ELGIN, Ill. (WGN) Hours after emergency crews pulled a vehicle from the Fox River connected to a 42-year-old cold case, the Kane County Coroner’s Office (KCCO) said they found human remains inside the car.

In a press release Tuesday evening, the KCCO said they confirmed the presence of skeletal human remains inside the yellow, two-door coupe that was pulled from the waters of the Fox River around 2:45 p.m. in connection to the disappearance of Karen Schepers. Along with her 1980 Toyota Celica, Schepers vanished without a trace during the early morning hours of April 16, 1983.

Divers confirmed the plates on the car pulled from the river Tuesday match the car connected to Schepers.

The next step in analyzing the human remains will be to compare DNA samples or dental records of Schepers to the remains found inside the vehicle to confirm a positive ID of the remains that were found.

Elgin police said this process could take up to several weeks, and the public will be notified once the process is complete.

People gathered on the Fox River shoreline Tuesday to watch police and dive teams work, the case still very much on their minds.

“It’s a little bit unnerving,” Dominick Bruno, who lives in the area, said. “I can tell you I’ve definitely floated over this a number of times. Right along the wall here, typically on a beautiful day, there’s 10 to 15 people fishing right off the shoreline.”

“Just prayers for her family, and my condolences go out to them,” Kristina Kelley, who also lives nearby, said. “I hope that they can get some resolution and peace after all this.”

How we got here

Monday night, divers equipped with sonar technology and the Elgin Police Department (EPD) located a vehicle northwest of the Slade Avenue boat launch with a license plate number that matched Schepers’ Celica.

Due to diving conditions on the Fox River at the time, efforts to safely remove the vehicle from the river were moved to Tuesday at 12:30 p.m., when divers, the Elgin Fire Department and the KCCO could resume work to remove and examine the vehicle.

At around 2:40 p.m., emergency crews began pulling the vehicle from the waters of the Fox River, and within 10 minutes they had the car lying upside down on dry land. The vehicle was then taken to the KCCO for further examination.

Background on Karen Schepers’ cold case

Schepers and her Toyota Celica went missing around 1 a.m. on April 16, 1983, after leaving a Carpentersville bar named P.M. Bentley’s in the Meadowdale Shopping Center following a night out with co-workers in the northwest suburbs.

EPD detectives Andrew Houghton and Matt Vartanian launched the “Somebody Knows Something Podcast” on Jan. 20 of this year, hoping to renew interest and spark new leads as they documented their investigation into Schepers’ decades-old disappearance case.

In the podcast’s introductory episode, Houghton and Vartanian laid out six theories they planned to investigate, with a search of local bodies of water being the final theory they planned to dive into, no pun intended.

As their investigation progressed over the past several months, searching local waterways became an increasingly pivotal part of their look into Schepers’ cold case, leading to Elgin police bumping up a water search strategy ahead of other theories they previously planned to explore.

In the podcast’s latest episode, Houghton and Vartanian explore two possible routes Schepers could have taken home the night she disappeared.

A recap of that episode can be found by clicking here.

Details on Karen Schepers’ 1980 Toyota Celica

• 1980 year model.
• Canary yellow with red stripes.
• Illinois license plate number was “XP8919.”
• Detectives describe the car as a small, two-door vehicle that was about 4 feet, 3 inches tall; 5 feet, 4 inches wide; and just under 14 feet long.
• Schepers’ 1980 Toyota Celica weighs approximately 2,400 pounds.
• For comparison: A 2025 Toyota Camry is almost four inches taller, eight inches wider and two feet longer than Schepers’ Celica.