How two detectives and a podcast helped solve decades-old suburban cold case

When Karen Schepers’ remains were found in the Fox River last month, it was not only a moment of closure her loved ones had waited decades for, but also a validation for the detectives who led the painstaking search for answers.

On the latest episode of The Takeaway with Alex Maragos, Detectives Andrew Houghton and Matt Vartanian of the Elgin Police Department talked about how the discovery almost didn’t happen.

“I would call it divine intervention, how things went down in March,” Vartanian said.

Together, Vartanian and Houghton host a podcast called "Somebody Knows Something," which is a recent entrant to the popular true crime genre.

Episodes of the podcast chronicled their theories, successes and setbacks in solving the mysterious 42-year disappearance of Karen Schepers and her car.

One of the theories Vartanian and Houghton formed was that Schepers may have driven into a river or pond after she left a party with coworkers in the early morning hours of April 16, 1983. While working on the case over the last several months, the detectives mapped several routes Schepers may have driven that night, including one that took her along the banks of the Fox River in Elgin.

With the help of Chaos Divers, a volunteer group specializing in searching bodies of water, the detectives started looking for her car. On March 25, they found two cars that did not belong to Schepers and were about to move to another part of the river.

“We were going to be done with that section of the river forever,” said Det. Houghton. “We were not going to go back.”

Based on the fact that other debris was already discovered there, they decided to check the area one more time. On the final pass, a member of the dive team noticed interesting shapes on his sonar device.

“He [said] ‘That’s a car’,” recalled Det. Houghton. “That’s on its top, that’s a tire, that’s a tire. That’s a smaller car, those are going to be the windows.”

Minutes later, the divers found the license plate on Schepers’ car, confirming this was likely the end of their search. The following day, Schepers’ 1980 gold Toyota Celica was raised from the Fox River with her remains still inside.

The detectives say they were also able to find a few of her personal items, which were returned to Schepers’ 90-year-old mother Elizabeth Paulson.

Vartanian and Houghton, the only two members of the department’s cold case unit, started the podcast to solicit tips and bring greater transparency to cold cases in Elgin. While the initial idea came from Elgin Police Chief Ana Lalley, they quickly realized the power and possibility of presenting police work to the public in a new way.

“Doing the podcast really did help us structure the investigation to some degree,” said Houghton. “I would hope other law enforcement agencies would consider doing something like this and thinking outside the box.”

They said they already have an idea which of the city’s 36 cold cases could be the focus of their next podcast.  

“You have to be able to trust the community,” said Vartanian. “We were transparent because we wanted the community’s help. Even though there wasn’t a direct tip that found [Schepers], we still had…the public help us and support us, and spread the word about Karen and her case.”