a young woman came home and suddenly stopped answering calls her family started to worry and soon the police got involved before long they uncovered a series of creepy and bizarre Clues but figuring out what really happened to her proved impossible for years that is until investigators made a shocking breakthrough and finally uncovered an unexpected truth Carmen van hus was born on October 9th 1973 in Indianapolis Indiana she grew up there with her parents and two younger brothers but when Carmen was still a kid her parents decided to split up even so she stayed really close
to her dad and spent a lot of time with him from an early age Carmen loved drawing and had a soft spot for Animals according to her parents she couldn't walk past a stray cat without bringing it home at one point she even considered becoming a veteranarian but later she changed her mind and decided to follow her passion for art instead after finishing High School Carmen went on to study Fine Arts at Indiana University to make 's meet she got a job at Pizza Hut she didn't want to rely on her parents for money especially
since they already had enough on their plate taking care of her younger brothers Carmen was in a relationship at the time and in October 1992 she and her boyfriend decided to rent their first apartment together they moved into a complex close to her job and Carmen stayed focused on earning her degree and building a future career in the Arts on March 22nd 1993 19-year-old Carmen went to visit her ill grandmother in the hospital with her dad and brother she then drove them both home and her dad suggested she spend the night at their place it
was already late and her apartment complex was on the other side of town worried about her safety he thought it would be better if she stayed but Carmen explained that she needed to do long andry to have her uniform ready for her shift at the pizzeria the next day so she said goodbye to her family and headed back home 2 Days Later Carmen's friend stopped by her workplace hoping to ask her for help getting a job there but to her surprise Carmen wasn't there after talking to the manager she learned that Carmen hadn't shown up
for her shift the day before the manager had tried calling her several times but never got a response so he assumed Carmen had just decided to quit without notice and didn't think much of it but her friend found this strange she knew Carmen was a responsible person and had never mentioned wanting to quit her job she told this to the manager and asked if they had any emergency contacts for her family on file when Carmen was hired she had provided her dad's phone number so the manager gave him a call her dad said he had
tried to reach Carmen the day before but she hadn't answered at the time he assumed she was busy with work but now he was growing worried without wasting a moment he drove to to our apartment complex to make sure everything was okay the first thing he noticed was his daughter's boyfriend's car parked outside the building Carmen would often drive it and her purse was sitting inside he then walked up to her apartment door and saw a note from the building manager it said that several neighbors had complained about late night noise coming from her apartment
and asked her to keep it down her father started knocking on the door but there was no answer soon he realized the door was unlocked he stepped inside and saw a horrifying sight his daughter was lying on the floor in a pool of blood with most of her clothes missing shocked he ran out of the apartment and immediately called for an ambulance when paramedics arrived there was nothing they could do Carmen was already gone it didn't take long for them to realize that this wasn't just a tragic incident it was a murder so they quickly
called the police the investigators started examining the crime scene and began interviewing the victim's Neighbors noticing a note from the building manager about noise on Carmen's door they spoke to the manager and found out that several residents had complained about loud noises coming from her apartment on the night of March 22nd around 11:30 p.m. the neighbors heard Carmen come home and from the sound of it she wasn't alone there was a man with her as they walked up to her third floor apartment Carmen was laughing and the man's voice sounded cheerful and calm then around
1:30 a.m. the neighbors heard nois es again but this time Carmen shouted get away from me after that someone ran out of the apartment and the noise stopped even though all of this seemed pretty suspicious none of the neighbors thought to call the police the only thing they did was go to the building manager the next morning and complain about the noise the police spoke to these neighbors and they explained their actions like this at the time they all assumed the man Carmen came home with was her boyfriend so they didn't think anything suspicious was
going on this led the police to believe that she was killed right around the time the neighbors heard her scream almost 2 days before her body was discovered inside the apartment investigators found empty food wrappers and a few beer bottles suggesting Carmen had spent the evening with someone she knew pretty well she led him into her apartment spent several hours with him and only after that did he apparently attack her most likely the crime happened right there in the living room where they had been sitting and having dinner there were clear signs of a struggle
