PA PA - Karen Wells, 23, Carlisle, 12 April 1994

[dulldullmike]

First time posting here, so hopefully I'll do this write-up some justice. I've known about this case for a couple years, and had actually forgotten all about it, until last week. My son wanted a puppy, and it was located in the exact same area that Denise's car was found. I got home, with our new pup, and started digging in. I will say that there are a lot of details that contradict other's and info from some sources that are nowhere else to be found. I'm just going by what I've read and heard on an excellent Podcast that digs into her disappearance. Trail Went Cold Podcast


Denice and left the Tulsa area on Sunday night, April 10th, 1994, at 9:30. It appears that there is little to offer as far as details on her trip towards northern NJ, but she did stop to call her friend in NJ, Melissa Shepard, once from Indianapolis, IN on the 11th, and from Somerset, PA at 6:39 AM on the 12th. The latter of the calls would suggest that she was on the Pennsylvania Turnpike at this point. A witness later came forward to state that he had helped a female matching Denise's description in Schaefferstown, PA, at around 11:30 AM. She was along the road and out of gas, and the woman told him that she was coming back from NJ, and on her way back to OK. He helped her get gas and she left. This corresponds with an 11:39 AM phone call from Denise to Melissa from a pay phone in Schaefferstown, PA. At 3:34 PM she called Melissa again, this time from Bernville, PA, which is only 30 miles from Schafferstown, stating she was lost.


Shortly before 6:00 PM, Denise once again called Melissa from Carlisle, PA, and told her she had gotten further lost, and was exhausted. According to Melissa, Denise stated she would not be able to make it to NJ, and Melissa agreed to meet Denise in Carlisle. She said that Denise told her that she was going to get something to eat at the nearby McDonalds, and would come back to the hotel room to sleep. On an interesting note, phone calls were made from Denise's room, at 5:59, 6:06, 6:13, & 6:59 PM. The owners of the hotel, The Pike Motel, said that Denise stated she'd only need a room for a short period of time, and they gave her a discount on the room. The last known sighting of Melissa was at around 7:00 PM when the owner of the motel noted that Melissa asked for matches. From there, nobody knows if she made it to McDonalds, but there was one last call from the room at 8:05 from Denise's room, to Melissa's house.


A couple of things I'd like to note/question:


If Melissa was in Schaefferstown, at 11:39 AM,

and is only 150 miles from North Bergen, NJ, why did she end up only 30 miles away in Bernville, PA, at 3:39 PM, leaving a 4-hour gap in that time? Then backtracks to Carlisle, which is 70 miles in the opposite direction, which leaves another discrepancy in her the timeline, being Bernville to Carlisle is only 1.5 hours away, but it took her almost 3 hours.


Did the witness get her to a gas station to fill up, or did he just give her gas from a gas can? This will come into play later, but also given the crazy amount of driving she did that day, and the unaccounted mileage on her rental car, it's hard to say.


If a call was made from her room at 8:05, this would suggest one of two things: She made it to McDonalds, and called Melissa once she was back, or she never left the motel.


More to come, I have to compile a little bit more of the info, and then I will write up part II.

 

[dulldullmike]

I had to write up, and research a few more things, just to make sure that there was clarity, and correct information. There is a lot of info to take in as far as the dates and times go. This portion will not give you much more than the details after her disappearance. But since I live a half-hour away in the neighboring county, I have a little bit of insight that I can add, and some ideas about what I can do, but that’ll be another post.

After Denise has supposedly asked the front desk of the Pike Motel for matches, and the last phone call to Melissa from her room at 8:05 PM on April 12th, she is never heard from again. Her friend Melissa showed up to the Motel at around 12:00 AM on the 13th. She was claimed to be irate that Denise’s car was not out front. With her, two acquaintances from the gentleman’s club where she worked. To my knowledge, their names have never been disclosed. The clerk or owner of the motel was summoned, and her door was opened, but there was no evidence of Denise. Melissa called the police shortly after to report her friend missing.

