Human remains were found in a car of a missing woman who disappeared 42 years ago and solve a mystery that has been haunting the area for decades.
Karen Schepers, 23, who was last seen an evening out with colleagues in Elgin, Illinois, a suburb outside Chicago on April 16, 1983.
The Elgin police announced on Monday that they had found Karen's yellow Toyota Celica from 1980, buried in Fox River.
Researchers then announced that they had restored skeleton -like remains of the vehicle that will now undergo DNA tests, which could last a few weeks.
An image shows that the poorly affected car is hoisted out of the water on Tuesday, his yellow paint hardly visibly visible under decades of dirt.
“We pushed a brick wall for 42 years, and now it starts to give it,” Gary Schepers, one of Karen's eight brothers and sisters, told ABC7.
'It adds more questions than it answers. The only search I know that was done in 1983 was that my father, who was a pilot, rented a plane and flew over the area, hoping that he could spot her yellow car. '
The vehicle was first located near a boat launch using Sonar before a diver found the car and the license plate, which matched Schepers.
Human remains were found in a car of a missing woman who disappeared more than 40 years ago
Karen Schepers, 23, disappeared without a track on April 16, 1983, after she went to a bar with colleagues
The Elgin Police Department announced on Monday that they had found Karen's Yellow Toyota Celica from 1980, buried in Fox River
“I wish they looked in the river and found her car 42 years ago,” Gary added.
Police chef Ana Lalley said in a statement that the investigation is still open and that the recovery process is expected to take some time.
“As the recovery of the vehicle is made, it is important to emphasize that this is the start of what is still considered an open and active investigation with many questions that still have to be answered,” said Lalley in a media update.
“While we continue to investigate this case, we remain steadfast in our determination to give answers and close the Van Karen family.”
A renewed interest in the case came last year when detectives Andrew Houghton and Matthew Vartanian Karen's disappearance revise for a podcast entitled Somebody Knows Something.
Since the podcast was launched, the Department has received tips from the community with additional information about Karen's disappearance.
The Saga started on April 16, 1983, when the young woman ventured for a night in the city with her colleagues.
Karen was last seen in a bar around 1:00 am before she disappeared. There were no observations of her and no indications about what happened to her.
Authorities found the vehicle and confirmed the license plate at Karen's car, but the police chief warned the public that it could take days to discover the car properly
Karen was only 23 years old and had just bought a new yellow Toyota Celica before she disappeared
Very little evidence was discovered at the time of her disappearance and suspects who were viewed to were quickly excluded.
Investigators discovered that Karen had called her fiancée, Terry Schultz, at a certain moment in the night and asked him to come to the bar.
He rejected her offer that resulted in an argument. Terry was investigated as a suspect, but he worked with the police and succeeded in a lie detector test.
'In many cases you have a body that has been found or a vehicle. In this case there is none of them, “said detective Vartanian de Daily Herald.
“We don't have a body, we don't have a car, we don't have a crime scene.”
The detectives investigate several theories, including that Karen accidentally drove into the river after leaving the bar.
Karen's credit cards and bank statements were never touched after she had disappeared, so that researchers suspect that she has not deliberately disappeared.
However, the boot launch where the Toyota was located was far from the route she had taken home from the bar.
The police announced on Monday that they finally established Karen's vehicle in a river with the help of advanced Sonar technology and are planning to remove it on Tuesday afternoon
A podcast launched by detectives at the Elgin Police Department has aroused a renewed interest in the Karen case
Detectives Andrew Houghton (left) and Matthew Vartanian Re -investigation Karen's business on their podcast, someone knows something
The investigators who investigate the case said that there was a half moon the night that Karen disappeared, which means that the road on which she drove was dark.
Elgin has also grown over the past 40 years, so there would have been less slight pollution in the Night of Karen's disappearance.
Weather data showed that the temperatures were under freezing with heavy wind, which contributed to the theory that Karen could have accidentally driven off the road.
The detectives also started investigating theories that Karen had deliberately caused himself damage, wanted to leave Elgin without having a trail or was harmed by someone else.
