The Elgin Fire Department found Karen Scheper’s car in the Fox River three years ago, but believed it was an ATV and did not recover it, according to a statement released by city officials.
In 2022, a fisherman detected an unusual object in the murky water while using sonar equipment and notified the Elgin Fire Department. The department deployed its dive team, which began its search with an underwater, remote-operated vehicle equipped with both camera and sonar technology, officials said.
The crew identified what appeared to be “a small vehicle” submerged in the water, prompting a diver to descend into the river and make physical contact with a tire, the statement said. The tire’s small diameter led the diver to wrongly conclude that the object was likely either an ATV or UTV, so the investigation was closed.
The Elgin Police Department learned about the incident after the fisherman approached a police officer during the vehicle’s recovery Monday and mentioned the search in an identical spot three years earlier, city officials said.
Elgin Fire Chief Robb Cagann said after learning about the 2022 dive, he investigated the matter and shared the information with Elgin Police Chief Ana Lalley. He said he concluded more should have been done during that initial dive, “including a comprehensive underwater examination of the vehicle.”
“It is of vital importance to me that this information be provided to the public and more importantly, to the family of Karen Schepers, so all know that a thorough review of the incident was conducted as soon as this information came to my attention,” Cagann said in a statement posted on Facebook. “The fire department will also ensure that the circumstances surrounding this incident never happen during any dives. Since that time, the fire department’s dive team leadership has changed, and the department has updated its operational protocols and technological capabilities to ensure the most efficient and effective dive operations.”
Cagann said he didn’t want his department’s mistake to take away from the police department’s breakthrough on the case.
Schepers, a computer programmer who grew up in Sycamore, went missing in 1983 after joining colleagues for drinks after work.
Her car was discovered Monday by Elgin police and a dive team, which had spent the day searching locations where her car might have gone into the water on April 16, 1983, when she was last seen leaving a Carpentersville bar and was believed to be driving home to her Elgin apartment.
The search was part of an investigation undertaken by the Elgin Police Department’s cold case unit, which produced a podcast, “Somebody Knows Something,” in an effort to put a new light on the missing person case, which went unsolved for four decades.
Covered in mud and branches, the car was discovered in about 7 feet of water by Chaos Divers, a nonprofit that specializes in finding missing people in bodies of water.
Crews were able to remove the vehicle — a canary yellow Toyota Celica hatchback with a distinctive stripe and a license plate number matching the one that had been on Schepers’ car — Tuesday.
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Final identification will be made by the Kane County coroner’s office in a process that will take several weeks, officials said. Schepers’ family has been notified and the assumption made that she has been found at last.
“This has been going on for so long, and for so long nothing happened,” said her brother Gary Schepers, who lives in Sycamore and is the oldest of nine siblings. “It’s like you’ve been watching glaciers move, and all of a sudden things are happening every day.”
Elgin police lamented the case was solved three years ago when the fire department unknowingly located the vehicle, but Lalley said she appreciated Cagann’s transparency and his acknowledgment that the 2022 search did not meet established standards.
“While we are disappointed by the initial oversight, I am incredibly proud of the extraordinary collaborative efforts that have unfolded in recent days,” Lalley said. “The work of the Elgin Police Department, Chaos Divers and all involved parties demonstrates our unwavering commitment to finding answers for Karen Schepers and her family. We will continue to pursue this case with the same dedication and focus that has brought us this far.”