MURDERED: Carmen Van Huss

**Ashley Flowers** (0:00)
Hi, Crime Junkies. What you're about to hear is an episode that we originally recorded and released in the Crime Junkie fan club back in January, when this case was still actively unfolding. But in the months since then, there have been some major developments. So today, we wanted to bring this story to a broader audience. You'll get to hear the full episode that has never been released wide, and then I'm gonna come back in towards the end of the pickup where our reporting in January left off to tell you how this case was ultimately resolved.
Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers.

**Brit Prawat** (0:40)
And I'm Brit.

**Ashley Flowers** (0:41)
And today's story begins at the Turtle Creek Apartments, part of a gated community on the northwest side of Indianapolis, Indiana. The complex is made up of two buildings, four wings and three floors per wing. So 262 apartments in total. And on March 23rd, 1993, around 1 a.m., something terrible is happening inside one of them.
Neighbors who are awake hear loud screams coming from apartment 302A. And those who weren't awake before are now. I mean, it is so loud and the walls are so thin that they can hear what she's saying even. Get off me. I mean, she repeats this in between crying and banging noises. Get off me. There is no mistaking these cries for horseplay or teenage antics, even though they know the tenant is young, a 19-year-old girl named Carmen Van Huss. But no one cares.
Our reporter Nicole Kagan spoke to one neighbor who lived in the apartment right across the hall from Carmen's. And he said, quote, I just heard a scream in the middle of the night. I turned over and went back to bed. That's all I know.
Not a single person gets up. Not a single person goes to her door. No one bothers to even pick up the phone and call 911 For 30 minutes, she screams and struggles before one set of hurried footprints can be heard leaving, disappearing into the night. And everyone just goes back to sleep.
For decades, people who should have helped Carmen in life and in death have turned their back on her. But thanks to one tenacious man who believes in doing the right thing, someone has finally been charged with Carmen's murder. And the trial that decides his fate is about to begin.
Though none of Carmen Van Huss' neighbors could be bothered to call police or check on her when they heard her screaming for 30 minutes straight, at least one person did take the time to call the apartment management and file a noise complaint. There was a handwritten note from management tacked to her door when Carmen's dad, James, arrived a day later to check on her. He had gotten a voicemail from Carmen's friend, Missy, who said that Carmen had been a no-call-no-show for work that day, and she had tried to go check in on her, but she wasn't really familiar with where she lived. She ended up kind of getting lost on the way to her complex. So she's hoping that Carmen's dad could go by and check on her. And he likely saw the note first, the one scolding his daughter for being too loud and reminding her to be more considerate of her neighbors moving forward. But there would be no moving forward. He knew that instantly when he opened the unlocked door of the studio apartment. I mean, he had a direct line of sight to his daughter, clearly dead, lying on the floor next to her bed covered in blood. And the whole apartment was a mess. I mean, the living room table was knocked over, clothes were scattered across the floor, and there was blood everywhere. It was splattered on the walls and smeared in the kitchen. James couldn't even bear to take another step inside, so he beeline to a neighbor's apartment, banging on the door so he could use their phone to call 911
When Marion County Sheriff's Detectives responded that evening, Sergeant David Wilkes takes charge of the investigation while lab techs process the scene. I mean, it's obvious to them that there was a struggle inside Carmen's apartment, but they suspect right away that the interaction with her killer may have actually started out friendly, because there's no sign at all of forced entry, and there are some fast food cups and some bottles of beer that make it seem like she might have been maybe even eating a meal with someone before things took a turn.

**Brit Prawat** (5:02)
And how do they know that that stuff is from that night?

**Ashley Flowers** (5:05)