The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts.
All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages.
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I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski.
And I'm your co-host, Eli Sulkowski.
And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and missing person cases.
Hello everyone and welcome back to Cold and Missing.
I'm your host, Ali.
And I'm your co-host, Eli.
Welcome back, honey.
Thank you.
I'm grateful to be back here.
The last couple of episodes where I haven't been on, you've really taken our podcast
in not a different direction, but something new with having an interview style episode.
And I didn't know if maybe you wanted to take a moment to speak on that before we get going
on this new case, what that's been like for you and the folks you've been speaking with,
just to recap of last week's episode.
Yeah.
I mean, it's always an honor to work with anybody of The Missing and Murdered and to
be trusted with their story.
So I was very honored when Peter and Paige agreed to work with me and be interviewed
with me.
So thank you again to Peter and Paige.
And we're really hoping that the podcast will get to Melissa and she's able to get all the
messages from her family and come home if that's what she wants to be doing.
So we're really hopeful.
And of course, we'll keep you all updated with anything that we hear, anything from
the family as far as all that goes.
So yeah, but always, always an honor to work with the families and friends.
So if again, I usually do this at the end of the show, but if you want a case that you
want covered on Cold and Missing, you can always reach out to us and we'll get in touch
and we'll work.
Well, it's been just incredible to watch you work and navigate this podcast, you know,
that I've seen grow from, you know, a little small seed to this, you know, magnificent
tree that it's become.
Another thing that's been just incredible to watch is the correspondence you have with
these families or loved ones of folks who are maybe missing or with cases that have
gone cold.
It's true community engagement to me, especially when I hear you talking to the families and
really learning who these people are or who they were.
Yeah, that was what I wanted to just contribute on my end that it's really changed my perspective
on how a podcast can function, including how it can function on a very community close
and personal level.
But with that said, we have a cold case this week.
That's right.
We are back onto cold cases.
All right.
Would you like to take it away?
Yeah, let's do it.
So just as a bit of a content warning at the top, this case does have mentions of sexual
assault.
Today, we are going to be talking about the cold case of Carmen Van Huss, and this takes
place in March of 1993 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
But first a little bit about Carmen.
Carmen is 19 years old in 1993.
She lived on the far north side of Indianapolis.
Carmen's life had not been easy.
Her parents had divorced when she was younger, and she ended up living with her aunt and
uncle.
Carmen also dropped out of high school but had gotten her GED and was determined to take
control of her life.
In 1993, Carmen is working as a server at a Pizza Hut restaurant in Indianapolis.
She had just moved into her apartment in October, about eight months before this, and she lived
with a roommate in a two-bedroom, third-story apartment.
Her stepmother, Sherry Van Huss, says, quote, she was a really good girl.
The whole family loved her.
She never created any problems.
End quote.
And now a timeline of events.
On Monday, March 22, 1993, Carmen has had a tough day with her family.
They spend the day and evening at the hospital with Carmen's grandmother who was ill and
nearing the end of her life.
At around 10 p.m., Carmen gives her youngest brother and father a ride back to her father's
southside apartment in Indianapolis.
She drops them off around 10.30.
She tells her dad that she's going home to do some laundry.
She needed to wash her Pizza Hut uniform since she worked the next day.
This is the last time her family will see her.
At around 11.30, so this is around an hour after she left her father's place, neighbors
heard Carmen arrive at her far northside apartment.
Neighbors heard Carmen walking in the hallway.
They could hear her laughing and talking with a man as the two entered Carmen's apartment.
The next day, Tuesday, March 23, in the morning, neighbors complained to building management
about noises coming from Carmen's apartment around 1 a.m.
They thought they heard someone yell, quote, get off me, get off me, end quote, and then
footsteps leaving the apartment.
None of the neighbors at the time called police during the night.
Instead, they just waited till morning to complain to management.
Management does leave a noise complaint on Carmen's door.
Carmen is scheduled to work at Pizza Hut, but she doesn't show up for her shift and
she doesn't call in either.
The next day, Wednesday, March 24, Carmen was scheduled again to work at Pizza Hut and
didn't show up for the second day in a row.
This started to give coworkers pause and they dig into their files to find Carmen's emergency
contact, which is her father, Jim.
Her family thought it was out of character of her to miss work without saying anything,
so her father decides to head to her apartment to check on her after he tries to call her
several times and she doesn't pick up.
Her father arrives around 730 at the Turtle Creek Northside Apartments.
Carmen's father, Jim, finds the noise complaint attached to the front door.
And when he knocks on the door, nobody answers.
He finds that the front door to his daughter's apartment is unlocked.
He lets himself inside.
When Carmen's father enters the apartment, he finds a nightmare.
He finds Carmen dead on the floor of her bedroom.
She had been stabbed several times and was only partially dressed.
911 is called immediately.
When police arrive, they start processing the scene.
It's obvious that there was a bit of a struggle in the apartment.
It appeared that everything was still in the apartment, however, nothing of note was missing.
Carmen's purse is found in her roommate's car that was parked near the apartment.
Her roommate, however, was out of town in Arizona at the time of the murder.
Police initially are not forthcoming with how Carmen died.
We do know now that she died because of stab wounds.
In later years, however, police will theorize that the murder weapon was either a pocket
knife or a screwdriver.
The day after the discovery of Carmen's body, this is Thursday, March 25th, the police
start rounding up several people to question, including several ex-boyfriends.
