On February 24th, 2013, Karen Schafer was on her to attend mass at Holy Family Chuch in Rockford.
In the parking lot of the church there were three minors that were allegedly trying to steal from cars inside the lot.
A parishioner from the church called the police once they seen the teens activity and a Winnebago County Sheriff Deputy responded to the scene. There had reportedly been a string of robberies from parked vehicles in the area.
When the three teens noticed the deputies arrival, they jumped in a vehicle they had stolen earlier that day. They drove out of the parking lot and headed down Alpine at a high speed. They ran the red light at Alpine and Brendenwood causing what turned out to be a fatal accident into Karen Shafer’s SUV.
Karen was a 58 year old obstetrics nurse at OSF St. Anthony Medical Center. She was the mother of seven children.