Dana Shepherd receives 45 years for 1993 murder of Carmen Van Huss

Dana Jermaine Shepherd, 53, received a 45-year sentence in the Indiana Department of Corrections on Feb. 13, 2026, for the 1993 murder of 19-year-old Carmen Van Huss in her Indianapolis apartment. Shepherd pleaded guilty as part of a plea deal reached in January 2026 and was sentenced this month in Marion County court.

Prosecutor Ryan Mears framed the conviction as long-awaited closure for Van Huss’s family, saying, “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. Our hope is that this resolution brings a measure of justice and peace to her loved ones, after three decades of waiting for answers.”

Investigators credited advances in DNA technology for producing the lead that ultimately identified Shepherd. Indianapolis police submitted evidence to a DNA technology company in 2018; that company used phenotyping and genetic genealogy to generate investigative leads and, in 2023, contacted IMPD with information pointing to someone connected to Shepherd. Court documents show IMPD detectives traveled to Columbia, Missouri, in early 2024, where Shepherd was working as a janitor at a local college, and obtained a DNA swab that matched DNA recovered from the crime scene.

Shepherd was arrested in August 2024 on murder and rape charges in Missouri and then extradited to Indiana to face prosecution. Court records cited by reporting show he previously lived in the same apartment complex as Van Huss and would have been about 21 at the time of the 1993 killing.

Accounts of the homicide include stark and differing details. Fox News reported that Van Huss was raped and stabbed 61 times and that the scene showed signs of a struggle, with a knocked-over table and scattered objects. A Reddit post on r/UnresolvedMysteries provides a specific discovery date of March 24, 1993, and places the apartment in the 8200 block of Harcourt Road; that post also summarizes evidence reporting blood in a trash bag used to create a DNA profile in 2018. Other mainstream reports identify only the year 1993 and her Indianapolis apartment without the street-level specifics. Fox News said Van Huss’s father found her body, while the Reddit post said a relative discovered her after a coworker raised concerns; those discovery accounts differ in available reporting.

IndyStar reporting added that the city paid for an initial DNA test but did not pay for a second attempt, a payment issue IMPD officials attributed to a miscommunication between the crime lab and the department. Van Huss’s family had pushed for the reinstatement of Detective Carter, which IndyStar reported was granted as detectives continued work on the case through the years.