At 5:50 AM the next morning, April 13th, on a desolate stretch of country road on route 274, just outside of New Germantown, PA, a motorist discover Denise’s rental car, a 1993 Plymouth Acclaim, sitting in the westbound lane, abandoned. The driver’s and passenger side door are hanging open. In an attempt to turn the hazard lights on, it is noted that the battery is dead. It will also be determined later that the vehicle is out of gas. From Carlisle, to the point that her car was discovered, is roughly thirty-one-miles.

The road that Denise’s car was found on is PA Route 274. There are various roads you can take to get back to Carlisle, but the most basic route is route 274 to route 74, which will take you through Loysville, Landisburg, and then Caprivi before traveling back into the Carlisle area. From the Pike Motel, you would take a right, and within a half mile, another right. From that turn, you are traveling through pretty open country. While the aforementioned towns along the way may have gas stations now that are open late into the night, I’m willing to bet the mid-nineties were a bit different. A majority of the folks in these areas are blue-collar workers, Mennonite, or Amish.

The car was found to be scratched, and covered in mud. This, to me, indicates it was taken deep into one of the various dense forests that cover the area. Aside from a multitude of PA State Gamelands, there is the Tuscarora State Forest. This State Forest alone is 91,000 square acres. I find myself wondering if the PA State police saved samples of the mud that could elude to where the car had been, even though, it’s hard to imagine trying to determine an area within 91,000 acres. This is a car though, and not something that could have managed to travel the many logging roads that connect and loop through the mountains as many of them do. If I had to guess, I’d say her body is buried somewhere that is off the main road, but manageable for a small car like the Plymouth Acclaim is.

This aside, there was little to go on as far as evidence in the car. Shoes, trash, French fries, and cigarette butts were noted. Also noted was a small amount of marijuana, a pipe to smoke marijuana with, and what has been described as evidence of cocaine. Her purse and wallet were strewn into a ditch beside the car, and there was, what is described as, a “small amount of money” inside of her change purse. The hotel room was mostly undisturbed. Her overnight bag was on the bed, clothing articles to the side of the bed, a cigarette that had been lit, but not smoked, in an ashtray, and the room-key were found.

There are a bunch of other little details that can be found, but listed above are the basic facts. I’ll be sure post my conclusion tomorrow, and I hope that I am doing this woman justice by putting out facts that can be sought via a Google search to Web Sleuths. It took a lot of searching to get all of this.

 

[Valiant]

It's odd. There was money (or a credit card) to rent the car. But keeping gas in the car seemed to be a problem.

 

[dulldullmike]

This will be my final post on the know facts in the disappearance of Karen Denise Wells. I hope I was able to fill a lot of the gaps out there on the internet. This will also include my $0.02 on the matter.

Melissa Shepard is definitely a shady character. Denise went to her to "help her" with a problem she was having. Denise being a single, unemployed, mother of a small son at the time, leads me to believe that Melissa offered her money for making this trip. It appears as if Denise paid for gas on this trip, stopping every 400 miles to fill up. The 1993 Plymouth Acclaim that she rented, got between 25-30 MPG. So if she was heavy footed, the 400 miles between fill-ups ads up. The distance between her call in Indianapolis, IN, and her next call at 6:30 AM in Somerset, PA, on the 12th, is 408 miles. This is where my first discrepancy is. At around 11:30, she turns up in Schaefferstown, PA. This is where the eye-witness says he helped her get gas. I'm still not sure she got the tank filled, or was given gas from a gas can. Either way, this is five hours from the Somerset area call. It is only 170 miles from Somerset to Schaefferstown. This leaves a two hour + gap in her drive. A 1993 Plymouth Acclaim has a 16 gallon tank. At 25 MPG, this would put her max mileage at 400 miles per fill up give or take a few miles.

