Found Deceased IL - Karen Schepers, 23, Carpentersville, 16 April 1983

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Elgin cold case detectives nominated for 2025 ‘America’s Greatest Detective’ award by crime and trial network

The Elgin Police Department detectives who located the body of a woman missing for 42 years have been nominated for the 2025 “America’s Greatest Detective” award by Law&Crime, a true crime a...

www.dailyherald.com

August 12, 2025
''The Elgin Police Department detectives who located the body of a woman missing for 42 years have been nominated for the 2025 “America’s Greatest Detective” award by Law&Crime, a true crime and live trial network.

Detectives Matt Vartanian and Andrew Houghton took on the mystery of what happened to then 23-year-old Karen Schepers, who went missing after a night out with friends in Carpentersville in 1983, as the first investigation of the department’s new Cold Case Unit last October.

They created a podcast called “Somebody Knows Something” to solicit information and clues about what happened to her. Her car and remains were discovered in the Fox River several weeks after the podcast’s first episode aired.''

Elgin police detectives Matt Vartanian, left, and Andrew Houghton started a podcast where they will discuss some of the cases they're pursuing. Brian Hill/[email protected]

 

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As technology gets more and more advanced and also cheaper so that we get more organizations that are specializing in underwater recovery, it is my hope that many more cold cases will be solved. As we all know here on websleuths…if a person and car disappear the odds are good it’s in the water somewhere.

Now the family can work toward closure. There has to be nothing worse than not knowing.