Dana Jermaine Shepherd pleaded guilty in the decades-old cold case.
INDIANAPOLIS — A Marion County judge sentenced Dana Jermaine Shepherd to 45 years in prison for the 1993 killing of 19-year-old Carmen Van Huss, closing a case that had sat unsolved for decades until modern DNA work linked him to evidence from the scene.
The sentence marks a rare end point for a homicide that investigators chased through the 1990s and early 2000s with interviews and tips but no arrest. Prosecutors said Shepherd’s guilty plea secured a murder conviction more than 30 years after Van Huss was found dead in her northside apartment. The ruling also brought renewed attention to how forensic testing and genetic genealogy can revive cases that once seemed out of reach, and to the long wait families face when an investigation goes cold.
In court, the judge accepted Shepherd’s guilty plea and imposed the 45-year term in the Indiana Department of Correction. Shepherd, 53, admitted to the murder under a plea agreement filed in January. As part of the deal, prosecutors dismissed other counts tied to the attack, including a rape allegation described in court records. Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears said the conviction could not erase what the family lost, but he called it a measure of justice after decades of waiting.
Van Huss was found dead inside her apartment in the 8200 block of Harcourt Road on March 24, 1993, after she failed to show up for work. Her father went to check on her after a co-worker reported she was not answering calls, and he discovered her body. Investigators described a violent scene with signs of a struggle inside the home. An autopsy later counted 61 stab wounds, according to records cited in the case, and investigators said sexual assault evidence was collected.
Neighbors also reported hearing disturbances around the time of the killing. One resident told police he heard screams, crying, slamming and arguing that lasted about 30 minutes during the early hours of March 23, according to a probable cause affidavit cited in public reports. Another account said voices and laughter were heard late the night before the killing, followed later by yelling. Those early details helped guide detectives as they worked the case, but the leads did not produce an arrest at the time.
The investigation stretched across decades. Detectives interviewed dozens of people and followed up on hundreds of leads, police said in a 2024 statement announcing Shepherd’s arrest. For years, no suspect could be tied to the DNA evidence. In 2013, investigators uploaded the unknown suspect’s DNA profile to the national CODIS database, but no match was found. The case remained open but unresolved, one of many files that detectives revisit when new technology becomes available.
A turning point came when investigators tried genetic genealogy, a method that can suggest a suspect by comparing an unknown DNA profile to relatives who have voluntarily submitted samples to genealogy databases. Police said a DNA sample from evidence was sent to Parabon NanoLabs in 2018 for advanced analysis. By the summer of 2023, detectives said investigative work and information generated from that analysis helped them identify Shepherd as a suspect. Police learned he had lived in the same apartment complex as Van Huss in 1993, with buildings connected by a shared common area.
Investigators later obtained a DNA sample from Shepherd for traditional forensic testing. Police said the results matched DNA recovered at the crime scene and on the victim’s body. Shepherd was arrested in Missouri in late August 2024 and later returned to Indiana to face charges. He was initially charged with murder, felony murder and rape, and the case moved toward trial before the plea agreement was filed. Under the agreement, Shepherd pleaded guilty to murder, and the remaining charges were dismissed.
For the Van Huss family, the sentence landed after years of uncertainty and a long push for answers. Van Huss’ brother, Jimmy Van Huss Jr., spoke publicly when the arrest was announced in 2024, saying his sister was killed while he was a freshman in high school. He said she never got to reach milestones that many families take for granted, and he described how the discovery changed their father. In a statement released after the sentencing, relatives said they were grateful the case had reached accountability, even as they noted the plea deal was not their first choice.
Officials also credited persistence and collaboration. Indianapolis police said grant funding helped pay for advanced DNA testing and analysis, and they pointed to work by detectives and forensic staff who stayed with the case. The department’s 2024 announcement also included comments from leaders involved in the investigation, who said the outcome showed how evolving tools can support long-running homicide work. Even so, authorities emphasized that no scientific method replaces the basic groundwork of interviews, records checks and follow-up that detectives had carried out for years.
Shepherd will be processed into state custody to begin serving his sentence. One report citing the probable cause affidavit said he is expected to serve roughly half the term under Indiana’s sentencing structure, though exact time can depend on credit time and corrections rules. For investigators, the case now stands as a closed file after a conviction, with court proceedings complete and no trial scheduled. For the family, the next milestone is the start of the prison term that follows the judgment.
Author note: Last updated Feb. 15, 2026.