New hope in '87 case of missing woman?

VERNAL — Audrey Slaugh still vividly recalls the morning 19 years ago when she went to her daughter's home and found skid marks in the driveway, her shoes scattered and her corduroy jacket crumpled on the sidewalk. The cigarettes that she carried everywhere were on the kitchen counter along with her car keys and purse.

"There was a struggle there ... as I walked around the house, her voice told me, 'Mom I'm dead,"' said Slaugh.

Rhonda Fae Karren was 31 years old and in the process of divorcing her third husband when she was reported missing on Sept. 29, 1987. She was last seen about 10:30 p.m. the previous day by a co-worker who dropped her off at her home after the two returned from a Kmart management meeting in Salt Lake City.

Slaugh has never held a memorial service for her daughter. Deep in her heart, the spry 80-year-old still holds out the hope only a mother can have, that tells her maybe, just maybe, there is a chance that her daughter is still alive.

The last time Uintah County sheriff's detectives searched for Karren was in 2002 when new evidence led them to a familiar location just across the Colorado border, to a water well. The dig was conducted on private property on Diamond Mountain about 17 miles northeast of Vernal.

It was the same area where Karren's estranged husband, Mark — whose family owned property nearby — was reportedly seen the night she disappeared. It's the same place that cadaver dogs have "hit" on 11 different occasions, said Duchesne County Undersheriff Wally Hendricks, who leads the Duchesne County Cadaver Dog Team.

Uintah County Sheriff's Det. Bob Vanderbusse was assigned the Karren case in 1994. He has said that the case will remain open until it is solved, no matter how long it takes.

Last week, Mark Karren was ordered by the court to turn over samples of his hair, blood and fingerprint evidence.

Their 2002 investigation at the site failed to turn up concrete evidence that sheriff's detectives hoped to find. With better drilling equipment and more high-tech investigative tools at their disposal, they returned last Wednesday with cadaver dogs, heavy equipment operators and forensic scientists.

The dig last Wednesday went to a depth of 87 feet, said Dennis Hullinger, manager of Pete Martin Rathole Drilling in Vernal.

The company donated its time and equipment throughout the day, saving the county about $7,000 in expenses, said Hullinger.