224 - The Disappearance of Karen Denise Wells

Trace Evidence

Steven Pacheco

True Crime, Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.7 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 17 June 2023

⏱️ 109 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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In early April of 1994, twenty-three year old Karen Denise Wells received an urgent call from a dear friend. This friend was in a bad place and was really struggling so Denise decided to make the 1,400 mile drive from Oklahoma to New Jersey to visit. Tragically, she would never return.

Less than three days after embarking on her trip, Denise would mysteriously vanish. Investigators found themselves struggling to put the pieces together as almost none of the story made sense to them. It didn't take long to realize something more sinister had occurred and that Denise's own friend may have been involved.

Nearly thirty years later and Denise's fate has never been determined. While details are scarce and the official timeline is full of holes there is one thing investigators agree on; someone knows exactly what happened to the bright, loving single mother who hasn't been heard from in nearly three decades.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	On a quiet Sunday afternoon in April of 1994, 23-year-old Karen Denise Wells set off on
0:16.4	a cross-country road trip to visit a close friend she'd grown up with.
0:21.2	Leaving from her native Haskell, Oklahoma, the young mother was heading for North Bergen,
0:26.0	New Jersey, 1,400 miles and seven states away. For at least the first 24 hours of the trip,
0:33.3	everything was going according to plan, but somewhere along the way, things went sideways.
0:39.8	By the time she reached Pennsylvania, Denise seemed to be having trouble. She started calling
0:44.7	her friend more frequently, and while she'd covered more than 1,000 miles in 30 hours,
0:50.3	her stops became disjointed. At one point, the young mother traveled just 20 miles in a span of
0:56.8	five hours. Finally, she made the decision to stop at a motel where her friend would meet her to help
1:03.4	guide her through the last miles of the trip. Unfortunately, Denise would vanish sometime in the
1:09.5	gap between checking into the hotel and her friend's arrival six hours later. For more than 30 years,
1:16.4	the truth of Denise's fate has remained elusive. Initial theories considered that she might have
1:21.8	been the victim of a random crime, or perhaps had plotted out her own disappearance. However,
1:27.7	the passage of nearly three decades has led investigators to look a little closer to home.
1:33.6	Was Denise the victim of a random crime? Was she in the wrong place at the wrong time,
1:39.2	or could her dear friend have used their relationship to obscure sinister intentions?
1:45.6	This is Trace Evidence Episode 224, The Disappearance of Karen Denise Wells.
2:00.0	Welcome to Trace Evidence. I'm your host, Stephen Pacheco. Today, we examine the mysterious
2:06.4	1994 disappearance of 23-year-old Karen Denise Wells. Before getting into the case,
2:13.1	just a few quick notes about the show. Trace Evidence is a weekly true crime podcast focused on
2:18.9	unsolved murders and disappearances. Visit Trace-evidence.com for all social media links,
2:25.4	episode breakdowns, donation options, and contact information. You can submit case suggestions
	...

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