Carlisle, Pa. - Pennsylvania State Police are seeking help from the public in solving what is now a 15-year-old missing persons case. Karen Denise Wells was 23 years old when she went missing April 12, 1994.

Wells, who went by Denise, was driving from Haskell, Oklahoma to New Jersey to visit a childhood friend. She disappeared after checking into the Pike Motel in Middlesex Township, in Cumberland County.

Cumberland County District Attorney Dave Freed says investigators have exhausted all leads, but believe Wells is most likely dead and was probably the victim of foul play.

"There have been people close to this case and close to Denise Wells who have been interviewed repeatedly in different forms, in different places, in different times, who we believe probably know more than they've told us," Freed said.

Wells left Oklahoma on April 10 after leaving her one-year-old son with her parents.

"Her mother worries and she's probably resigned herself to the fact that she's dead," said Sgt. William Goodhart of Middlesex Township police. "But you always hold that little piece of hope that maybe, maybe, she did just decide to just walk away."

Her mother, Deorma Wells say not knowing what happened is the toughest part. She says she prays someday she'll know what happened to her daughter, but thinks foul play was definitely involved.

"I do believe it's more than one person, just by the investigation that we've done. There's more than one individual that does know something. But I do believe she's deceased, and I would just like closure for myself and Denise's family," she said.

Police say Wells reached Pennsylvania April 12 and called her friend, Melissa Shepard, at least four times that day; first at around 11:30 a.m., after she ran out of gas near Schaefferstown, Lebanon County; again just after 3:30 p.m. from Bernville, Berks County; and a third time just before 5:30 p.m. from a gas station near Carlisle.

After supposedly telling Shepard she was lost, police say Wells checked in at the Pike Motel at around 6 p.m. At around 7 p.m., she phoned her friend one more time to say she was going to eat at a McDonald's restaurant.

Shepard, who told police she had offered to meet Wells, arrived at the motel the next morning, but said Wells did not answer the door.

Police found some of Wells' belongings, including clothing, inside the room. Her rented white Plymouth Acclaim was found abandoned and out of gas in the westbound lane of Route 274 in rural Perry County; about 30 miles from the motel. The front end had been damaged and the car was muddy, police said.

Wells' purse was left on the road with money still inside. There were no signs of a struggle and no fingerprints other than those of Wells.

Investigators said the strangest twist in the case was a call to Shepard's voice mail in New Jersey from a pay phone at a convenience store just south of the Pike Motel; apparently made about 17 hours before Wells arrived in the Carlisle area. Police said Shepard told them she can't remember who made that call.

Police say several persons of interest have been interviewed in the case, including people here locally, but said there has never been enough information to name anyone as a suspect.

Anyone with information regarding the disappearance of Karen Denise Wells is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-866-898-8477.

 

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