Can't restore/Install MacOS for Mid-2014 MacBook Pro

I've been trying for days to get this old MacBook up and running with no success:

MacBook Pro - Mid 2014

Model: A1502

8GB Ram / 256 GB SSD Storage

Not sure what OS was on there before

It was someone else's MacBook Pro I found abandoned in an office (not sure who) and I tried to wipe it completely to get a fresh restart using the Recovery mode, but now when I try to reboot to try to reinstall the OS software I get various error screens on restarting the mac.

I've tried every combination of startup key presses to get something to work but the only two things that seem to work have been two specific key combinations after pressing the power button. I've listed them all below with their results:

• Cmd-R, Opt-Cmd-R, & Shift-Opt-Cmd-R: A globe with a triangle and exclamation mark inside (!). Underneath that it says apple.com/support and under that it says -1005F
• Alt (Option): The startup manager comes up. It says Macintosh HD with an up arrow beneath it. Under that is a drop down box with text that says "Choose Network...".
  • Clicking the up arrow for Macintosh HD brings up a circle with a line through it. About every ten seconds it blinks an apple logo for a millisecond then goes back to a steady circle with a line through it.
  • Clicking the "Choose Network..." box opens a drop down menu with two options: an X or an ellipsis ... Clicking the X does nothing, but clicking the ellipsis brings up a separate page with two text boxes: the first has a Wifi signal to the left of it, and the second a Lock symbol. Under these two are two circle buttons: an X and a Check Mark. Clicking the X circle button brings the first page back up, the one with the Macintosh HD. No matter what I put in the Wifi text box or Lock box (Password I'm guessing) a spinning dial appears next to the Lock/password box and never goes away. Only the X button works at this point to bring the first page back up.
• Opt-Cmd-P-R (Reset PRAM): Nothing on screen while I hold this key combination for 20 seconds as the laptop chimes again and again. When I let go, a final chime sounds and then the circle with a line comes up.
• Shift: The circle with a line through it
• D, Opt-D: A globe with a triangle and exclamation mark inside (!). Underneath that it says apple.com/support and under that it says -1005D
• N, Opt-N: The circle with a line through it
• Cmd-S, Cmd-V: About 20 lines of code appear in the center of the screen. The last line reads: Error!! Could not find AFPS system volume handle. After a few seconds the screen goes to the circle with a line through it.
• T: A grey circle with a thunderbolt arrow going down. The symbol moves slowly across the screen.
• LCmd-LOpt-RShift-Pwr: The circle with a line through it
• Hold Pwr 10 secs, press and release the pwr button, press and hold Cmd-R: the apple logo appears, along with a progress bar. After about 2 mins a select Language screen appears, clicking the next arrow brings up Recovery mode. (Finally...but not really)

In recovery mode the macOS Utilities (Version 1.0 (327) window pops up with four options:

• • Restore From Time Machine Backup: clicking this brings up the Time Machine System Restore window. Clicking continue brings up the Select a Restore Source but it endlessly searches for a Time Machine backup (there are none)
  • Reinstall macOS: clicking this brings up the Install macOS High Sierra window. Clicking continue brings up a text box at the top that says "The recovery server could not be contacted." I've tried connecting to various Wifi connections at home and work with no change in this pop up text.

Side note: I can successfully connect to Wifi networks using the little icon at the top right of the screen.

• • Get Help Online: clicking this brings up a Safari window that connects to the internet (after connecting to a working Wifi network) and to the Recovery information page on apple's website.
  • Disk Utility: Clicking this opens up the Disk Utility window.
    • On the Left pane are two sections, the first has three items under the heading "Internal": APPLE SSD SD0256F Media; sub-category Container disk1; sub-category Macintosh HD. The second section header is "Disk Images" with: Apple disk image Media (eject); sub-category OS X Base System.
    • APPLE SSD SD0256F Media is 251GB --> Container disk1 is 250.79GB --> Macintosh HD is 250.79 GB
    • Apple disk image Media is 2.15GB --> OS X Base System is 2.15GB

There's more info for each of these items in the right pane (and when I click the "i" Info button) but I think this post is long enough already and I can provide more info as necessary.

One last thing: I did try using a bootable installer with a USB stick but it gave me the same error message as above when I selected the USB drive. So no luck there so far.

Any help getting this computer up and running would be awesome!