Police: FD divers found what turned out to be Karen Schepers’ car in Fox River in 2022, but did not investigate

By Andrew Ramos, Adam Harrington

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    ELGIN, Illinois (WBBM) — Elgin police on Wednesday said three years ago the city’s fire department sent divers out after a fisherman found an unusual object in the river — and found a small vehicle, but did not investigate.

That car was pulled from the Fox River with skeletal remains inside on Tuesday, and was found to have belonged to a woman who disappeared nearly 42 years ago.

Karen Schepers was seen for the last time on April 16, 1983, at a work party at a bar in Carpentersville. She was the last one to leave, witnesses told Elgin police at the time, and she was never seen again.

Elgin police on Wednesday evening said while they were pulling Schepers’ canary yellow 1980 Toyota Celica out of the river near the Slade Avenue boat launch, a man came up and told police about a discovery he had made in 2022.

The man said he had been fishing in the river near the site where the car was eventually found, and sonar equipment he was using detected an unusual object, police said.

The man said he called the Elgin Fire Department, which sent out a dive team. The divers deployed a remote-controlled underwater apparatus with a camera and sonar technology to probe the water, and the apparatus found what seemed to be a small vehicle, police said.

A diver then went into the water and made physical contact with a tire, police said. The small diameter of the tire led the fire department to conclude that the vehicle was either an all-terrain vehicle or a utility-task vehicle, and that was as far as the investigation went, police said.

Elgin police said they had no idea about what the dive team did until Tuesday.

“When this information came to my attention, I immediately met with Elgin Police Chief Lalley to discuss the incident,” Elgin Fire Chief Robb Cagann said in a news release. “Upon careful review, I concluded that more should have been done in 2022, including a comprehensive underwater examination of the vehicle.”

Cagann said in the release that fire department dive team leadership has changed since 2022, and the department will ensure that such a failure to take action and communicate will not happen again.

Elgin police Chief Ana Lalley said Cagann apologized to on behalf of the Elgin Fire Department, saying the handling of the discovery of the car in 2022 did not meet their standards.

“While we are disappointed by the initial oversight,” Lalley said in the release, “I am incredibly proud of the extraordinary collaborative efforts that have unfolded in recent days. The work of the Elgin Police Department, Chaos Divers and all involved parties demonstrates our unwavering commitment to finding answers for Karen Schepers and her family. We will continue to pursue this case with the same dedication and focus that has brought us this far.”

Karen Schepers’ brother says family is back to waiting game

Meanwhile, Gary Schepers said he is grateful to the Elgin Police Department for their efforts to bring the family closure, and thankful for the community that has rallied around him during this difficult time as they wait for the bones to be definitively identified.

“So today is kind of back to the old familiar waiting game,” he said. “And I have 40 years’ experience with that.”

Tuesday, Elgin police and other officials pulled Schepers’ canary yellow 1980 Toyota Celica out of the Fox River after a long and complex operation with the help of nonprofit group Chaos Divers. There were skeletal remains inside.

The Scheers family is in disbelief, but have been told positive identification could take weeks.

“What the detectives said was if they don’t find, like, teeth or something that match to existing records, I may have to go and give them DNA,” Gary said.

The Schepers family has maintained that the case was never properly investigated, and said former leadership at the Elgin Police Department failed to do their job.

But now, Gary Schepers said he is astounded with the effort by local law enforcement to solve the cold case.

“They have been so thoughtful in dealing with my mom,” he said. “I mean, they went back and looked up the phases of the moon to see how dark it was that night – who would’ve thought of that? Like I said, they are not the kind of cops I’m used to dealing with.”

The family said that they’ve already waited 40 years, so they can hold out a little longer while the remains are identified to get this closure.

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