BOONE COUNTY, Mo. — We’re learning new details about a Missouri man charged in a brutal 1993 murder that took the life of a 19-year-old woman. According to Indianapolis Police, Carmen Van Huss was raped and stabbed 61 times in March of 1993 at her north Indianapolis apartment complex. Detectives say DNA evidence has now led them to her killer decades later, hundreds of miles away.
On Thursday, a case was filed against 52-year-old Dana Jermaine Shepherd. Shepherd, who was working as custodian at the University of Missouri, was arrested in Columbia on Friday. He is charged with two counts of murder and one count of rape with deadly force against Van Huss. In addition, the Boone County court charged Shepherd with being a fugitive from out of state.
According to our partners at FOX 59, online court records date these charges to March 23, 1993. Per police documents from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, Marion County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched around 7:34 p.m. on March 24, 1993, to an apartment in the 8200 block of North Harcourt Road. There, they found Van Huss’ body, which police said was nude.
Neighbors reported hearing screams from Van Huss’s apartment, followed by someone running down the hallway. Police say her father discovered her body in the disheveled apartment before calling police.
Thirty-one years later, DNA testing led detectives to now 52-year-old Dana Jermaine Shepherd. Shepherd was living in the same north Indianapolis apartment complex as Van Huss at the time of her murder.
On Tuesday, the Indianapolis Police Department held a press conference to discuss the investigation and arrest. Van Huss’s younger brother, Jimmy Van Huss, said he was grateful to finally have justice for his sister.
“She was taken from me when I was a freshman in high school, and I’m thankful that finally the man who did it is where he needs to be. I have hope that any similar case with DNA can get this same treatment,” Van Huss said.
Our partners at FOX 59 report funding for the DNA testing in this case came from a non-profit that provides financial support to investigative agencies for cold cases. The department said they aren’t giving up on other cold cases, either.
“Unfortunately, (there are) a lot of cases out there and a lot depends on what evidence is available and statements,” Deputy Chief Kendale Adams said. “But I don’t want you to think that we’ve forgotten about you.”
Shepherd is being held in the Boone County Jail until he can be extradited back to Indiana, which the department expects will happen in the coming days.
