The 25 Year Search for 23 Year Old Karen Schepers

TODD MATTHEWS (Missing Pieces Host): I'm Todd Matthews. This is Missing Pieces. Tonight we have Barbara Lamacki. Hello, Barbara.

BARBARA LAMACKI (Area Director and Media Representative for Doe Network): Hi, Todd. How are you?

TODD: I think I've met you somewhere before. I'm teasing Barbara a little bit. She's actually one of the area directors for the Doe Network, and she's the Area Director and Media Representative for Illinois and I think she's doing a pretty good job there, it seems. And she's brought this recent case, Karen Schepers's case; 'Shee-pers,' that's how I think Dale (Karen's brother) pronounced it, but in the South, I would call it 'Shep-ers.'

BARBARA: Yeah, it is Sche-pers.

TODD: Okay, now I actually spoke with Dale to some degree. He's here in Tennessee right now, he's actually in Campbell County and I'm familiar with that area so it's pretty interesting, you know, his in-laws are here and that's really nearby.

BARBARA: Oh, okay.

TODD: So, okay now, I want to talk to you about this case in particular. How did you become aware of the Karen Scheper's case?

BARBARA: I became aware of Karen's case when I was searching through some old newspaper archives looking for Illinois missing persons and I kind of keep a running list, and I ran into her, a mention of her in a newspaper article and I could never find a follow-up.

TODD: Uh-huh.

BARBARA: So, after I can't find a follow-up for a while, then I usually contact law enforcement, and in her case, I did contact law enforcement and they transferred me to Detective Gorcowski, who, as a matter of fact, at just the same time last year, already had the Doe Network form on his desk, getting ready to send it to us.

TODD: (Chuckles)

BARBARA: It was weird. It was very, very eerie.

TODD: It was meant to be. It was meant to be.

BARBARA: I think so. I think it was fate.