This info leads me to believe that she never made it to Jersey at this point. Timewise it would be impossible to travel from Somerset, PA, to North Bergen, NJ in that period of time, and then be in Schaefferstown, PA, therefore, the eyewitness probably helped someone else, or was confused by what Denise had told him about already being to NJ, and heading back to OK. This still leaves a two-hour gap in her travels from Somerset to Schaefferstown. Was she really that lost? It does almost seem plausible, and in adding those two hours at 25 MPG city travel (stop & go) she most likely just ran out of gas due to being tired and confused. Including the additional 600-700 miles more as stated by police, I'm not sure. Maybe she really did get lost a good bit of the trip, but once again, that is a lot of miles.

As discussed prior, there are the 4 hours of time that passed between her Shaefferstown siting, and her phone call to Melissa from Bernville, PA, at 3:30 PM. Once again, the math doesn't add up. It would take (and this would mean straight to and straight back) 5-hours to get from Schaefferstown, PA to North Bergen, NJ, and back to Bernville, PA. As a side note, I-78, which is right by Bernville, PA, is well known for being a major drug route through PA. I-78 also leads straight into North Bergen, NJ. That aside, had Melissa left Bernville after calling Melissa, she could have taken I-78 and been to NJ within two and a half hours. But SHE DIDN'T, she then backtracked to Carlisle, PA, which is an hour and seven minutes east. If she was exhausted, as Melissa says she told her she was, why didn't she stay at a hotel near Bernville? There are plenty hotels in Bernville to choose from. Her trip from Bernville to Carlisle link up pretty good, so there isn't much of a discrepancy there.

Out of a million theories, my theory doesn't matter. My theory is only based off of loose facts. What I know, is that Denise's trip doesn't make sense. She was heading from Oklahoma to northern New Jersey. Yet she ran out of gas after deviating from what should have been I-76 (PA turnpike) to I-81 for a short distance, and then the remainder of the trip spent on I-78 to North Bergen, NJ. Had she gotten gas, which I feel she did, in Somerset, that tank could have taken her the whole way to her destination. A Rand-McNally map would have been pretty simple to follow, heck, I used one to get to California from Pennsylvania when I left for the military. She ended up in Schaefferstown, which means instead of jumping on I-81, she continued on I-76 and randomly got off at Exit 266. From there, and 4-hours later, she ends up in Bernville, PA. Bernville is a half hour from Schaefferstown. Where was she for 4-hours? Why, after all of that time, did she backtrack to Carlisle, PA? It doesn't make sense, but if you take into account that Melissa, who could not explain this, received a Carlisle area phone call, 17-hours prior to Denise's car being found, you have your first major "Wait a minute!" moment.

I feel that somewhere between Schaefferstown, and Bernville, that Melissa was given drugs, or money for drugs. If there were trace amounts of cocaine discovered in the car, then I'd almost bank on it coming from some sort of transaction that Denise made for Melissa. The call to Melissa from Carlisle, before Denise had even reached the state seems to be the red herring. What are the odds that a wrong number call was made to your residence from the exact same area your friend, who's from way out of state, would later disappear from? Think about the odds. Why bring a friend all of the way from OK to sling drugs or money for you? Unless, you were doing something shady to begin with, and your friendship with this person was taken for granted, in hoping, that if something would happen, your physical self would be fine? There's too many variables to define a clear theory. I don't feel the call or her ending up in Carlisle is a coincidence.

