PA PA - Karen Wells, 23, Carlisle, 12 April 1994

The missing woman, who went by her middle name, Denise, has been mentioned in several threads on this site (http://www.websleuths.com/forums/search.php?searchid=8354461), but surely deserves her own.

She was driving from her family home in Oklahoma to visit a female friend in Bergen, NJ. Her parents were unconcerned about her making this journey, as she'd often traveled long distances solo when she had previously lived in South Dakota, where she had been convicted of forgery. She was the unemployed single parent of a little boy, who was viewed as dedicated to her son and, in the parlance, trying to "get her life together."

Denise stopped in Carlisle, PA, and checked into the Pike Motel off the Harrisburgh Pike on the evening of April 12, 1994. She called her friend in Bergen from the motel, telling her that she wouldn't be covering the rest of the distance and asking that the friend meet her there. She stated that she was going to go to the McDonald's near the motel, grab a bite to eat, and get some sleep. The friend was going to meet her up at the motel.

The friend arrived shortly after midnight April 13, was directed to Denise's room, and knocked, but got no response. She then asked the staff to open the room, where they found Denise's belongings--as well as her room key--but no sign of Denise. After waiting until the early morning, she contacted police to report Denise missing.

On the same morning, Denise's rental Plymouth Acclaim was found 35 miles distant, to the west and somewhat north of Carlisle, on State Route 274, in a very rural area near Tuscarora State Park, where it appeared to have "stopped in its tracks" in the westbound lane. It was out of gas, and the battery was dead. It was mud-splattered, and had scratches on it. Both the driver's and passenger's doors were "wide open." Inside were empty soda bottles, a pair of shoes, some uneaten french fries, and "indications of criminal activity, including a small quantity of marijuana." Denise's change purse, with a small sum of cash in it, was discovered in a nearby ditch.

Police determined that her odometer reading suggested that the vehicle had traveled between 600 and 700 miles more than would have been necessary to get to Carlisle, PA, from her starting point. They also seem to believe that Denise may actually have traveled east of Carlisle before turning back and calling her friend: "A time line pieced together from witness accounts and telephone logs places Wells as far east as Schaefferstown in Lebanon County and Bernville in Berks County before she apparently doubled back to the Carlisle area." She had traveled some distance out of her way to get to Carlisle, whether by design or from having gotten bad directions or made a mistake.

As a weird coda to this weird case, the wife of Denise's married ex-boyfriend claimed that she had received a call from Denise at about Thanksgiving 1974. She claimed that Denise had stated that she had gotten married and wouldn't be coming home. Police were skeptical.

Oddly, the remains of Cynthia Vanderbeek were discovered in 1995 by a jogger on Tuscarora Mountain, nearby. Her husband was subsequently convicted of her murder. The husband and wife were traveling from working at a boat show in Maine back to Florida, when he strangled her and dumped her there, deviating substantially to do so. There's almost certainly no connection, but it is a strange coincidence.

Denise's NamUs file shows DNA available, dentals not.

Charley Project
Official Cold Case Investigations

Project Jason

Bernville is an hour and a half east and north.

Looks like she met with some kind of foul play. Did they asked the McDonalds employees about it? did they check any video footage?

Hard to find any information on this one.

Was the wife of the ex ever looked into? Interviewed? Did she have any motive other than her husband was the ex?

Do we have photos? Found this poster....

As one of the few hooks in this case I thought I would look at the friend, Melissa Shepard. Whilst there seems no direct suspicion about her it does seem likely that her activities bear a closer look as one possibility is that the disappearance may be linked to something dodgy involving the two women. Why?

* she (Shepard) was a club dancer in NJ, an environment which would mean contact with dubious people.
* there are suggestions in reports of possible drug links to the case (including by DA David Freed).
* the police Chief Detective Les Freehling said Shepard stopped talking to the police and later disappeared from their view.

The following link contains some of this information; https://missingkarendenisewells.wordpress.com/news-articles/

Shepard is referred to as a childhood friend. Since Wells family home was in Haskell, Oklahoma I looked for a Melissa Shepard of the right current age (circa 45) with links to both Haskell and New Jersey. Veromi and Radaris list a Melissa Grace Shepard with past addresses in Haskell, Newark (very close to Bergen where Shepard is said to be in reports) and Las Vegas (clubs?). I would think this is our girl - especially as she is said to be 45 by Veromi.

