INDIANAPOLIS — A man has been sentenced to 45 years in prison after pleading guilty to murder in the 1993 killing of 19-year-old Carmen Van Huss.
Dana Jermaine Shepherd, 53, was sentenced to 45 years in the Indiana Department of Correction for the cold case murder that had gone unsolved for more than three decades.
Shepherd was arrested in August 2024 after DNA evidence linked him to the case. Under the plea agreement, Shepherd pleaded guilty to one count of murder while prosecutors dismissed all remaining charges.
1993 cold case
"While no passage of time can ever heal the unimaginable loss Carmen's family has endured, we are grateful to secure a Murder conviction more than 30 years after this heinous crime," said Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears. "Our hope is that this resolution brings a measure of justice and peace to her loved ones, after three decades of waiting for answers."
Van Huss was found murdered inside her northside apartment in the 8200 block of Harcourt Road on March 24, 1993. Her father discovered her body after a co-worker called when she didn't show up for work.
The coroner's report showed Van Huss had been stabbed 61 times. Court documents indicate she was also raped.
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Shepherd lived in the same apartment complex as Van Huss at the time of the crime.
The case went cold until 2018, when prosecutors used DNA and blood found in a trash bag at Van Huss's apartment to create a suspect profile.
Van Huss's DNA was entered into the national database in 2000. After 23 more years, IMPD found a match that led them to Shepherd.
Van Huss's brother, Jimmy, expressed relief at the arrest in 2024.
"She was taken from me when I was a freshman in high school," he said. "For my dad to have to find her after what was brutally done to her makes this day bittersweet and I wish he was here to see it."