The car's location is a complete mystery as well. I've personally been though this area (refer to my initial post) and it really is what they refer to as "desolate". There are houses, there is a little store, a pizza shop, and they have an elementary school. This is a place where most places of business (what little there are) are closed after 7PM. There are many Amish and Mennonite families in the area. It's quiet. Denise's car was heading westward on route 274, when it apparently ran out of gas. The battery was dead and both doors were ajar. The car was discovered at 5:50 AM on the 13th. This would suggest an eight to ten hour gap between her last known activity; the conversation with motel staff at 7:00 PM and the phone call from her room a little after 8:00 PM. All of the hours between her disappearance from Carlisle and the discovery of the car, yet it ends up an hour northeast, abandoned. This takes me back to the desolation of the area. Where did the occupant/occupants go? This isn't somewhere you'd knock on a door and not go unreported. This isn't somewhere you break into a cabin to hide and the owner not notice someone had stayed there. This isn't a place where you thumb your way out without someone mentioning it. Simply put, if you aren't from around there, people will know. This makes me think of the possibility of a car following Denise's. It seems possible she took of from Carlisle, was tailed, and drove around aimlessly until ending up in New Germantown, PA, and running out of gas. But then, why not drive to the first public place and scream bloody murder, beep the horn, etc., unless there was something in your car you didn't want found? This case is absolutely mind-boggling. For the car to be found with a dead battery at 5:50, it would have sat with the headlights on for nearly an hour, the battery slowly dying. At 5:00 in the morning, the working stiffs, like myself are usually on the road, heading to our jobs. I find it impossible for someone to have not passed the vehicle shortly after the engine sputtered out. Where did the driver go? Was there a passenger? Where did they go? How did they get out of the area with nobody seeing or remembering seeing someone that looked out of place?

All other coincidences and shady friends aside, could this have been the result of an abduction, and zero to do with drugs? Sure, I suppose. But once again, this goes back to the location. If you stay on 274 West, in about fifteen minutes you'll cross the winding mountain and end up at route 35. A left will take you to the PA turnpike in about twenty-five minutes. A right will take you through more desolate land until you get closer to Port Royal. Where was she going? Why 274 west? If there were a serial killer in the area, you'd have heard of more disappearances from the area, but they are rare, if non-existent here. The one thing I keep coming back to is the drug angle. When I got out of the military in 2005, I started working local. One of the people I worked with lived in an area on route 35, not far from where Denise's car was found. He was a country boy. He partied a lot. I remember him telling me one time about a cocaine ring that had ran through that little valley in the eighties and nineties. He made the joke that it always snowed in the valley. Looking back, I wonder about that abandoned Plymouth Acclaim, the traces of cocaine found in it, just sitting empty on a fog covered stretch of route 274 west, and I wonder. I wonder about Denise's last moments. Is she on the mountain nearby? Most certainly, she is lying somewhere between Carlisle and New Germantown. All of the miles unaccounted for, mud and scratches on the car, and empty.

My sole purpose for getting an account on Web Sleuths was for this case. I intend on spending this cold and dreary PA winter digging into the case further. I'm not sure where to start, but something tells me Blain/New Germantown are a good start. Things like this don't happen in a little town without people gossiping. I'm only a half-hour away. I'll definitely stick to this page. If anybody wants to further discuss this case, I'll be sure to reply. Denise's family needs closure. Thanks for reading all of my findings, and I hope you were able to follow without any issues.

 

[dulldullmike]

It's odd. There was money (or a credit card) to rent the car. But keeping gas in the car seemed to be a problem.

Exactly, it seems as if she was filling up at around every 400 miles up until Schaefferstown, when she ran out of gas. Apparently there wasn't much cash in her purse when it was found. That's why I believe there was money in it for her regarding this trip. Not sure about the rental/gas and how it was paid. I've never seen anything to suggest either.

 

[dulldullmike]

I got onto Google Maps, and I was able to find the location where Denise's car was abandoned. Using the old PSP photo, I had to guess the four-miles west of New Germantown, and head further west. I don't know how I missed the fact that the original photo was showing the car going up an incline, but I know that there are a lot of pines and hemlock trees along the route, so once I continued west, I found the telltale passing zone, with the telephone pole on the left. What leads me to believe this is the exact area is the tall oak trees across the road from the telephone pole.

EDIT: There is a house just 100 yards or less from where her car was found. This solidifies my belief that there was another car involved, or they were able to find a ride out from someone who never reported the incident.

 

[dulldullmike]

I have a few more pictures to add. Here are two more photos of the 1993 Plymouth Acclaim and a shot of Melissa speaking to the local ABC affiliate.

