Elgin cold case detectives launch season 2 of hit podcast, seeking to solve 1970s murders and disappearance of Barbara Glueckert
How do you top solving a 42-year-old mystery surrounding the disappearance of a young woman?
Perhaps by identifying the killer responsible for an unsolved murder dating back to the 1970s.
That’s the aim of the Elgin Police Department’s Cold Case Unit, which next month launches the second season of their hit podcast, “Somebody Knows Something.”
Season 1 focused on the case of Karen Schepers, who vanished April 16, 1983, after leaving a Carpentersville bar to head to her home in Elgin.
Less than 50 days after the first episode dropped, authorities pulled her 1980 Toyota Celica from the Fox River on March 25. The skeletal remains inside quickly were identified as Karen’s.
Det. Andrew Houghton said Karen’s cause of death officially remains undetermined, but police believe it was a tragic accident. There was no evidence of trauma to her remains, the car was found with the key in the ignition, in fourth gear, its windows closed and the emergency brake activated — all indications that it was driven into the river, not pushed.
The discovery helped catapult “Somebody Knows Something” into the podcast stratosphere — it became among the top 1% in downloads nationally — and thrust Houghton and partner Matt Vartanian into the spotlight. They appeared on national TV, were featured speakers at the True Crime Podcast Festival in Boston last week, and next month will travel to Denver for the CrimeCon Clue Awards, where they’re among three finalists for “America's Greatest Detective.”
With all that attention and a large audience on standby, Houghton said the unit was eager to get a second season rolling.
“We want to keep our foot on the gas and keep the momentum going,” he told us Wednesday.
They plan to release a season 1 recap featuring Chief Ana Lalley next week, and then the first episode of season 2 on Aug. 11.
Unlike the first season’s focus on a single case, the second will highlight five unsolved killings and one disappearance that took place between 1971 and 1979. Each case will get its own episode.
Also new this season is Houghton’s partner. Det. Chris Hall subs in for Vartanian, who’s been promoted to sergeant and now serves in the patrol division.
Hall, a nine-year department veteran, jumped at the chance to join the cold case unit this spring.
“This work is fascinating, and it can pay big dividends to help bring closure to families who have been waiting for answers for years,” he said.
First up this season is the murder of Alanis Guadalupe at the Woodruff & Edwards Foundry in 1971. The foundry — now gone and the location of the riverfront Foundry Park downtown — was the site of numerous violent incidents around that time, including another killing before Guadalupe’s death and the murder of an eyewitness to his killing months later.
Later episodes will include the killing of cab dispatcher Maynard Chester Holley in 1975, Lori Bolger, a 16-year-old Larkin High School student from South Elgin whose body was found near Randall Road in 1976, the fatal stabbing of Cayce Kyles in 1977 and Renee Tovar, brutally slain in her home in November 1979.
They’ll also take on the disappearance of Mount Prospect teen Barbara Glueckert, who vanished Aug. 21, 1976, after attending a concert in Huntley. The Elgin connection? Primary suspect Thomas Urlacher, since deceased, lived in the city and was well known among area law enforcement.
Not guilty, not innocent
It’s been five years since a federal judge called Kenneth Smith’s murder conviction a “miscarriage of justice” and ordered his release from prison, but the state of Illinois still isn’t calling him an innocent man.
A state appeals court on Monday upheld a McHenry County judge’s ruling that denies Smith, a former Park City resident, a certificate of innocence in the 2001 killing of suburban restaurant owner Raul Briseno.
Smith, now 49 and living in Wisconsin, was found guilty three times of murdering Briseno during a 2001 robbery of his Burrito Express restaurant in McHenry, only to have all three convictions tossed on appeal.
In the final ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Andrea R. Wood called the case against Smith “extremely thin” and said his constitutional rights were repeatedly violated during trial.
After his May 2021 release, Smith asked a McHenry County court to formally declare him innocent of killing Briseno, a Wauconda resident who operated two restaurants in his hometown as well as the one in McHenry.
The request was opposed by Briseno’s family and McHenry County prosecutors, and Judge James Cowlin rejected it in December 2023, ruling that Smith did not prove his innocence “by a preponderance of the evidence,” as required.
The Second District Appellate Court of Illinois this week agreed.
“(Cowlin) thoroughly detailed the evidence in the voluminous record in this case, acknowledged the strength and weakness of that evidence, and considered the competing theories of the case,” Justice Ann B. Jorgensen wrote. “(He) reasonably determined that defendant did not meet his burden to show that he was entitled to a certificate of innocence.”
Justice moves slowly
The trial of an Aurora man charged in a deadly shooting outside a St. Charles nightclub a little over four years ago has been postponed.
A jury was supposed to begin hearing the case against Michael Carwell on July 28. But after prosecutors told Kane County Judge John Barsanti that several of their witnesses won’t be available that week, the judge rescheduled the trial for Dec. 11.
Carwell is arguing he was defending himself when he shot 23-year-old Khalief McAllister outside the Trilogy Club. Three others were hit by gunfire and survived. He’s charged with murder, attempted murder and aggravated battery with a firearm.
The defendant wants to present evidence that McAllister was awaiting trial on three DeKalb County cases when he was killed, including one in which he was charged with attempted murder, armed violence and aggravated discharge of a weapon.
But defense lawyer Ron Dolak said he has had difficulty finding witnesses in those cases to testify, and that DeKalb officials have been uncooperative.
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