Karen Schepers's Fate Determined After 42 Years

Karen Schepers vanished in 1983 after celebrating a work promotion with coworkers at a bar in Carpentersville, IL, around 1 am on April 16, 1983.Schepers celebrated a work promotion.Schepers celebrated a work promotion (and/or the completion of a recent work project) with about 20 coworkers. Schepers worked as a computer programmer at First Chicago Bank Card in Elgin, IL, and took classes at Elgin Community College. She joined a hula hoop contest.Schepers participated in a hula hoop contest.Schepers stayed at the bar while her colleagues left for the night.

Schepers drove a short distance back to her apartment in the 300 block of Lovell Street in Elgin, but she never reached home.She never made it home.Family and friends spent over 40 years trying to solve her disappearance.

Police searched Schepers's apartment. They found her clothes, cash, and the title to her car. After vanishing in 1983, Schepers's Social Security card and bank account remained unused. Police could not find her distinct, bright yellow 1980 Toyota Celica, which drove the night she went missing.

Shortly before Schepers's car and remains were found, her brother, Gary, told police that they thought Schepers had run away.Schepers ran away.Gary said police thought she fought with her boyfriend and left. She just took off. He thought she would return.

Schepers was unofficially engaged but ended the engagement two weeks before she vanished. Her ex-fiancéSchepers was at a payphone and crying. After she finished, I asked her, ‘Karen, are you okay?’ She said no. She was sad because her boyfriend would not come out and party with her. was quickly ruled out as a suspect. Schepers invited him to the bar that night, but he declined for an early work day. A coworker, Jane, later remembered the evening:

Schepers was at the payphone crying. After finishing, I asked her, ‘Karen, are you okay?’ She said no. She was sad her boyfriend would not come to party with her.

The Elgin Police Department reopened Schepers's case in 2024 with a podcast calledSomebody Knows Something. The podcast offered several theories about Schepers's disappearance. One theory suggested her car sank in water. The podcast showed no record of a water search, even though Schepers went missing near the Fox River. Gary Scheper recalled on the podcast, “The only search I know of that was done in 1983 was my dad, an airline pilot, who rented a plane and flew over the area, hoping to spot her yellow car.”

Schepers's sister, Susan, and her 90-year-old mother, Elizabeth Paulson, spoke on the podcast. Paulson said of her daughter's disappearance, “You do not feel ready to move on until you fix this. So you are still waiting for something to happen.” Paulson stayed in the same house for decades and did not even paint it in case Schepers came back.

Even more frustratingly, someone was fishing in the area in 2022Sonar equipment showed an odd object in the Fox River, prompting a call to the Elgin Fire Department. A team found what looked like a vehicle underwater. The Elgin Fire Department dismissed the object as an ATV, skipping further investigation—a mistake that would become clear in 2025.

On March 24, 2025, nearly 42 years after Karen Schepers disappeared, her yellow Toyota Celica came out of the Fox River. Sonar technology and Chaos Divers found the vehicle. The Kane County Coroner reported skeletal remains, believed to be Schepers's, were inside the car. Forensic testing now seeks Schepers's death cause.

Though Schepers's location is known, her family lacks closure.The family does not have closure."It raises more questions than it answers them," Gary Schepers told the media. "I wish they looked in the river and found her car 42 years ago," he added.

Police heard an account from Schepers's coworker, Jane, only after her remains were found.Police heard an account from Schepers's coworker, Jane.Jane told police that she saw Schepers getting into her car alone that night.

She was in the parking lot to get into her car, and I saw she was still upset. I told her, ‘Karen, please be careful going home. Make sure that you’re safe,’ and I saw her the next business day. She smiled, waved, and said, ‘Thank you.’

Jane worked in a different department at the company, so the police did not list her as someone to talk to.