Daily Herald opinion: A family’s search: Elgin’s committed cold case unit provides long-delayed answers for missing woman’s family

For 42 years, the family of Karen Schepers worried, wondered and waited.

Where did the 23-year-old go after leaving a Carpentersville bar sometime after 1 a.m. on April 16, 1983? Did she meet with foul play? Did she, as investigators at the time suggested, simply choose to disappear after a fight with her fiance?

The questions, at least some, are finally being answered.

On Tuesday, an Elgin Police cold case unit lifted her largely intact Toyota Celica, with skeletal remains inside, from the cold, murky water of the Fox River. The discovery, aided by sonar technology that was not available at the time of her disappearance, was followed by confirmation Thursday that the remains did indeed belong to Karen Schepers.

Now, her family can lay her to rest.

For that, and for the detailed work that brought investigators to this week’s discovery, we are deeply grateful.

When the cold case unit was formed just one year ago, Schepers’ disappearance topped the list of cases to be revisited by detectives Andrew Houghton and Matt Vartanian. They examined the possible scenarios, revisited conditions that night and helped revive interest with the launch of a podcast titled “Somebody Knows Something.”

Their mission is an important one: to bring some measure of closure, and perhaps even justice, to families seeking answers.

The unit started the year with a case list that dates back to 1971 and includes 41 murders, 26 sex assaults and six missing persons. Karen Schepers was one of those six.

With confirmation that Schepers has finally been found, questions remain.

How did the car wind up in the water? Was it a tragic accident or something more disturbing? And why did it take more than four decades to find the car?

In their March 17 podcast, the two Elgin cold case detectives said they have not been able to find proof that the river was searched at the time. The Schepers family has every right to ask why it wasn’t.

Karen’s brother Gary Schepers said Wednesday family and friends were frustrated in the 1980s with how police handled the case.

“Their line was ‘she had a fight with her boyfriend and she took off. What do you want us to do about it?’” he added.

And in yet another disappointing twist, the car could have been retrieved three years ago when the Elgin Fire Department — working on a tip that something was in the river — came across the vehicle, but a diver misidentified it as an ATV. Fire officials did not investigate further, and they did not contact the police.

Now 90, Karen’s mother Liz Paulson has stayed in her Sycamore home, hoping her daughter would one day return. No parent should have to endure the pain of endless what ifs, bracing for news that will forever shatter any slim hope of a reunion.

“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,” Elgin Police Chief Ana Lalley said this week. “As we continue to investigate this case, we will remain steadfast in our resolve to provide answers and closure to Karen’s family.”

We commend Houghton, Vartanian, Lalley and their current-day colleagues for their work on the case. At the same time, we can’t help but question whether efforts decades ago — even without today’s technology — should have led to a river search far sooner.

And we extend our deepest condolences to the Schepers family.