The police podcast leads detectives to solve a decades of the secret of missing woman

What a couple of two Illinois detectives started to solve tips on crowdsource tips to solve cold cases for decades old with a shocking discovery.

The detectives Andrew Houghton and Matt Vartanian wanted to breathe new life into unresolved cases by starting the podcast “someone know this something” in October 2024 at the request of Elgin Police Department Chief Ana Lalley. Their goal was to use modern investigative technology in order to give local families the end.

“We both looked at each other somehow and said: 'No, I'm not sure if that's for us,” Vartanian told Fox News Digital. “Then we stepped down a step, were open to our thinking and goal and thought that this could be a really good means to use investigative processes within law enforcement.”

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The couple combed open cold cases in his area and took the disappearance of 23-year-old Karen Scheper in 1983.

“Our thought was, depending on what we started or if we did several cases, people outside of Illinois and outside of our region could have known about some of these cases, “said Vartanian.

Scheper enjoyed a night full of celebrations with colleagues at PM Bentley in Carpentersville, Illinois – 45 miles outside of Chicago. Scheper was the last of the group that left the bar on April 16, 1983 at around 1 a.m., and neither she nor her Toyota Celica from 1980 were ever seen again. accordingly The Elgin Police Department.

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Although the community had countless theories about what could have happened sharper, including the possibility that it arrived on their way home or when she arrived at her destination, the case was cold.

The disappearance of Schepers remained an open examination for 41 years and was revised by Illinois State Police at the end of the 1980s and again by the investigators in 2010.

“2008 [and] In 2009 we did a number of advertising boards in this case and tried to arouse media interest, “Houghton told Fox News Digital.

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Despite the diverse attempts to solve what has happened with Scheper, the detectives could not follow any important information until the “someone white” department introduced.

“When we started looking at the case of Karen Schepers, we found that we could place everything out there because we had no idea what happened to her, “said Vartanian. There was so much time that had passed, We knew that there were many content that could be there. “

With the permission of her family, Houghton and Vartanian began digging new information about Scheper by maintaining a mix of old -fashioned police work and relying on updated technologies.

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“This was an old -fashioned “conversation with people, climb into a car, go to doors, drive around and drive for a kind of examination,” said Houghton. “The investigation for one of our cases is still the case, but this was much more in the fact that we had to look and see which streets existed in 1983? Which water bodies existed in 1983? Because it was very different now than then.”

The couple met the sidewalk and spoke to locals in the area who knew jokes to paint a picture of their last moments in the morning when she was missing. Houghton and Vartanian set out to find out which route Scheper took home, and examined the weather conditions and other details that may have contributed to their disappearance.

When the detectives flowed over printed media, they found that the nearby Fox River was flooded at the time of the disappearance of Scheper – a key break in the case that caused them to call up expert divers to search the water.

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The Karen Scheper vehicle was discovered on March 24, 2025 in the Fox River in Elgin, Illinois. (Elgin Police Department)

Detectives were able to discover the license plate of Karen Scheper with the license plate with their vehicle in the Fox River in Elgin, Illinois, on March 24, 2025. (Elgin Police Department)

“Interestingly, we would get many tips from people who said: 'There is no possibility in the flow,” said Houghton. “'It's too flat, I fish there, I'm there there.' However, there are different parts in which the river can be two feet deep or one foot deep, and there are other places where it is [up to] 15 feet deep, so it really hung from where you looked. “

On March 24, 2025, the police of Elgin Chaos Divers, a non -profit team of independent divers, called to search the river.

Scheper and her vehicle were found in a dramatic end of a four -year secret.

“When we heard the news that her car was found, the time stopped while we pulled an audible cake” a statement. “When it rose again, our life went a new way, which finally answered the answer to 'Where's Karen?' This question has been followed by all of them for many years.

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Photos: The 90-year-old mother of Scheper is again with objects that have been recovered from her vehicle

The divers were able to maintain the Schepers vehicle at the same time so that the investigators could use dental records to identify their skeletal remains.

“In this case it was a bit of a unicorn in the fact that we had no idea what happened to her, “said Houghton. At the end of the day it is the goal to find this person, and we did it in this case. If we do this five times and the only time it works, then be it. But if you do this five or ten times and find a case, it is absolutely worth it for this family.”

Houghton and Vartanian are already planning the next case to revive in the second season of their podcast, and reports Fox News digitally that it will probably be an examination of murder.

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Houghton and Vartanian were able to make their 90-year-old mother available with two objects recovered by her vehicle-and the Sapphire Birthstone Ring and the 1977 High School-Differon-Quasten-, which the loved ones surrounds them as mystery that surrounds her disappearance.

“We hope for further success in every cold case,” said Schepers' family. “Miracles happen.”