I'm glad I got to see these pictures of the car, because this isn't what I'd expected from reading the reports. Yes, the car is muddy, but this is definitely what I'd expect the vehicle to look like after cruising down the state forest roads. The State Forest roads are usually graveled, but there are sometimes muddy areas. Judging by the mud, I'd say it was on roads where it could do 35-45 MPH without the car "rattling apart". It does look as if there is grass/mud clumps that fell from under the running board and/or wheel wells. If you look at the entire car picture, there are clumps of something. Looking at the close-up of the passenger side front tire, the is definitely grass and mud, and what looks like maybe frozen mud. Early April in PA can be prone to freezing temperatures.

With the apparent grass on the side of the car and in the wheel well, it's safe to say that this car was pulled off somewhere in a grassy area, and close enough that rain/road spray hadn't managed to wash it off. It apparently was stuck too, if it had that much grass stuck to it.

 

[Valiant]

I have a few more pictures to add. Here are two more photos of the 1993 Plymouth Acclaim and a shot of Melissa speaking to the local ABC affiliate.

I'm glad I got to see these pictures of the car, because this isn't what I'd expected from reading the reports. Yes, the car is muddy, but this is definitely what I'd expect the vehicle to look like after cruising down the state forest roads. The State Forest roads are usually graveled, but there are sometimes muddy areas. Judging by the mud, I'd say it was on roads where it could do 35-45 MPH without the car "rattling apart". It does look as if there is grass/mud clumps that fell from under the running board and/or wheel wells. If you look at the entire car picture, there are clumps of something. Looking at the close-up of the passenger side front tire, the is definitely grass and mud, and what looks like maybe frozen mud. Early April in PA can be prone to freezing temperatures.

With the apparent grass on the side of the car and in the wheel well, it's safe to say that this car was pulled off somewhere in a grassy area, and close enough that rain/road spray hadn't managed to wash it off. It apparently was stuck too, if it had that much grass stuck to it.

I don't think the car was stuck, unless the other side looked much worse. This car was front wheel drive. If the car was stuck (and spinning) there would likely be much. much more mud and grass behind the front wheel than the rear. The rear wheels is only going to kick up dirt/mud/grass when the car is moving.

 

[dulldullmike]

I don't think the car was stuck, unless the other side looked much worse. This car was front wheel drive. If the car was stuck (and spinning) there would likely be much. much more mud and grass behind the front wheel than the rear. The rear wheels is only going to kick up dirt/mud/grass when the car is moving.

That's what I'm saying though. Look closely at the photo of her rental on the road. See on the road itself? It appears to be large grass clumps/mud behind the front passenger side tire. I'm a mechanic by trade, so I knew it was a front wheel drive. And though it may not have been stuck, that much mud and grass would suggest the tires spinning up topsoil and grass, which you can find all around the many pull offs in this forestry/hiking area.

 

[dulldullmike]

Valiant, this was actually the first time I'd seen a close up of the car. I know from my cell phone it may not be as prevalent, but when I posted this it was on my computer. I blew up the picture in question and could see the clumps. Do you see what I am talking about?

 

[Valiant]

Valiant, this was actually the first time I'd seen a close up of the car. I know from my cell phone it may not be as prevalent, but when I posted this it was on my computer. I blew up the picture in question and could see the clumps. Do you see what I am talking about?

I agree, the car was definitely off paved roads, on muddy and grassy areas. I just don't think it was anywhere where it got stuck.

 

[JMT1008]

CBS 21 local news (Harrisburg) will have something on Karen Wells tonight in the 6pm broadcast (not breaking news). I will try to find a video link after it airs.

 

[JMT1008]

CBS 21 local news (Harrisburg) will have something on Karen Wells tonight in the 6pm broadcast (not breaking news). I will try to find a video link after it airs.

I won't bother posting the video. The only new piece of info was (and this may have been the State Trooper misspeaking) that they were HARDEE'S food wrappers found around the car.

The news piece left out a TON of information. However, the Trooper in charge of the case did kind of give validity to some of the previous posts about the "answers" to KDW's whereabouts would be in the vastness of Tuscarora State Forest.

 

[Richrd]

.

