent years. He says Stevens became isolated and depressed after his mother, Penny Barnes, died in 2019.
“She wasn’t that old and she had battled cancer for years and he took care of her, and then when she was gone, we noticed a significant change in his contact, his behavior. Wouldn’t return calls, wouldn’t return texts. But he did have good contact with his brother. Not every day. Periodically. He’d kind of go for a week or so, then he’d just show up. And so, we’re really not sure what was going through his mind when you get into places like that but obviously we were worried about him.”
Stevens alternated between staying with his brother John in LaPorte County and sleeping in his car. John had filed a missing persons report with Walkerton police before another friend decided to check the Kosciusko Lutheran parking lot on July 27.
Nicodemus says the friend knew there’s a trail near that parking lot that Stevens and his mother would often walk during her cancer battle, so they wondered if he might have felt drawn to the spot.
Kosciusko County Coroner Tyler Huffer says Stevens was sitting in the driver’s seat when he was found, in “advanced stages of decomposition.”
Huffer says they know from the hospital’s surveillance video that Stevens’ burgundy Nissan Maxima was parked there for at least three weeks before he was found. To learn his cause of death, Huffer says he’s awaiting the results of toxicology testing and an autopsy that are being done at the Northeast Indiana Forensic Center in Fort Wayne.
Nicodemus says Stevens had a history of heart problems but never used illegal drugs.
I asked Huffer whether he was surprised that no one ever noticed Stevens.
“The windows were very tinted so it would be hard for someone to see," Huffer said. "You know, people these days don’t always … aren’t aware of their surroundings, per se. More people are private anymore.”
Warsaw Police Officer Chris Francis, the department’s public information officer, spoke with me about Stevens while on patrol this week. I asked him if he was surprised that hospital security didn’t notice Stevens’ car.
“I can’t speak to what their security does so I don’t know if KCH patrols the parking lots or what exactly their protocol is for vehicles that have been parked out there for an extended period," Francis said.
A spokesman for the hospital’s owner, Fort Wayne-based Lutheran Health Network, declined our interview request.
Nicodemus says he’s not interested in criticizing the hospital or bystanders. His message is for people suffering from depression, especially men.
”If you or someone you know is battling depression that deep, not that we didn’t ask and beg him to get help, but don’t be too proud to get help," Nicodemus says. "Guys are inherently bad about, ‘Hey are you doing OK?’ ‘I’m fine.’ And you’re not fine. It’s OK to not be fine. Go get some help. Get some therapy. See a doctor. Because the end result, not desirable for anybody, and especially those who are left behind.”
