More than three decades after a brutal killing shocked an Indiana community, a man is finally headed to prison.
Dana Jermaine Shepherd, 53, was sentenced Friday to 45 years behind bars for the 1993 murder of 19-year-old Carmen Van Huss. Court records show Shepherd pleaded guilty last month to one count of murder as part of a deal with prosecutors. In exchange, an additional rape charge involving a weapon was dropped.
Marion County Superior Judge James K. Snyder handed down the sentence, bringing long-awaited closure to a case that haunted the victim’s family for 33 years.
“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,” Prosecutor Ryan Mears said following the sentencing.
On March 22, 1993, Van Huss visited her grandmother in the hospital before returning to her Indianapolis apartment after dropping off her father and young brother at home. That night, neighbors reported hearing her laughing and talking with a man around 11:30 p.m.
Hours later, the tone shifted.
One neighbor later told police she heard Van Huss screaming “Get off me!” followed by the sound of someone running from the apartment.
The next day, after Van Huss failed to show up for work and could not be reached, her father went to check on her. What he found would forever change his life.
Authorities discovered the 19-year-old naked on her bedroom floor, surrounded by blood. The apartment showed signs of a violent struggle, with furniture overturned and belongings scattered. An autopsy later revealed she had been stabbed 61 times.
For decades, the case went cold.
DNA was collected in 1993, but it wasn’t until 2023 that advanced analysis identified Shepherd as a possible suspect. Detectives learned he had lived in the same apartment building at the time of the murder.
By 2024, Shepherd was working as a janitor in Missouri when investigators obtained a DNA sample. Testing confirmed a match to evidence from the crime scene. He was arrested in August 2024 and later extradited to Indiana.
The victim’s brother previously described the crime as unspeakably violent, saying the trauma of discovering Carmen’s body deeply impacted their father and family.
Following the sentencing, the Van Huss family released a statement acknowledging the plea deal was not their first choice but expressing relief that justice was finally served.
“For decades, the perpetrator was able to live a normal life after taking that right away from Carmen and from our family,” the statement read. “Nothing can undo that loss or erase the injustice of him living freely for so long, but we are thankful that the truth has finally come to light.”
Of course the victim was white!!