Human remains found in car pulled from Fox River ID'd as Elgin woman missing since 1983

ELGIN, Ill. (WLS) -- Skeletal human remains found inside a car pulled from the Fox River linked to a decades-old cold case have now been identified, the Kane County Coroner said Thursday.

The body was confirmed to be that of missing Elgin woman Karen Schepers.

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Finally after 42 years, Schepers officially has been found after the official identification by the Kane County Coroner.

Officials said the skeletal human remains found inside the 1980 canary yellow Toyota Celica from the Fox River on Tuesday were confirmed to be the remains of Schepers, who went missing in 1983.

The Kane County Coroner said forensic specialists used dental records provided by the family to make the official identification.

Elgin police initially said the identification process could take weeks, but this comes just two days after crews pulled her vehicle from the Fox River.

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Search teams with a nonprofit group called the Chaos Divers found the car near the Slade Avenue boat launch on Monday.

Police said the car was taken to a secure storage location for further investigation.

Schepers was 23 years old when she was last seen attending a party with coworkers at a bar in Carpentersville in the early hours of April 16, 1983. Neither Karen nor her 1980 Toyota Celica were seen again, until now.

As for why she went missing and how she died, that is still a mystery.

This all comes after the cold case was revived early this year in a podcast launched by the Elgin Police Department called Somebody Knows Something.