KAREN SPENCER - 17 yo (1989) - Cincinnati OH

The disappearance of 17 year old Karen Spencer has led to 20 years of
her parents' grief and investigators' frustration. That may soon end. A
prosecutor is finding new meaning in old clues. A grand jury may sort out the evidence.

A red 1982 Datsun B-310, red in color, is what a mustached young man said he
was driving when he stopped on I-275 to see if two girls needed help.
It was about three in the morning on December 30th, 1989.

Karen Spencer had just gotten out of her sister in law's car near the
Loveland Maderia exit because the two were arguing. Karen walked south.
Did she accept a ride with the stranger in the red car... a car that
disappeared the next day? Her father, Richard Spencer, thinks so. "That
might be her casket. We don't know."

Clermont County Prosecutor Daniel Breyer knows the stories the Datsun driver told over the years
don't add up. Police stopped considering him a suspect when he passed a
polygraph, or did he? Now, FBI profilers have taken another look.
"Behavioral scientists now say he did not pass he was manipulating the
test. If they had those tracings they would have said he failed."

A friend told police the suspect talked about the girl who went missing
from I-275, hours before Karen Spencer was even reported missing.
"We're curious what would make him think something happened to her."

And there's something else. Karen's sister in law said she blew off the
Datsun driver's offer to help and she never saw him again. So why when
questioned by police did he know the subject matter of the argument
between Karen and her sister-in-law. Did Karen tell him? Diane Spencer
is Karen's Stepmother: "She would not have been an easy victim. She
would never have been submissive. She would have fought with everything
she had."

Whatever happened that morning, the Karen Spencer
case is a murder investigation which could end up going to a grand
jury. So far this is a circumstantial case: evidence is presented then
to a jury, which is asked to use its common sense. Here's how its
explained. If you leave a cake on the table, and go to bed, come down
the next day, a piece is missing and your daughter has chocolate on her
face, it is circumstantial evidence she at the cake.

Like the Carrie Culberson case, evidence does not include a body. Prosecutors
didn't need it to convict Carrie's killer of murder. Prosecutor Daniel
Breyer doesn't think he needs a body either. "I don't believe I'll have
trouble convincing a jury she's dead, the task here is to convince a
jury who did it."

Who did it? After 20 years the family feels its closer than ever to finding out. "It's about time."