A Missouri man has been charged with the 1993 rape and murder of a young Indianapolis woman after his DNA was found at the crime site and on the victim’s body, authorities said.
Dana Shepherd, 52, of Columbia, Missouri, was arrested Friday on murder, felony murder, and rape charges in the death of 19-year-old Carmen Van Huss, according to a news release from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.
Shepherd was jailed without bond at Missouri’s Boone County Jail on Wednesday, and an extradition hearing is scheduled for the following days, according to a police department news release.
Online Indiana court records did not show a counsel who could represent Shepherd on Wednesday.
Deputy Chief Kendale Adams of the police department’s criminal investigations division said in a statement Tuesday that he hopes Shepherd’s arrest provides Van Huss’ family “some measure of peace.”
“For 31 years, the family of Carmen Van Huss has been searching for answers and justice,” a spokesperson said.
Van Huss’ father discovered her dead in her Indianapolis apartment in March 1993, after she failed to show up for work. An autopsy revealed that she had been raped and stabbed 61 times, according to court records.
“We hope after all this time people understand just how violent my sister’s murder was,” Van Huss’ brother, Jimmy Van Huss, told CBS station WTTV. “She was raped and stabbed over 60 times, and my father had to see her like that, with blood everywhere, blood on the walls, and his daughter naked and laying there. He had to see that.” “That changed him forever.”
DNA evidence was discovered on her body, as well as blood on a paper bag in her apartment, but the investigation was eventually abandoned, according to authorities.
In 2018, the department sent a sample of DNA recovered at the scene to a specialized company. Last year, detectives utilized the company’s genetic genealogy study to identify Shepherd as a suspect. They then took DNA from Shepherd in February, which matched DNA found on Van Huss’ body and in the paper bag.
According to investigators, Van Huss and Shepherd lived in the same apartment building at the time she was killed.
Jimmy Van Huss told CBS News that he believes the arrest in his sister’s murder will draw greater attention to other cold cases.
“We want all of them to get this treatment,” he told the broadcaster. “By that, I mean the DNA and genealogical treatment. We would like to see a bill, legislation, or a procedure based on Carmen’s memory receive the attention that other instances deserve.”