She went missing in 1983. Human remains have been found in a car linked to her.

Corrections & Clarifications: This story has been updated to clarify which department received a tip in 2022 about a possible vehicle in the Fox River. The tipster called the Elgin Fire Department with the tip in 2022 but police did not find out about it until March 25, 2025.

Chicago area officials have fished a vehicle out of a river containing skeletal remains possibly belonging to a woman who went missing nearly 42 years ago.

Investigators found the vehicle Monday in the Fox River and pulled it out of the water Tuesday, the Elgin Police Department said in a news release on social media.

Along with the vehicle, investigators found license plates matching those belonging to Karen Schepers, who was 23 years old on Friday, April 15, 1983 when she went to a bar and then disappeared.

At the time, Schepers drove a yellow 1980 Toyota Celica with the license plate XP8919, police said. The next morning on April 16, Schepers and her vehicle disappeared, the Elgin Police Department said in a news release on social media.

“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 Elgin Police Department said. 

Investigators are now tasked with comparing DNA samples or dental records to see if the skeletal remains belong to Schepers. The process could take weeks.

Podcast and divers played a major role in the discovery

Elgin Police Chief Ana Lalley said Wednesday that the Elgin Fire Department received a tip about the vehicle in 2022. The fire department's dive team "prematurely" concluded that it was a smaller vehicle in the lake, and the police weren't notified.

Police reopened Schepers’ case this year and worked with local radio station WRMN 1410 to record a podcast called “Somebody Knows Something.” 

According to police, department leaders thought the podcast could generate leads and gather information about the case. Their efforts proved successful as the podcast has helped authorities gather information about her case, police said.

“Yesterday’s search of the Fox River was conducted because as a re-examination of the case progressed, the theories of what happened to Karen included that Karen’s vehicle could potentially be in the Fox River,” police said. 

Authorities contacted a nonprofit called Chaos Divers to help with the search and look into the theory. Chaos Divers used sonar technology and found multiple sites in the Fox River that they could hone in on, police said. 

Investigators searched a spot northwest of the Slade Avenue boat launch, then a diver found the license plate matching the one registered to the victim’s 1980 Toyota Celica, police said.

Authorities said this week that Chaos Divers, the Elgin Fire Department and Redmon’s Towing worked to lift the vehicle out of the Fox River and bring it to shore. The vehicle was then taken to the Kane County Coroner’s Office, where investigators will be able to process it and collect evidence.

‘More should have been done'

As authorities were working to get the vehicle out of the river on Tuesday, someone approached the Elgin Police Department to let them know about a previous report they made to the Elgin Fire Department back in 2022.

“That person reported that in 2022, while fishing near the location where the vehicle was eventually found, the sonar equipment he was using detected an unusual object in the Fox River,” police wrote on Facebook Wednesday.

The Elgin Fire Department sent out a dive team to search the area, first using an underwater, remote-operated vehicle with camera and sonar technology. They found what looked like a small vehicle submerged in the water. A diver then got into the water and touched a tire, but due to the size of the tire they assumed it was either an all-terrain vehicle or utility-task vehicle. That marked the end of the investigation, police said.

Police said they had no idea about the 2022 tip or search until the tipster approached them on Tuesday. 

Elgin Fire Chief Robb Cagann spoke on the matter and said not enough was done to investigate the vehicle’s presence in the water.

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

He added that he has since investigated the incident and changes will be made to avoid oversights like this in the future. He said since 2022, the fire department’s dive team has gone through administrative changes, including adding new leadership and updating operational protocols.

“Lastly,” said Cagann, “I do not want the actions of the Elgin Fire Department to take away from the exceptional work conducted by the Elgin Police Department on this case,” he said.

Police Chief Lalley said Cagann has apologized on behalf of the Elgin Fire Department.

Remembering Karen Schepers

As part of the department’s podcast, Detective Andrew Houghton and Detective Matt Vartanian gave listeners a look into who 23-year-old Karen Schepers was and how she spent that last Friday night. The detectives include real interviews with the woman’s coworkers and others who interacted with her.

According to the detectives, those who knew Schepers remembered her as nice, pretty, and someone who easily made friends. 

She lived alone, played the piano, and also played saxophone. She had just called off her engagement to her boyfriend a few weeks before she went missing and was estranged from some of her family members (including her father and stepmother).

The day she went missing, she worked and then went to a bar called Bentley’s in Carpentersville. She was celebrating with at least 15 coworkers because they’d completed a work project, the podcast hosts said.

Missing woman participated in hula hoop contest, then vanished

At some point, Schepers went outside and then headed back into the bar, the hosts said. Between 9 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., Schepers used a pay phone to call her boyfriend. He answered the call and spoke to her, the hosts said. 

Another coworker recalled seeing Schepers as she talked on the phone that night.

“I couldn’t hear the words but I could hear her gestures, and she was frustrated,” the coworker said. “She kind of let everyone at the table know that she had just tried to call (him) and he couldn’t come. She was not happy about that.”

Schepers was determined to have a good night though, so she tried to brush it off, her coworker remembered. Schepers spent the rest of the night participating in a hula hoop contest around 12:30 a.m., the podcast hosts said.

“After that, no one really has any specific memory or recollection of seeing Karen,” one of the hosts said.

The detectives said the last time she was seen was around 12:30 a.m. the morning of Saturday, April 16, 1983. They added that no one remembers seeing her leave as others headed out around 1 a.m.

The hosts added that Schepers’ boyfriend worked that Saturday, which is why he didn’t go to the bar or stay out late. She was debating on visiting him after the bar, coworkers told police.

Police interviewed him, and he said he called her several times that Sunday to no avail. By Monday, he still hadn’t heard from her. He called her job Monday and learned she never showed up to work. He reported her missing to the police just before 3 p.m. that Monday. Her boyfriend died in 2015, but he worked with police to find out what happened to her, the hosts said.

The detectives said there are about six theories about what may have happened to her, including:

1. Schepers made a decision to leave voluntarily or died by suicide.
2. Something happened to Schepers at the bar (i.e. she was abducted or left with someone she met at the bar).
3. Schepers stopped somewhere on her drive home or met someone (possibly crossing paths with a serial killer).
4. Schepers made it home and something happened to her there.
5. Schepers went to visit her boyfriend after leaving the bar.
6. Something happened to Schepers on her way home (possibly running off the road).

“Here we are, almost 42 years later looking back at this case and just trying to determine what actually happened to Karen,” said one of the hosts.

Those wanting to learn more about Schepers and her case can listen to the police department’s “Somebody Knows Something” podcast via Apple, Amazon and Audible, or YouTube.

Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY's NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Email her at sdmartin@usatoday.com.