Inset: Dana J. Shepherd (IMPD). Background: The area in Indianapolis where Shepherd killed his former neighbor (Google Maps).
A 53-year-old man in Indiana will spend several decades in prison for killing his neighbor, stabbing her 61 times in her home then leaving the mutilated body for her father to find.
Marion County Superior Judge James K. Snyder on Friday ordered Dana Jermaine Shepherd to serve 45 years in a state correctional facility for the 1993 slaying of 19-year-old Carmen Van Huss, court records show.
“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 in a statement following the sentencing hearing, per Indianapolis NBC affiliate WTHR. “Our hope is that this resolution brings a measure of justice and peace to her loved ones, after three decades of waiting for answers.”
Shepherd reached a deal with prosecutors last month and pleaded guilty to one count of murder. In exchange for pleading guilty, prosecutors dropped an additional charge of rape with a weapon and deadly force.
Van Huss on March 22, 1993, visited her grandmother in the hospital and then dropped off her father and 3-year-old brother at their Indianapolis home before driving to her apartment in the 8200 block of Harcourt Road, the Indianapolis Star reported.
Witnesses told police that at about 11:30 p.m. that evening, they could hear Van Huss and an unidentified man talking and laughing in the apartment. However, about two hours later, one neighbor reportedly said she could hear Van Huss yelling “Get off me!” as well as footsteps rushing from the apartment.
The following day, Van Huss’ manager at a local Pizza Hut called her father after several unsuccessful attempts to contact her. When her father was also unable to contact Van Huss, he went to her apartment and made the grisly discovery.
Deputies with the Marion County Sheriff’s Office responded to the home and reportedly found Van Huss lying naked on the floor of her bedroom in a large pool of blood from dozens of stab wounds to her face, head, and body. There were also signs of a struggle, including clothes and other objects strewn about the home and furniture knocked over.
A subsequent autopsy determined that Van Huss suffered a total of 61 stab wounds and concluded that the manner of death was a homicide.
The victim’s brother, Jimmy Van Huss, previously told local Fox affiliate WXIN that his sister’s murder was particularly heinous.
“We hope after all this time people understand how violent my sister’s murder was,” Jimmy Van Huss told the station in 2024. “She was raped and stabbed over 60 times. My dad had to see that, blood everywhere, his daughter naked, lying there. He had to see that. That changed him forever.”
DNA evidence from the scene was collected at the time, but it was not until an analysis company in 2023 identified Shepherd as a possible person of interest in the case that the case was able to move forward, the Star reported. Detectives soon learned that a then-21-year-old Shepherd lived in the same building as Van Huss at the time of the murder.
Shepherd was reportedly working as a janitor in Columbia, Missouri, in 2024 when detectives obtained a DNA sample from him. The sample was tested against the DNA from the scene and came back as a match. He was taken into custody in Missouri in August 2024 and extradited back to Indiana about three months later.
The Van Huss family released a statement to WXIN following Friday’s hearing.
“While this plea deal was not our first choice, we are grateful that after 33 years the man responsible for Carmen’s brutal rape and murder is finally being held accountable,” the family said. “For decades, the perpetrator was able to live a normal life after taking that right away from Carmen and from our family. 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 and that he has not escaped justice.”
