Indiana : Carmen Van Huss
My case this week takes us back to Indianapolis, Indiana. To be honest, I really slept on Indy. I was really impressed with the town! It is the most populated city in Indiana with just under a million people living there. All throughout the city they have beautiful bronze statues and their downtown fountain is stunning. It is home to the world’s largest children’s museum. It is adorable with dinosaur sculptures peeking in through windows. Elvis Presley’s last concert was also performed in 1977 in Indy.
In Indianapolis in 1973, Carmen Hope Van Huss was born. Her parents divorced when she was young and her aunt and uncle raised her. Her aunt said that she loved animals and always brought home strays as a child. While she was a very smart young woman, the school didn’t suit her and she dropped out of Lawrence Central High School. Carmen was an artist and while she was in school she built a portfolio. After leaving public education, she gained her GED diploma.
At 19, she moved out on her own at first sharing an apartment with three other women but eventually decided to live on her own. She got a studio apartment at the Turtle Creek North Apartment Complex off of Harcourt Road in October of 1992.
March 22, 1993, Carmen, her younger brother, and her father were visiting her ill grandmother in the Community Hospital South. They were there past visiting hours and finally left around 10 pm. Carmen drove her father and brother home where her dad encouraged her to stay at his house. It was late, it was cold and it was a 20-minute or so drive to Carmen’s apartment.
Carmen, being responsible, needed to get back to her apartment. She had a shift the following morning at Pizza Hut, where she had been working for several months, and needed to wash her uniform before she went in for her shift.
Carmen made it home around 11 pm when neighbors in the apartment complex heard her walking up the few flights of stairs to her apartment with an unknown male. They could hear them talking, laughing, and seemingly being friendly.
A neighbor hears a bit of a scuffle and one person said they heard Carmen yell “Get off me! Get off me!” around 1-1:30 am. They also heard someone leaving the apartment and down the hallway in a haste. The neighbor called in a noise complaint to the building superintendent and management just left a note on the door requesting Carmen keep it down but no one called the authorities.
March 23, 1993, Carmen did not show up for her scheduled shift or call in. This is very out of character for Carmen. She was always punctual.
When she didn’t show up for her next shift on March 24, the manager began to get even more worried. They pulled the emergency contact information from Carmen’s employment paperwork and called Carmen’s father. Knowing that Carmen not showing up was out of character, James called Carmen’s phone a few times but all went unanswered. Panic setting in James drove over to his daughter’s apartment and saw Carmen’s car parked. When he arrives at Carmen’s door, he notices the noise complaint that was taped to her door. He knocks but no one answers.
He opened the unlocked door and saw some food on the table from a fast food restaurant and a few beer bottles sitting in the kitchen area. James’ worst fears were confirmed when he found his daughter’s lifeless and partially nude body in the bedroom area of the apartment. Carmen appeared to have been sexually assaulted and stabbed multiple times. He called law enforcement and they came in to process her apartment. Authorities stated that there appeared to have been a struggle but robbery didn’t seem to be the motive. Most items were still present even given the household was a mess.
The CSI team processed the apartment, gathering evidence from the fast food wrappers to the beer bottles. The coroner would confirm that Carmen had been raped and her manner of death was homicide by stabbing. Authorities also believe that whoever murdered 19-year-old Carmen, was an acquaintance or someone she knew.
This led investigators to interview many people. Neighbors, co-workers, previous roommates, ex-boyfriends, and current boyfriends. Anyone that may have known Carmen. Police even put a plea out to the public asking for anyone who had seen Carmen that evening, particularly between 10 pm to 11 pm. All of her previous boyfriends would be excluded from the persons of interest list eventually verified through DNA testing.
The amount of evidence collected inside Carmen’s apartment is astonishing, especially for the time period. They should have fingerprints on beer bottles, food, and door knobs where the murderer left. She was stabbed multiple times and they found no murder weapon and it is very likely the murderer was covered in blood! Yet no one saw them leaving the complex.
The DNA that was collected was sent off for testing but it seems as though the crime lab made a huge and costly mistake when sending samples. They did not send the correct ones. They sent Carmen’s samples so when the results came back stating the assailant's DNA was of a white woman of European descent, investigators were confused. This was a HUGE wall in Carmen’s case. Investigations came to a screeching halt because the department stated they did not have the funds to resend the correct DNA for testing because the first round cost the department $1,600.
Detective Sergeant William Carter, started a GoFundMe in 2015 to help cover the costs of the new specialty DNA testing. Originally the goal was to cover just under $1,000. The cost of the test is to search for genetic markers that could reduce the suspect pool. It quickly grew to $1200 in just over a day thanks to social media. Detective Carter took the money to pay for the test and then add any additional funds to the CrimeStopper’s reward for information leading to the arrest of Carmen’s murderer.
This is where drama with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department begins. There were many reports stating that the IMPD had removed Detective Carter from the case. At this point, Detective Carter was the only constant in Carmen’s murder. Her family had been told that Carter had been pulled off the case and there was uproar from the community. A petition was circled and it quickly gained hundreds of signatures. It created such a buzz that the IMPD had to hold a press conference saying that the statement of Carter being removed from the case was just a misunderstanding. The chief at the time claimed that Carter was never removed from the case because it wasn’t officially assigned to him to begin with. Detective Carter had merely volunteered to assist the primary detectives on the case. The chief went on to discuss how the money raised through the gofundme page would not be kept by the department and the money would be refunded.
The family had really held onto the hope that this specialty DNA test would happen because it could help reduce the number of persons of interest significantly.
It has been almost 30 years since Carmen was murdered. The DNA profile from the male that assaulted her has remained on file and it has not been matched to anyone in the system.
I listened to Nina’s coverage of Carmen’s case on her podcast Already Gone which led me to a reddit thread she had posted 4 years ago when she covered this story. The son of the man Carmen was dating at the time commented on the thread that his father was considered a suspect for a bit but no evidence found him of being the killer. Nina encouraged him to go to the police and I am imploring him to do so as well. You don’t know if any information you could have may be the one piece they need to make an arrest.
If you have any information about the murder of Carmen Hope Van Huss, please contact Detective Lieutenant William Carter at 317.327.1270, by email at william.carter@indy.gov or you can contact FBI VICAP at 800.634.4097 or by email at vicap@fbi.gov.
Sources:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100076647672709
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https://www.newspapers.com/image/106974073/?article=234df8a8-95f1-4704-b8f5-00e05754ce63
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https://www.newspapers.com/image/241581427/?terms=%22Carmen%20Van%20Huss%22&match=1
https://www.newspapers.com/image/313459103/?terms=%22Carmen%20Van%20Huss%22&match=1
https://www.newspapers.com/image/313459103/?terms=%22Carmen%20Van%20Huss%22&match=1
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100076647672709
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