Divers return to Fox River to recover car belonging to missing woman Karen Schepers
By Darius Johnson, Todd Feurer
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ELGIN, Illinois (WBBM) — Investigators and divers are heading back to the Fox River in Elgin, Illinois, on Tuesday to recover a vehicle they believe belongs to Karen Schepers, a woman who disappeared 42 years ago.
Elgin police and the nonprofit Chaos Divers found the car in the river on Monday near the Slade Avenue boat launch using sonar technology.
Divers plan to return to the river around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday to begin work to remove the car from the river. The recovery process is expected to be extensive, including the use of drones and divers, and crews will be taking precautions to ensure both the safety of divers and the structural integrity of the car.
Police said they will coordinate the recovery effort with the nonprofit group Chaos Divers, the Elgin Fire Department, and the Kane County Coroner’s Office.
Elgin Police Chief Ana Lalley said once the car is removed from the water, officials with the Kane County Coroner’s Office will determine if any human remains are inside.
“As the recovery of the vehicle is made, 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. “There’s 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.”
Investigators believe Schepers might have driven into the water when she went missing. It was April 16, 1983, when the 23-year-old woman disappeared. She was last seen at a bar in Carpentersville at a party with her co-workers, and she never made it home.
After 42 years, investigators from the Elgin Police Department continued their search on Monday along the banks of the Fox River. A nonprofit group called Chaos Divers assisted using sonar technology.
After hours of searching, crews believe they located Schepers’ bright yellow 1980 Toyota Celica in the river. The car had Illinois license plate XP8919 — the same one as Schepers’ car.
Her brother said he remembers their father searching for her by plane after she went missing, but he doesn’t remember investigators doing as much as they are today to find his sister.
“There’s no good outcome to this, I don’t think, or not 100% good, but one outcome would be better than all the scenarios that I can imagine,” Gary Schepers said.
Gary said, regardless of what investigators find when they pull out the car, there is no good outcome in his sister’s case after 42 years.
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