No one disappears without a trace. Anne Arundel County police confirmed a link between a recent search of a Pasadena water well and Karen Kamsch, who has been missing since 1976.
“From information we?ve gotten from family members, we think this is not a simple missing persons case ? that there?s foul play,” said David Waltemeyer, supervisor of the Anne Arundel homicide unit, at a news conference Wednesday. “We do have a person of interest, and that person is a close associate or family member of Karen.”
Karen Kamsch was 14 when she disappeared from the Pasadena home where she lived with her paternal grandmother, Olga Kamsch, he said.
Family members assumed Olga Kamsch filed a missing persons report, but in a recent investigation, Anne Arundel police could not find a report, leading them to believe Karen may have been murdered, he said.
The investigation into Karen?s past began in Maywhen Karen?s younger brother Tate Kamsch, 45, of Glen Burnie, contacted Anne Arundel police, because he couldn?t find a record of his sister?s disappearance.
“I always wondered what ever happened to my sister,” said Tate Kamsch on Wednesday. “I was young then, about 12 or 13. I just believed what my parents told me.”
Detectives found only a birth certificate for Karen and 1976 school records from Brooklyn Park Senior High School, Waltemeyer said.
Karen, a straight-A student, moved in with her grandmother, because she “had some problems and ran away a couple times,” Tate Kamsch said.
She may have been abused by someone close to her, Waltemeyer said, but declined to elaborate.
Olga Kamsch died in 1999, but her house, which is now occupied by Karen?s uncle, was searched for more than 12 hours Aug. 29 by the Anne Arundel police and fire departments, along with a FBI evidence collection team.
Baltimore County cadaver dogs zeroed in on the well, Waltemeyer said.
Debris from the well was sent to a forensic anthropologist, but human remains other than small pieces of teeth and bones would have degraded after 30 years, he said.
He would not confirm whether any objects or clothing particles were found, but said “it was interesting what we did find.”
Karen?s parents George Kamsch, 63, of Glen Burnie, and Jean Lee, 62, who lives on the Eastern Shore, could not be reached for comment.
Police say some family members are not cooperating with the investigation.
“We think there is a person out there who knows what happened and probably has been living with a secret,” Waltemeyer said. “They can rest assured we?re not going to stop looking.”