Further searching on Melissa Grace Shepard produces multiple records of criminal activity, including drug related, see https://opencourtrecords.org/case.php?id=7757175. The following link - http://texas.arrests.org/Arrests/Melissa_Shepard_13287646/ - also includes a photo.

My starting point in this case would be to ask who Miss Shepard was involved with in 1994, where was she working and what was known about that location, and do the drug rumours intersect with any of these connections? It may also be interesting to know if the Wells married boyfriend also knew Shepard.

There's a theory by some users on reddit that this may have been a drug deal gone bad.

You can drive from Bernville and Schaefferstown to Carlisle in around an hour. There is no way that the distance between them accounts for 600-700 extra miles on the car.

Bernville sits right off Interstate 78 and Schaefferstown sits between I-78 and the PA Turnpike. I-78 is a direct shot to NJ as well as NYC, and known as a route for drug trafficking.

If you do some digging on missing person discussions on other sites you can find a lot more about this case. Definitely local chatter. Im sure I can't discuss it but if you google you will find. I am torn between random foul play, married ex with an angry wife, and melissa getting Denise involved in something illegal without Denise really being aware of it.
Supposedly Denise was going to NJ to pick up Melissa and take her back to OK because Melissa was having a bad time and needed to get herself straightened out.

still missing: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2015/04/missing_persons_midstate_pa_be.html#7

Could this be her? 231 miles from Carlisle. Accounts for some of the extra mileage on her car if someone drove the car to Levittown, dumped her and took the car back to Carlisle.

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/04/12/nyregion/woman-s-nude-body-found-in-levittown.html

Midstate Mystery: The disappearance of Karen Denise Wells

http://www.abc27.com/news/local/midstate-mystery-the-disappearance-of-karen-denise-wells/1142587678

It was 1994. Denise, as her family called her, was driving across the country from Oklahoma to New Jersey to help a friend in need. The 23-year-old hard-working single mother made it as far as the Pike Motel in Middlesex Township, Cumberland County.

When it was discovered she was missing, searches of that area came up empty. Her rental car was found abandoned on State Route 274 in a remote section of Perry County.

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And what about the friend she was supposed to meet in New Jersey? Melissa Shepard drove to Carlisle and reported Denise missing. She gave a tearful interview to abc27 back in 1994.

"She has a baby who's a year-and-a-half old," Shepard said at the time. "You're talking about a child that's not going to have a mother."

Boardman says although Shepard said she had no connection to the Midstate, she did receive a call from the Carlisle area 17 hours before Denise ever arrived there.

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Someone absolutely knows what happened to Denise," he said, "and we'll get to that eventually.

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I've started researching this case because the location is only a few hours drive from me. I believe wholeheartedly that this case was not investigated thoroughly. My experience with PA LE, and from what I've read about PA LE during that era, Denise was viewed as someone that was not worth investigating. There are a few details I've learned that add more mystery to the story.

The biggest thing is that Denise's rental car, white '93 Plymouth Acclaim with OK tags, had approximately 700 miles on the odometer that are unaccounted for based on what is known of her journey. She was travelling from Oklahoma to New Jersey, about 300-400 miles one-way. However, when the rental car was discovered on the day following her disappearance, there were an additional 700 miles on the OD. This led to speculation that her trip had a dual purpose. Aside from her stated reason (visiting her friend in NJ), some believed that the unaccounted for miles indicated that she was also going somewhere to pick up, or deliver a large amount of drugs. There is no proof to this story, and of course nobody has ever come forward to claim that she was moving an illegal product for them.

Another interesting fact is the condition of the 2nd crime scene, i.e. the secluded, wooded roadway in the idyllic Philadelphia suburb called Germantown. It is described as a "charming neighborhood with a rich sense of history", a quaint suburb full of 18th-century homes, and has picturesque attractions such as the country's oldest rose garden located at the Wyck House. The Wyck House, as described on the official website www.wyck.org, is one of the oldest houses in the area, built in the late 1600's. It is described as a safe neighborhood, a safe alternative to the crime laden city of brotherly love. Nevertheless, Denise's rental car was found abandoned in the middle of SR#274 in a remote section of Perry County, near or within the limits of the suburb of Germantown which is nearly 35 miles away from the Pike Motel in Cumberland County. The Pike Motel is the last verifiable location where miss Wells was seen alive on the April 12th, 1994. Her friend, whom she was on her way to visit, confirmed speaking to her on the phone when she checked into her room at the Pike, according to her interview with ABC27 News (WHTM-TV). I know that I've recapped most of what has already been posted on this page, but there is something about this case that has me hooked. How did this beautiful young woman disappear off the face of the earth? The fact that her vehicle was discovered with both front doors open, and out of gas. Karen Wells' wallet was found at the scene with a fair amount of cash inside.