like a table flipped over and pieces of Carmen's torn clothes scattered on the floor detectives also figured the killer probably went into the kitchen afterward to wash the blood off himself before taking off from the apartment medical examiners determined that the victim had suffered over 60 stab wounds from a sharp object and one of her earrings was missing as if the killer had taken it with him Carmen had also been Sly assaulted and experts were able to recover biological material from on the perpetrator however at the time DNA analysis wasn't Advanced enough and investigators couldn't
get a profile of the suspect from the samples they had after examining all the evidence collected from the apartment experts also failed to find any traces of the Killer's DNA or fingerprints this left detectives with no leads no Witnesses and no real Clues as to who this mysterious criminal might be it's also worth noting that nothing of value was taken from the apartment so investigators ruled out robbery as a possible motive the first thing police wondered was where her boyfriend had been all this time and whether he had anything to do with the murder but
that theory didn't hold up for long detectives found out he was in Arizona thousands of miles away from Indianapolis so with solid proof of his Alibi he was quickly cleared as a suspect next detectives started looking into all of Carmen's friends and acquaintances based on the information they had the motive for the crime appeared to be sexual assault because of this they focused on people Carmen was close to but wasn't romantically involved with they checked her friends co-workers and other people in her life but none of them could be linked to the murder with no
solid evidence to go on the police could only hope that someone would stand out maybe fresh scratches suspicious Behavior or other indirect Clues but nothing came of it Carmen's funeral took place a week after her murder but her family was about to face yet another devastating blow during the service as her father stood near his daughter's casket he received a call from the hospital car's grandmother had passed away this was the family's second devastating loss in just a few days on top of their heartbreak they were also facing Financial struggles and couldn't afford another funeral
their friends stepped up and organized a fundraiser to help cover the expenses thanks to the generosity of others they managed to pull together the money they needed in the weeks following man's murder police worked tirelessly to find any leads but nothing panned out they turned to the public through the media asking anyone with information about the case to come forward but unfortunately none of the tips they received brought them any closer to solving the mystery the case eventually went cold and stayed that way for years detectives would check in on it from time to time
but no matter how many times they looked they couldn't find any new leads Carmen's family never gave up fighting for justice they kept in touch with investigators gave interviews to local TV stations and newspapers and begged the public to come forward with any information that could help but no matter how hard they tried nothing ever came of it Carmen's father was never able to returned to a normal life after losing his daughter he spent years Seeking Justice for her until in 2002 he tragically passed away in a car accident after their father's death Carmen's younger
brother Jimmy took it upon him himself to keep the case alive he stayed in regular contact with the police hoping for any updates but every time he was met with the same response they still didn't have a single lead this dragged on for more than 10 years with investigators hitting dead end after dead end never getting any closer to figuring out who the killer was in 2013 detective William Carter took an interest in the case even though Carter wasn't part of the homicide unit and usually handled other types of crimes he had a soft spot
for cold cases in fact he'd even managed to solve one before all on his own time Carter reached out to Carmen's family and began digging into the investigation since he could only work on it outside his regular job the process stretched on for months the first thing Carter did was ask for a fresh analysis of the evidence from Carmen's apartment focusing on finding any foreign DNA forensic experts went back over several items from a trash bag and actually managed to pull some genetic material but there was a problem the sample was only partial so they
couldn't pinpoint who it belonged to the only thing they could confirm was that the DNA came from a man then in 2015 Carter pushed for a DNA analysis of biological samples taken from Carmen's body he was hopeful that modern forensic technology would finally give them a clear profile of the killer moving the case forward but the results from the lab delivered a shocking twist the DNA from the body belonged to a woman Carter knew right away something wasn't right after digging deeper he found out the lab had made a huge mistake they'd mixed up Carmen's
DNA with a suspect samples he asked for a new analysis but this time the lab refused claiming they didn't have the funds even though the error was on them to make things worse the police department had already paid the lab $1600 for the messed up analysis and there was no chance of getting that money back the department refused to pay for another round of testing but Carter wasn't about to give up he was sure that reexamining the evidence could finally bring Justice for Carmen determined he took a bold step he started a crowdfunding campaign asking
the public for help to show his own commitment Carter even contributed part of the needed funds out of his own pocket to his surprise the response was huge in just 7 hours he blew past the fun raising goal Carter announced that any extra money would go towards boosting the existing reward for information about the case which was already sitting at $10,000 Carter was ready to request a new DNA analysis this time with the correct samples but just two days after the funds were raised he called carman's brother with unexpected news he had been ordered to
