Carmen previously attended Lawrence Central high school.

This thread is from Reddit:

"In March of 1993, Carmen went with her dad and and kid brother to the hospital to see her grandmother who was ill. They left after visiting hours. It was a gray, drizzly night, temps around 40. Her father was concerned about Carmen making the nearly 20-mile drive from his place back to her empty apartment (Carmen's BF was out of state that week) late in the evening in crummy weather. He asked her to sleep over, Carmen declined, she worked as a waitress at Pizza Hut and told him that she needed to wash her uniform before her shift on Tuesday. Carmen headed home and around 11p neighbors heard her and a male companion enter the third-floor studio apartment she lived in. Around 1-1:15a neighbors heard more noise from Carmen, she was yelling 'get off! get off of me!' A few minutes later they heard someone leave her apartment and head down the steps. I found no mention of a car starting up or anything else about his departure from the unit. Carmen did not arrive for her shift on Tuesday. When she didn't show up (or call in to advise she wouldn’t make it) again on Wednesday, her manager called Carmen's father asking if she was OK. James Van Huss hadn't heard from his daughter either. He said he would drive to her apartment and check. When he arrives, he finds a note on the door, it was placed by the complex manager on Tuesday morning, reminding Carmen to be respectful of her neighbors and keep noise to a minimum late at night. James knocks on the door, but there is no answer. When he tries the door, he finds it unlocked. Entering the apartment, he finds the partially clothed body of his 19 year old daughter. She's been stabbed to death. Indianapolis Metro PD responds, they find a veritable treasure trove of evidence. A couple of empty beer bottles, remnants of a fast food dinner. Carmen's body is analyzed at the coroner's office and a rape kit is performed. The neighbors who complained to the complex manager about "noise" watch as her apartment becomes a crime scene and the coroner’s van arrives to take their neighbor to the morgue.

In just one of the DNA issues around this case, when the rape kit is sent for DNA testing, the lab returns DNA specifying that "a female of European descent" was responsible. Yep, they returned Carmen's DNA, not that of the man who raped and stabbed her to death. Tick tock, things got slowed down. Police investigate Carmen's boyfriend, he was out of state at the time of her murder. They take a look at her former boyfriend. He has an alibi, but acts sketchy. He’s cooperative, but something is off. His strange behavior culminates in him moving out of state not long after Carmen was murdered.

So, who was our victim? Carmen Hope Van Huss was a relatively normal, average teenager. She'd dropped out of HS, but worked to earn a GED. At the time of her death she had a job waiting tables at pizza hut and lived with her boyfriend, I'm not sure how serious their relationship was though. She didn't have any legal troubles, nor was she into drugs or other "high risk" behaviors. Eventually the proper DNA comes back and both current and former BF are eliminated, they could not have raped and killed Carmen.

Carmen is laid to rest 3-29-93. Her grandmother passed away 3-25-93, leaving the Van Huss family overwhelmed with both grief and expenses. Despite a large quantity of evidence at the scene, her case goes cold. It will sit for 20 years. Around the 20th anniversary of the murder Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana places ads in the paper hoping to generate new leads.

In 2013 Detective Will Carter of IMPD picks up the file. He wants to run another DNA test, a more specific test to give them better information. You can read about how that went down here, Indy Star Article Here we are, more than 25 years later and the man responsible for Carmen's murder remains unidentified. It's my hope that Indianapolis Metro PD is continuing to explore advanced DNA options like GED match to narrow the suspect list and find the man responsible for murdering her.

I covered her case in depth on the most recent episode of the Already Gone podcast. You can also find a LE run group Justice for Carmen Van Huss on [Facebook]."