Karen Schepers cold case: Skeletal remains found in missing woman's car pulled from Fox River

ELGIN, Ill. - More than forty years after an Elgin woman went missing without a trace, a stunning discovery could be the answer to her mysterious disappearance.

Officials confirmed late Tuesday night that skeletal remains were found in Karen Schepers’ submerged vehicle, which was recovered from the Fox River hours earlier. Elgin Police Chief Ana Lalley says it will take several weeks to confirm whether the skeletal remains belong to Schepers.

The development marks a major break in the decades-old cold case, which was recently reopened by the Elgin Police Department’s newly established Cold Case Unit.

Karen Schepers, 23, was last seen on April 16, 1983, leaving a Carpentersville bar.

On Monday, a dive team was tasked with searching the water for clues about her disappearance. Soon, they located her yellow 1980 Toyota Celica.

The car removal process began around 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, where the dive site was considered a crime scene with access open only to police and fire personnel.

It took several hours to carefully remove the vehicle from the river, ensuring that any evidence inside remained intact. The car was towed and processed off-site by investigators.

"It is important to stress that this is the beginning of what is still considered an open and active investigation with many questions still to be answered," Lalley said on Tuesday. "There is no doubt that only through these combined efforts, the Schepers family will finally be able to get answers that they have been searching for over the past 40 years, and hopefully, a sense of peace."

Cold Case Breakthrough

What we know:

The Elgin Police Department confirmed late Monday night that Schepers’ vehicle was found submerged in the river near the Slade Avenue Park boat launch. The discovery was made by an independent dive team, Chaos Divers, working alongside the Elgin police and fire departments.

Investigators identified the vehicle by matching its license plates to records from the missing woman’s case.

Chaos Divers is a nonprofit search and rescue organization based downstate—in Harrisburg, Illinois.

"To hear they had found the car was actually shocking," said Jessica Kitzinger, who lives in Elgin. "I heard there was a podcast about this, and that’s what sort of piqued my interest because it’s so close to home."

The discovery has left community members, who visited the site of the discovery on Tuesday, stunned.

"Looking at these houses, that nobody even knew the car was there and we go by the Fox River all the time, and who knows what you’ll find in there now," Kitzinger said.

The search for Karen Schepers

The backstory:

Schepers was last seen around 1 a.m. on April 16, 1983, after leaving PM Bentley’s, a bar located in the Meadowdale Shopping Center in Carpentersville. She was there with co-workers and according to police, she was the last in her group to leave the establishment.

She never made it home. Both Schepers and her vehicle, a yellow 1980 Toyota Celica with red accent stripes, went missing without a trace—until now.

"The department reopened this case this year and it has been highlighted by our Cold Case detectives through our podcast, titled, Somebody Knows Something," Lalley said.

As the case was re-examined, old and new theories were explored, including the idea that Schepers might have ended up in the Fox River.

Detectives revealed during one of their podcast episodes that records show at the time of Schepers’ disappearance, the water was at a historically high level.

The Elgin Police Department teamed up with Chaos Divers to comb through the river for evidence. Using state-of-the-art sonar equipment, they made the incredible find on Monday.

FOX 32 cameras captured them pulling Schepers’ license plate out of the water where they confirmed the match.

"At a location northwest of the Slade Avenue boat launch, a vehicle was identified. A diver then conducted a further assessment of the vehicle and was able to locate a license plate, XP8919, which matched the license plate of the 1980 Toyota Celica," Lalley said on Monday.

On Tuesday night, following the vehicle’s removal and preliminary processing, Lalley shared the following update:

"At this time, the Kane County Coroner’s office has confirmed through a forensic pathologist the presence of skeletal human remains that were located inside the vehicle. The next steps will be to compare DNA samples or dental records of Karen to the remains located in the vehicle to confirm a positive identification of the remains that were found. This process could take up to several weeks, and notification will be made to the public once this process is complete.

"As we conclude this part of the investigation, I would like to once again extend my sincere appreciation to Chaos Divers whose expertise was instrumental in the discovery and recovery of Karen’s vehicle. I would also like to thank the Elgin Fire Department, Redmon’s Towing, and the Kane County Coroner’s Office for their support and resources during the operation. I would also like to thank the members of the police department for their unwavering professionalism displayed today, I am very proud of their exceptional work and of Detective Andrew Houghton and Detective Matt Vartanian of our cold case unit, whose tenacious dedication to this case helped bring us to where we are today."

Karen was one of nine siblings and attended high school in Sycamore, Illinois.

FOX 32 Chicago connected with some of her relatives on Tuesday, who share that until more information is provided, they will be holding off on offering a statement.

What we don't know:

It’s still unclear how Schepers’ vehicle ended up in the river, and whether foul play is suspected.

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