stop working on the case well the police department didn't outright say the decision was linked to the crowdfunding camp campaign it was pretty clear the fundraiser stirred up mixed reactions from the public a lot of people wondered why such a crucial test wasn't being paid for by the department and why regular folks had to foot the bill instead still Carter had no shortage of supporters when Carmen's brother found out about it he immediately started a petition demanding Carter be put back on the case the petition took off fast grabbing attention from local media and hundreds
of upset residents who started bombarding the police Police Department with complaints the public outcry was so huge that the department was forced to hold a press conference that same day they claimed it had all been a misunderstanding and insisted that Carter was never barred from working on the case to calm the backlash they also announced that all donations would be refunded and promised to cover the cost of the DNA test themselves eventually Carter was allowed back on the case and immediately requested a new analysis of the biological samples taken from Carmen body this time the
lab took the correct sample and successfully extracted a full DNA profile of an unknown man but there was yet another setback the profile didn't match anyone in the FBI's database leaving the suspect's identity a mystery over the next few years Carter zeroed in on every man Carmen might have known who could have been in her apartment that night he was sure that the killer was someone she knew but no matter how hard he dug he still still couldn't get any closer to figuring out who he was this dragged on until 2023 when the police department
decided to bring in parabon a company known for its cuttingedge forensic techniques they opted to try genetic genealogy a relatively new method that had already cracked hundreds of cases the process involves taking a DNA sample from an unknown person and searching for their relatives using public genetic databases where people voluntarily uploaded their DNA profiles most of the time the connections are pretty distant and the people identified often have no idea who the person being traced even is but even these far off matches can give experts enough to go on once they spot potential relatives they
start building family trees ruling out people who didn't fit based on age gender location and other details they keep narrowing it down until they land on the most likely suspect from there it's up to the police to get a DNA sample from the person and confirm if it's a match given that detectives had made no real progress in catching the killer over all these years this method was their last hope experts got to work and after several months they finally identified a man who fit the profile of the murderer it was 52-year-old Dana Shepard investigators
found out that at the time of Carmen's murder he wasn't just living in the same apartment complex he was right next door Shephard had a long rap sheet but most of his CME crimes were nonviolent his record included theft carjacking driving without a license and similar offenses which is why his DNA had never made it into the FBI's database detectives also uncovered something shocking shephard's name had never appeared in the original case files for some reasons that remain unclear the police never considered him a suspect maybe they had been convinced from the start that the
killer fled the scene as neighbors reported hearing footsteps running down the stairs so they never entertained the possibility that the murderer could have been living just a few steps away from Carmen's apartment this entire time by the time the DNA results came in Shephard was living in Missouri working as a janitor at a university detectives quickly got a warrant to collect a direct DNA sample from him and made their way to the state when they showed up at his door with the warrant Shephard started shaking visibly but he cooperated and gave them his sample the
sample was rushed to the lab and the results came back as a perfect match in September 2024 Dana Shepard was arrested and extradited to Indiana to finally face Justice despite the match Shephard denied any involvement in the crime and the case has been sent to court as of now the trial has not yet begun but the prosecution believes they have a strong case to secure conviction according to the prosecutor's version Carmen knew Shephard pretty well that evening he allegedly came over to our apartment for for dinner and drinks based on neighbor statements at some point
Shephard began making unwanted advances and when Carmen resisted he attacked her with a knife currently Shephard remains in custody awaiting trial as he was denied bail Carmen's brother thank the investigators for finally naming a suspect even if it took more than 30 years now he and the rest of Carmen's family are bracing for the tough road ahead as the trial unfolds a process that could drag on for years one thing's certain if Shephard is convicted he's looking at up to 105 years behind bars at this point the prosecution might be holding back some extra evidence
that links Shephard to the crime if it's out there it'll probably come to light during the trial but even without it the DNA match alone could be enough to convince the jury of Shephard's guilt or push him to take a plea deal to dodge a tougher sentence share your thoughts on this story in the comments section and don't forget to press the like button if you enjoyed my video thank you for watching