A couple key facts make it hard to believe that she disappeared on her own volition. Her hotel room was found with all her belongings, e.g. her packed suitcase is on the bed, and she left her cigarettes behind. I've provided one of the few available images of the hotel room. You can judge for yourself, but it appears to me as if she simply entered her room, placed her bag on the bed, staying just long enough to freshen up and call her friend in NJ before going off in search of the nearest McDonalds. I believe she encountered a nefarious duo on her way to the restaurant. She may have asked for directions, and the man or men asked for a ride in exchange for directions to the golden arches... Skip to several hours later in the early morning hours of April 13th 1994, the assailants have already disposed of Miss Wells' body, and are running scared. They are so scared in fact that they run out of gas, even though there was enough cash found at the scene to indicate they could have made it farther had they planned better. This means that Denise's body was disposed of somewhere along the heavily wooded areas along State Route 274.

Why hasn't her body been found? Does anyone have any documents, images, or details to share? Her son is now an adult, and he is trying to live his life while all the while, there is a nagging in the back of his head, "What happened to my mom?" "Why did she leave me?" I'm sure he knows she would not have left him alone purposefully, especially when he was so young. However, as someone who lost a parent at a young age, I know that you never fully get over such a loss. I want to help find justice for Denise, and her family, as well as to see justice prevail against the person or persons who committed this terrible crime.

I'm a smoker. Even going to McDonald's, I'd take them with me. I think someone got to her in her room.

The Germantown section of Philadelphia is nowhere within 35 miles of the Carlisle area or Perry County. They are at least 2-3 hours apart. I also would never consider Germantown, Philadelphia all that safe, no matter what you read on Trip Advisor. It has a long history of crime, including drugs. Some areas are better than others, but it not a place you want to frequent after dark.

Perry County was, and still is, a rural area of Pennsylvania, not far outside the metro Harrisburg area. There is a town in Perry County that is New Germantown. New Germantown is near Tuscarora State Forest, which is pretty darn rural. Perry County has a million places to leave body where it would never be found.

Another thing to note is that your mileage is way off. Haskell, OK to Bergen, NJ is almost a 1,400 mile drive.

Thanks for the correction cutter, I did a quick google maps directions search, but it must have taken my location rather than OK as the starting point. I only had online info on new germantown, but I intend to visit the locations soon. Hope to have some more details after that. I just want to get this case out there, I admit I'm an amateur and welcome any help!

Owutatangledweb said:

I'm a smoker. Even going to McDonald's, I'd take them with me. I think someone got to her in her room.

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Right? I thought that as well, but if she was just running to get food she might have left them by accident. She may have met someone at her room, left of her own free will, then was taken and disposed of by that person or persons. If the story about drug mule are true, maybe she was too much a liability. The whole scenario is so strange, I hope to learn more, thanks for your help!

Maddux said:

Thanks for the correction cutter, I did a quick google maps directions search, but it must have taken my location rather than OK as the starting point. I only had online info on new germantown, but I intend to visit the locations soon. Hope to have some more details after that. I just want to get this case out there, I admit I'm an amateur and welcome any help!

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Ok, so I did some research, and found that I was in fact dead wrong about the violent crime rate in Germantown, PA. Comparisons show that the rate of violent crimes reported in Germantown was higher than that of the City of Philly. I appreciate my contribution being read at all, and apologize for making a rookie mistake. I'll do my best not to let it happen again.

• Karen Wells, 23, Carlisle, missing since April 1994

Wells, from Haskell, Okla., was traveling cross-country in April 1994 to to visit with a childhood friend in New Jersey. She dropped off her son at her parents’ home April 10 before she left on the trip. She reportedly checked into the Pike Motel in Middlesex Township, outside Carlisle, and asked for directions to McDonald’s, at about 8 p.m. The last time anyone heard from Wells was when she called her friend in New Jersey about 7:30 p.m. April 12. Wells’ disappearance was discovered when her friend arrived at the Pike Motel early on April 13 to meet as they’d planned. The friend immediately filed a missing person report with Middlesex Township police. Wells’ white Plymouth Acclaim, rented in Tulsa, was found abandoned in a rural part of Perry County, near New Germantown, along Route 274, early in the morning of April 13.


Missing persons: In Pennsylvania, how many are lost and from where?