IN IN - Carmen Van Huss, 19, Indianapolis, 22 March 1993

[toetag]

I don't think cell phones were around or ubiquitous for teenagers in 1993. I remember my dad had a huge big big car phone in those days lol. Beepers and pagers were still the norm for anyone in the late 1990s and kids could get kicked out of school because they were also associated with drug dealers. Cell phones started becoming popular ~2000 and I had my first one at 2002. Maybe some in late 1990s but I think 1993 is too early.

Whoever she met was either:

1) a planned meeting ... in which case it should be expected that she was dictating the time to leave the hospital with her family (in order to get back home in time)

2) someone she ran into while picking up carry-out or some other way ... most likely a former friend or boyfriend or acquaintance (as you suggested, maybe even someone she briefly saw in a new light)

3) a neighbor

Maybe she could have got home and called someone from a land-line to make plans ... but that's kind of tight on time whether that could all happen and go get dinner and come back by the time the witnesses gave.

I had a pager and thought I was cool. If my mom paged I had to call her within minutes from a land-line. She made sure I had quarters so I didn't have excuses.

Now, I use GPS on my kids. Oh the times they are a-changing. LOL.:laughing:

 

[toetag]

I don't think she was crying on anyone's shoulder, though, because she had a current bf.

JMO, but if one would cast a wide net among CVH's circle within circles of friends and acquaintances, the snag would catch on the wimpiest of them all. Twenty-one years later, the twerp probably is being bossed around by a domineering wife, and secretly getting off on the horrid act he committed all those years ago.

:moo:

If this is true, he has most likely left more victims in his wake.

 

[toetag]

Yes, I see your point and it is a good deduction. However, perhaps he lived in building and ran out just to get away from the scene. Or if someone heard or was watching, would think he didn't live in the building. I don't think I would run to my apartment after committing a horrendous crime like this. I would want to get as far away from the crime as possible and establish some sort of alibi. I don't think an apartment dweller can be fully cleared but I see your point. Additionally, i would like to know how reliable the person was who purportedly gave this info to LE.

I totally agree. He would have been driven by adrenalin and hightailed it out of there.

 

[toetag]

IMHO LE should release more information on this crime. If they would do that it might trigger memories from people which would lead to information about the case. I hate to see murders go unsolved and murderers go unpunished.

It is likely if he got by with it once, he did it again.

 

[bessie]

Bessie I don't buy it, the facts are to thick in my mind, I think this was a date of some kind, in a way.. If she was at her parents all day, then she would have eaten there, no laundry mat of my knowledge is open at these hours, I don't know if they have 24hour laundry mats, but I don't think that has been proven either.. So No point in having a guy come over with food and beer at 11pm at night she would have been dog tired and already have eaten.. she met this guy some where, she didn't just go straight home and if she did this was a pre set meeting.

That or this guy was a common guest at here home. I just don't see it. a guy waiting for her for hours and with bag of food and beer and cracking jokes so he can go inside her home. .. At those hours of night its hard to picture that. It just doesn't happen if she just did laundry you tell those folks to come back tommarrow

I think it was a date of sorts, too, oldwindow, just not the conventional "dinner and a movie", as I said before. From what we know, this was a more casual meeting.

According to the information released by the Indianapolis PD cold case detectives, CVH visited her grandmother in the hospital with her father that evening. She drove her father home after 10:00 P.M. He tried to convince her to stay the night, but she told him she had to go home to wash her uniform for work the next day. (There is more than likely a laundry room at the apartment complex.) I have a hunch the uniform story was an excuse to leave. JMO, but I think she was reluctant to tell her dad she had a late "date" because she knew he'd disapprove. That's why some of us are curious to know if the uniform was found soiled. If so, then maybe the story was true. She really was going home to wash her uniform, and the meeting was not pre-planned. But if a clean uniform was hanging in the closet, then the hunch probably is correct. She did have plans to meet a guy, and the uniform was an excuse.

There's also the possibility both are true. She was meeting someone, and she had to wash. However, there is no report that neighbors heard anyone leaving the apartment until after the attack. In other words, no one was going back and forth to the laundry room.

