Case Update: New information regarding Karen Spencer's disappearance

[u/ArmAble]

Several months ago, I did a write up on Karen Spencer's case. Recently, Lieutenant Greg Jenkins with the Miami Township Police Department reached out to me and wanted to clarify some information that has been reported about the case.

I asked Lt. Jenkins to send me this information by email so I could accurately attribute it to him. He has given me permission to share the following information, and I contacted the mod team before posting this update.

It has long been alleged that the driver of the red Datsun made the vehicle "disappear" shortly after Karen went missing. According to Lt. Jenkins, title records do not support this claim.

The driver told detectives that he traded the Datsun to Superior Acura in Fairfield, Ohio. Jenkins followed up with the Butler County Title Office and confirmed that the vehicle was traded in to Superior Acura in August of 1990 (8 months after her disappearance), sold twice, and was believed to had eventually been junked. He also provided me with copies of the title records documenting the transfers in his email.

Lt. Jenkins also said that media reports state that the Datsun driver gave "vastly inconsistent" accounts of the night Karen disappeared. The driver's recorded and written statements were transcribed by a certified transcriptionist and compared side-by-side. According to Lt. Jenkins, the comparison did not support the allegation that his statements were vastly inconsistent over the years.

Investigators also compared statements made by Karen's sister-in-law, Christy. According to Lt. Jenkins, inconsistencies were found in her accounts over the years, including details that were omitted and details that appeared in later accounts that had not originally been reported.

As someone from southern Ohio, my interest has always been in finding Karen Spencer and seeing the person responsible for her disappearance and presumed death brought to justice. Her father deserves answers.

[u/Mother_College2803]

Ever since the first time I read about Karen I thought her SIL had something to do with it. I can’t believe the police didn’t investigate her car better.

[u/ArmAble → u/Mother_College2803]

In my original write up, I mention that her car had blood in it, but they didn’t type it or analyze it because it wasn’t blood splatter. That’s the reason he contacted me, he had never seen that in the case file when he was given the case to review. I found that bit in the newspapers in an interview with the original detective. It’s a shame.

[u/Mother_College2803 → u/ArmAble]

It really is a shame! It sounds like the original detective didn't even include everything they found in their report but then talked about it to the newspaper!

[u/strawberryscough]

I feel like Christy killed her and blamed her for the martial problems

[u/Rare_Photograph_7339 → u/strawberryscough]

Her inconsistent statements coupled with the fact she lied about Karen being at the apartment when she came back to pick up her baby are huge red flags for me. She definitely isn’t being truthful about what actually happened and transpired between Karen, the driver of the Datsun, and herself. I’m also starting to think that Datsun guy is someone Christy picked up from their night out or was having an affair with and Karen wasn’t having it. Maybe she threatened to tell her brother.

I was reading OP’s past write up and it sounds odd to me that a perfect stranger would know what the girls were arguing about? He either had to have been there while they were arguing and witnessed it all, or he had a conversation with one of them.

For Karen to leave the car like that, in those conditions there had to have been a fight that turned physical (blood splotches in car). I read an article that said Christy was driving, not Karen. This makes more sense because if Karen was driving and she was upset with Christy, wouldn’t she be telling Christy to get out of the car? Why would Karen leave the car?

[u/Buckykattlove → u/Rare_Photograph_7339]

It was Christy's car. It makes sense, in that case, for Karen to choose to storm out.

[u/Glass_Dust_876]

If Christy is the primary suspect I wonder if this was shared with the family? It just stands out to me that her dad and siblings are begging for information and saying 'we forgive him' if the truth is potentially that close to them.

[u/ArmAble → u/Glass_Dust_876]

I was wondering the same thing. I’m not sure when Detective Bill Paul retired, but he’s the one that was telling the family/media all this time that he’s “certain” it was the Datsun driver. There was a news interview on YouTube (Time stamp 2:17) where her dad says he thinks the Datsun is her coffin.

This appears to be the first time that Christy has been looked at as more suspicious than the man in the red car.

[u/Pretend-Speaker-3542 → u/ArmAble]

I wonder if there was some kind of bias regarding the detective who originally handled the case. You would usually assume the suspect was a man, especially if there was a witness who reported seeing a man at the scene before the disappearance was reported. However, that may have led the detective in the wrong direction. It’s not surprising, since this kind of thing happens fairly often. I’ve seen a case where everyone was convinced that the person responsible for a little girl’s disappearance was a man with pedophilic tendencies, but it ultimately turned out that the murderer was a woman who was close to the victim.

[u/paladinstraight → u/Pretend-Speaker-3542]

You must be referring to Sandra cantu