The Call for a Ride: The Death of Kara Greger

Around 1 a.m. on Saturday, September 10, 2022, someone in Harrisburg, South Dakota, called the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office about gunshots. Deputies found Kara Greger dead. She was 21.

The sheriff’s office said foul play was not suspected. The mayor of Harrisburg said investigators were sure it was a suicide.

Her family has asked whether a fight earlier that night had anything to do with it.

Sources for this section: 2, 3, 4, 6

Lake Andes

Kara Greger liked to stay up late cooking. She cooked and visited with her mom and her dad and her Uncle Joe Swatek. She would tell them stories, theories, observations and ideas. All night and all day, her family wrote.

She was born on November 10, 2000. Her mother was Larina. Her father was Todd. Her obituary and death notice spell her name Greger. Dakota News Now uses both spellings, and its headline says Gregor.

She grew up in Lake Andes and Wagner and Sioux Falls. For a while she lived in Wagner with her Grandma Bernadette Patterson and with Susan Patterson.

Sources for this section: 4, 5, 6

Andes Central

She went to high school at Andes Central in Lake Andes. In 2018 she was the Andes Central Homecoming Queen. That same year she was the Miss Fish Days Queen. That is how her obituary has it.

Her grandmother Stephanie Cournoyer had it a little different. “She was the prom queen. The Little Miss Fish Days,” she told Dakota News Now. “She was very popular with everybody.”

Kara finished her last semester at Wagner Community School. She graduated with the Class of 2019.

Then she moved to Sioux Falls. Her family put it this way. She went “to live young, wild and free.” That lasted until the summer of 2021.

Sources for this section: 5, 6

Three jobs

When she came home to Lake Andes she worked three jobs. The Lake Andes Carnegie Public Library. Knotheads Bar & Grill. The Gus Stop.

The library wasn’t new. She had worked there all through high school, with Mary Jo Parker. Her family wrote that Kara absolutely adored her. Before that she had a summer youth job at the Native American Women’s Health and Education Resource Center, with her good buddy Everdale Song Hawk.

She volunteered at tribal and community events. “She was very responsible. She had three jobs,” her grandmother said.

Sources for this section: 5, 6

Halloween

She watched shows about history. Shows about aliens. A lot of odd comedy. She sang in the shower as loud as she could.

She was a roller skating and dancing machine, her family wrote. Nobody could keep up with her on the dance floor.

Halloween was the big one. The costumes, the makeup, the hair. She made sure she found the best haunted houses.

Sources for this section: 5

Thelma & Louise

Her family wrote down where she went with her aunts. Fairs. Festivals. Carnivals. Concerts. Powwows.

There was family bingo, with snacks. And there was Grandma Stephanie. The family called the two of them “our version of Thelma & Louise.” You never knew if they were rummaging in some nearby town or eating at some restaurant in the area.

She was good with kids, her family wrote. Patient with them. Kind. She had a hearty laugh.

If somebody came up with a cool idea, she was in. She loved adventures. There were the Hopkins cousins and Liz Patterson. There was the whole Sioux Falls crew.

She made friends with anyone, her family wrote. She took people as they were.

Sources for this section: 5

The Phoenix Lounge

In September 2022, Kara and a friend went to a concert at the Phoenix Lounge in Harrisburg.

Her grandmother would say it more simply later. “She went to a dance with a friend.”

Nobody on the record says who was playing. Nobody says what time they got there.

Sources for this section: 6

The fight

A fight broke out at the bar.

Kara was told to leave.

Later a video went around on social media. It showed a woman getting beaten up.

The mayor of Harrisburg said Kara was part of the altercation. He said he couldn’t say what her role was.

The reporting doesn’t say if Kara is the woman in the video.

Sources for this section: 3, 6

A ride

The calls started after that. People in Kara’s family were getting asked for a ride.

One call came to Susan Patterson. Dakota News Now called her Kara’s cousin.

It was Kara. She asked for a ride.

Patterson sent her brother.

Sources for this section: 6

The friend’s message

The friend remembered a different part of the night.

She recorded a message on her phone, nearly four minutes long, and sent it to the family. Dakota News Now quoted parts of it.

THE FRIEND, recorded message to Kara’s family, as quoted by Dakota News Now:

“Are you going to be okay?”

“I’ll take you home if you want to go home. And she said, ‘no, I’ll be okay. I’ll stay in the car.’ I searched around Harrisburg for her for 15 minutes, and I couldn’t find her at all.”

The message doesn’t say whose car. It doesn’t say what time it was. The record doesn’t say if this came before Kara’s call to her cousin or after.

Sources for this section: 6

Elm and Railroad

A call came in to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office around 1 a.m. on Saturday, September 10. Somebody had heard gunshots. Witnesses said it happened at Elm Street and Railroad Avenue.

Deputies got there and found Kara dead. She was 21.

Susan Patterson’s brother was still on his way. “He made it down there too late because he’s seen two sheriffs go by,” she said.

A neighbor heard the shots. The neighbor looked outside and didn’t see anything. By Monday somebody had set up a vigil on the boulevard in front of a house nearby.

Sources for this section: 2, 3, 4, 6

No foul play

Saturday, September 10, 2022, as Dakota News Now reported it that morning.

The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office confirmed one person was fatally shot early that morning. It was believed to be an isolated incident. There was no threat to the public.

Monday, September 12, 2022, as the Argus Leader reported it.

Sheriff Steve Swenson said in a news release that the death was being investigated as an unattended death. Foul play was not suspected. Given the nature of the death, no more details would be released.

No arrests were announced.

Nobody from the sheriff’s office used the word suicide in any statement found for this story.

Sources for this section: 1, 2, 3

The mayor

Derick Wenck talked to Dakota News Now just after the shooting.

DERICK WENCK, mayor of Harrisburg:

“They’re 100% positive that it was a suicide. A gun was stolen out of a vehicle.”

He said the night’s events began earlier in the evening, with the fight at the bar.

He said the women from the fight would still face assault charges. He said the sheriff’s office didn’t believe they were “directly involved” in the death.

That was the mayor talking. It isn’t a court record. No sheriff’s report, death certificate or court record found for this story confirms what he said, and no public record found shows whether anyone was charged.

Sources for this section: 3, 6

The 4-H building

Wake services were set to begin that Tuesday at the 4-H Center.

On Friday, September 16, at 11 a.m., the funeral was set for the 4-H building in Lake Andes. Peters Funeral Home in Wagner handled the arrangements.

Sources for this section: 4, 5

A month later

In mid-October 2022, Kara’s family talked to Dakota News Now.

STEPHANIE COURNOYER, Kara’s grandmother:

“She went to a dance with a friend, and how did you end up dead? I just can’t believe that.”

The family had questions. Was the fight connected to the shooting? Who pulled the trigger?

Those were their questions. No investigator has said anyone else was involved.

By then the sheriff’s office said the bar fight was still under investigation. Some of the people in it had been identified.

The shooting was still an unattended death. No foul play.

STEPHANIE COURNOYER:

“I’d like to know how they’re pursuing this crime.”

She didn’t want it brushed under the rug.

SUSAN PATTERSON:

“We want to know the truth.”

The family believed some people knew the identity of others involved.

“I’m asking people to please come forward,” her grandmother said. “This could happen to your child.”

That interview is the last public reporting found for this story about Kara’s death.

No one has publicly said whose gun it was or who reported it stolen. No one has said how much time passed between the fight, the calls for a ride and the gunshots, whether anyone was charged for the fight, or what the people at the Phoenix Lounge that night told investigators.

If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

Sources for this section: 2, 3, 6