As for when she had last eaten and her whereabouts that day, we don't have those answers, or any info at all, really. The timeline starts that evening.

My feeling is that she made plans to meet the person at her apartment to "hang out" that night. Have a couple of beers, maybe even smoke a little pot, and listen to music or watch TV. Or, perhaps the plan was to reminisce and get caught up, if the guy was someone from the past.

I don't think he would have been waiting hours, by the way. But since the two entered together, I think he arrived a little ahead of Carmen, and was in the parking lot when she pulled up.

JMO

ETA: In another post you mention they might have been friends in a "talking issues" kind of way. I wonder if he used that as a ruse to get together at her apartment. Something like: "Hey, Carmen. I have to solve a dilemma, and I'm stumped. I'd really like to get your input. Care to do a little late night brainstorming? I'll buy the beer."

 

[bessie]

IMHO LE should release more information on this crime. If they would do that it might trigger memories from people which would lead to information about the case. I hate to see murders go unsolved and murderers go unpunished.

It is likely if he got by with it once, he did it again.

For the sake of my own curiosity I wish LE would release more info. but would it help to solve the case? Possibly, but I'm reluctant to second guess the investigators because I know the decision to retain information is not made arbitrarily. A lot of careful deliberation is involved because the stakes are so high.

JMO

 

[bessie]

If this is true, he has most likely left more victims in his wake.

I agree, but perhaps not dead ones, or ones who would raise alarms if they fell off the radar, like prostitutes and transients, for instance.

 

[oldwindow]

Im brainstorming with that and is see a lot good things and possible's.. If the detective on the case know her work hours, then it open up her daily habits before work ( her routine). Most people wont break their work sleeping routine, or before work.. I know it seem meaningless but its very strong thing in the court rooms. I would show if she really did laundry or was a late night hawk.

I think she asked this guy to come before hand or he asked her to come. Maybe she said im coming back at a certain hour, meet me there. So this might lead to she has met him before.

I have a question.. yahoo messenger and yahoo email was big in that time, so was Aol. Most people in 1993/1994 would type back and forwards to dialogue/ it was the text chat of that time frame. I want to know did they check her email or to see if she had a account. I'm fairly sure she had a library card, I think everyone had yahoo email and used it the library in those time. I'm also thinking of a phone call. if it was all verbal agreement, then she had to know him very well and he was local.

Also if she drove home and was seen/heard coming up the stairs or walk way. Im thinking here, Did he drive as well? If this is a hospital /apartment area. Did they have gate cards and security guard to check in.? I know for sure his finger/hand prints should be on the apartment entrance door.

I wonder if he is jail now, or was in jail for small time robbery or domestic abuse. His prints should match someone.

 

[oldwindow]

I agree, at same its how they do it. I see it like this guy called "check mate" 20 yrs ago if this was chess. Le has yet to figure out how to out do this circumstance. I don't know if it lack of funding or just down right the perfect crime in perfect setting. I think this perp slipped up very badly in this murder and rape of this woman.

To me this a physiological murder. He planned this and knew how to do it. He knew all the in and outs. Again I think he slipped up some where. I wouldn't be surprised if he checked in the hospital that same week for a injury or went store in the exact same area buying thing for cuts and etc.. The majority of the time when you stab with a knife, you will cut your self or your clothing leaving blood or threads without knowing. .

 

[CMac2]

I agree, at same its how they do it. I see it like this guy called "check mate" 20 yrs ago if this was chess. Le has yet to figure out how to out do this circumstance. I don't know if it lack of funding or just down right the perfect crime in perfect setting. I think this perp slipped up very badly in this murder and rape of this woman.

To me this a physiological murder. He planned this and knew how to do it. He knew all the in and outs. Again I think he slipped up some where. I wouldn't be surprised if he checked in the hospital that same week for a injury or went store in the exact same area buying thing for cuts and etc.. The majority of the time when you stab with a knife, you will cut your self or your clothing leaving blood or threads without knowing. .