CBS News :: 16 September 2020:
Unsolved in PA | The case of Karen Wells


FBI Violent Criminal Apprehension Program:

National missing & Unidentified perons system #MP5386:
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Google™ Supplements & Updates:
Karen Denise Wells - Missing - بحث Google​

.

 

[dulldullmike]

CBS 21 local news (Harrisburg) will have something on Karen Wells tonight in the 6pm broadcast (not breaking news). I will try to find a video link after it airs.

Thanks for the update, I was unaware. Here is the link to the news video.

If anybody picked it up, there is a contradiction to the official story within this story. It's always been said the car was out of gas, and the battery was dead. The PA Trooper says something interesting while looking through file photos. He says, "the mileage shows a quarter tank but the vehicle won't start." So, that said, (I think he meant fuel gauge) her car was NOT out of fuel, and had a quarter tank. This changes my whole outlook on this. WOW!

I hope that if Trooper Boardman is reading this, he'll look into doing samples of the soil/mud on her car to determine a possible area they can search that this mud came from. Also, due to there being gas in the tank, whereas it has always been stated that the car was out of gas, this sounds like more of an abduction to me??? Random thought, and being 26 years a bit too late, but it might be helpful to look at some of the major businesses in the area, where folks from Blain/New Germantown often find work, and see if there are any locals who missed work on the 13th. There is the Army Depot, the lift manufacturer, the lumberyard, etc.,

 

[dulldullmike]

I won't bother posting the video. The only new piece of info was (and this may have been the State Trooper misspeaking) that they were HARDEE'S food wrappers found around the car.

The news piece left out a TON of information. However, the Trooper in charge of the case did kind of give validity to some of the previous posts about the "answers" to KDW's whereabouts would be in the vastness of Tuscarora State Forest.

The car still having gas is actually the biggest piece of news I've heard so far. I really appreciate the update.

 

[CCJD]

If anybody picked it up, there is a contradiction to the official story within this story. It's always been said the car was out of gas, and the battery was dead. The PA Trooper says something interesting while looking through file photos. He says, "the mileage shows a quarter tank but the vehicle won't start." So, that said, (I think he meant fuel gauge) her car was NOT out of fuel, and had a quarter tank. This changes my whole outlook on this. WOW!

RSBM

Or it had a faulty gas gauge, not a real unusual issue.

 

[dulldullmike]

RSBM

Or it had a faulty gas gauge, not a real unusual issue.

I watched it again, and he does say something in the very beginning about running out of gas. If it were faulty, this could explain her running out of gas in Schaefferstown, PA. Looking around Schaefferstown, it appears to have plenty of gas stations. I feel like a butthead now, I just got overly excited thinking we'd heard something new. Though this possibly explains her gas issues in Schaefferstown, it also explains why someone (other than Denise) who didn't know this issue might run out of gas where it was found, thinking they still had a quarter tank.

 

[cat616]

This will be my final post on the know facts in the disappearance of Karen Denise Wells. I hope I was able to fill a lot of the gaps out there on the internet. This will also include my $0.02 on the matter.

Wow, dulldullmike, this was an absolutely wonderful write-up. Thanks for diving into this. I'm sure we will all anticipate your continued research. I first listened to this on The Trail Went Cold as well and it is a baffling case; there are so many parts that don't make sense and can't be confirmed. There's limited info online so I've had to rely on message boards like this one to get answers.

 

[PayrollNerd]

I won't bother posting the video. The only new piece of info was (and this may have been the State Trooper misspeaking) that they were HARDEE'S food wrappers found around the car.

The news piece left out a TON of information. However, the Trooper in charge of the case did kind of give validity to some of the previous posts about the "answers" to KDW's whereabouts would be in the vastness of Tuscarora State Forest.

If there were food wrappers that would be a great source of DNA, not only from the hands holding the outside of the wrapper but from the person taking bites of food. I wonder if they've preserved those well enough to test them.

It would be interesting to know what was purchased too. For example, if there was, say a sausage biscuit wrapper in my vehicle, that would be a clue someone besides me, was in the vehicle, because I don't like sausage biscuits.