Sadly, I'm not convinced this killer "slipped up" at all. This case is very old, and it doesn't sound like LE is any closer to solving it than they were when it first happened. The longer they go with no new leads to follow, the less likely this will be solved, ever. Out of curiosity, what makes you think the killer slipped up? If he did slip up, what's your theory on why that mistake has yet to lead to an arrest? TIA!

 

[bessie]

Well, LE has a DNA profile, so to that extent at least, I'd say he did screw up. DNA has solved older cases than this one. JMO

 

[oldwindow]

I think Dna as well a murder weapon also time of murder is the slip up.. Its shocking that a killer would leave his prints all over all the place and the murder weapon. Its rare that you see that unless they know they don't have a criminal record or have done it before , maybe even their signature style. I personally think they looked at the wrong /persons. Maybe this was a random guy she knew slightly and was getting slight friendship comfort from. You know ear play( telling her feeling). From her clothing, she look like the library a or local small pub /club type.

Maybe her music is the key, going by her pictures . She always wearing band or rock type of clothing. Maybe she met someone who like the same group as her or even music. invited him over to listen to his band or music after some time. Maybe a new local group album, or maybe a new band album in general.

Music band guys are always moving around,.. Im just rambling here for give me. I think a drinking record is key here. maybe not in that state but maybe another.

 

[bessie]

I mentioned they might have been listening to music at Carmen's apartment, but I hadn't thought about the perp being a musician. That's a good hunch, oldwindow, because musicians sometimes do travel on the road from gig to gig. If Carmen did meet a musician, or had been to hear a band recently, I'd think someone among her friends would know about that and should have spoken up.

I strongly feel that the answer to Carmen's murder has always been just within reach, but no one has the guts to do the right thing and tell the darn truth. It's maddening!

 

[I_run_100]

Does anyone know where Carmen is buried? I'm hoping it's next to her father. I didn't know her, although assisted on the autopsy, along with Dr. Thomas Gill. Mr. Vanhuss was a very nice guy, always went out of my way to greet him when we crossed paths.


--As a well spent day brings happy sleep, so live well used brings happy death. DiVinci

 

[bessie]

I was thinking about Carmen today. Would sure like to see this one solved. It only takes a phone call.

 

[georgiasblu]

I was thinking about Carmen today. Would sure like to see this one solved. It only takes a phone call.

Carmen needs justice. There is a scary person out there walking around with a bad secret.

 

[bessie]

Justice is long overdue for Carmen. Who was the person heard (seen, perhaps?) leaving Carmen's apartment? Someone out there knows.

 

[bessie]

Next month will mark 22 years since Carmen Van Huss was stabbed to death in her apartment. Meanwhile, justice waits in the wings for her cue.

 

[bessie]

Maybe this will make a positive difference in Carmen's murder one day.

Cold cases from three decades under review
By Jessica Lauren Published: February 17, 2015, 7:06 pm Updated: February 17, 2015, 7:07 pm

A new forensic kit called “GlobalFiler” will expand the number of patterns used to build a DNA profile which can be used as evidence. That profile will then be entered in a national data base in the hopes of finding a match to a registered convicted offender.

[...]
More numbers means more specific information will be available to pass on to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD) homicide detectives who have hundreds of cold cases that have piled up since the mid 1980s, some with degraded evidence that will now get a second look.
http://wishtv.com/2015/02/17/cold-cases-from-three-decades-under-review/

:crossfingers:

 

[Ven]

Sometimes plain old incompetence can hold back an investigation. According to today's article in the Indianapolis Star, a sample believed to be the suspect's DNA was not sent for testing until this past fall (after all these years!), and when it was finally sent in, they sent in the wrong sample! $1,600 was spent to test evidence that belonged to Carmen. When investigators wanted a do-over, they were told it would cost $996 more, but the department told them they didn't have the money. How outrageous is this!

The detective in the case started a crowdfunding website this week in an attempt to raise the funds to test the suspect's DNA. Fortunately, donations poured in and Detective Carter's funding goal was reached. Now, IMPD will send the correct sample to the lab and hopefully find a match for the killer's DNA. Read more:

http://www.indystar.com/story/news/...-raises-money-dna-testing-cold-case/24023311/