Police don't have any clear suspects at this time.
Carmen's autopsy is also conducted where it's confirmed that she was sexually assaulted.
Just six days after her murder, on Sunday, March 28th, Carmen is laid to rest.
Her family asks that people make donations to the Humane Society to honor her love of
animals.
Carmen was someone who would bring home stray kittens in the neighborhood to take care of.
While at the funeral, Carmen's father gets a phone call that his mother, Carmen's grandmother,
had passed away while at the hospital.
On April 1st, Carmen's family uses the local media to ask for the public's help in the
form of donations, for not only a reward for information leading to the arrest of whoever
killed Carmen, but to also help offset the costs of the unexpected funeral.
Essentially, a GoFundMe of the day.
The family not only lost Carmen, but they also lost Carmen's grandmother.
This left the family having to pay for two funerals pretty unexpectedly.
A family friend that set up the fund said, quote,
The family suffered a lot because of all of this.
It added an extra expense they didn't expect.
I asked if they mind if I set up a trust fund in her name.
End quote.
People from the community do come forward and donate to help the family.
After this, though, I couldn't find any real updates on the case.
The next update that I could find comes in April of 2002.
So that's nine years since Carmen's murder.
Carmen is included with other murder victims from the state of Indiana at the State House
in an art installation.
Carmen's mother, Andrea Wolfe, was at the ceremony, but she told reporters how deeply
sad she still is about the death of her child.
There's been no real movement on the case.
In May of 2013, the local newspaper is running a series about cold cases in Indiana, and
Carmen's case is included in the series.
It's here in 2013 that police confirm for the first time that Carmen was sexually assaulted
during her murder.
And police also have narrowed down the window to between 1 and 1.30 a.m. for when the crime
took place.
So this is right around the time that the neighbors heard all those noises and the fight
coming from Carmen's apartment.
Police also mentioned that a neighbor saw someone running from Carmen's apartment.
And there are other reports that neighbors heard someone running down the hallway shortly
after they heard the fight.
In April of 2014, so this is that next year after the local media ran their series, a
detective within the Indianapolis Police Department decides to reopen Carmen's case with the
hope that advances in DNA technology would be able to solve the case.
Detective Sergeant William Carter is not a homicide or cold case detective.
He is actually a part of the nuisance and abatement unit.
He had been looking into cold cases in his spare time and had solved a cold case just
the year before and had received recognition from the police department for doing so.
Police had already determined that Carmen's boyfriend at the time of her murder was out
of town, so he was not a suspect.
Family and friends suspected an ex-boyfriend of Carmen's for a long time, but investigators
had determined that he was traveling at the time of the murder and not in Indianapolis.
So therefore he was also ruled out.
Furthermore, DNA left at the scene had also been able to rule these men out in later years.
Police do believe that Carmen knew her killer.
Detective Carter points to the fact that neighbors heard her talking and laughing when the two
of them arrived at her apartment.
The scene inside suggested that they had eaten some late night fast food and had a few beers
together.
Detective Carter believes that the man who murdered Carmen would have been in her circle
of friends and at the time of the murder was not suspected for whatever reason.
Police theorize that this could have been a platonic friend or maybe even a secondary
friend in her life, maybe somebody that she didn't know well that she just decided to
hang out with.
Detective Carter continues to work on this case into 2015.
In February of that year, so it's been almost 22 years since Carmen's murder, and Detective
Carter thought that a new DNA test would be able to give him a lead to solve Carmen's
case.
He thought that the DNA test would narrow down the suspect pool.
He requested funding from the city to send the evidence to Utah for the lab to perform
since local labs couldn't do the test.
The city approved the testing.
However, the crime lab sent the wrong DNA to the lab for testing.
They sent a sample of Carmen's DNA to the lab to be tested, not the suspect's.
When Detective Carter went back to the city to ask for the funds to resend the test, he
was denied.
The city said they lacked the money that was needed for the second test.
Still determined to get the correct DNA tested, Detective Carter started a GoFundMe to crowdsource
donations to cover the cost of testing.
Within seven hours after putting up the request, the community comes together and exceeds the
goal for the money requested.
However, right after securing the money, the Indianapolis police take Detective Carter
off of the case and it's unclear if officials will approve the DNA being sent out.
This infuriates the family.
Her brother Jimmy, who was only 15 years old when his sister was murdered, says, quote,
this is insane.
This is ridiculous.
Something has to be changed if this is how the police department is going to run.
It just makes no sense.
End quote.
The police say that Detective Carter fundraising was not the issue.
Instead, police said that Detective Carter was removed since he was not a cold case detective.
Quote, we just want to make sure that people stay in their lanes.
We have cold case investigators and we want to let them do their job.
End quote.
The family is firm that they want Detective Carter to remain on the case.
He's the only detective that the family has heard from in the past few years and the
only one who has made any recent movement on Carmen's case.
After this shit storm is brought on, for lack of a better term, that was created by police
taking Detective Carter off of the case and all of the negative press, the community reaches
out, the family, they start a petition to get Detective Carter back on.
The next day, police hold a press conference to say that Detective Carter will remain on
the case.
Police say that they have no idea where people got the idea that he was being removed from
the case.
Indianapolis police chief Richard Hite says, quote, sometimes people assume things they
hear.
I can tell you that the deputy chief never brought that to me that he wanted to remove
anyone.
When reporters press further because the police were pretty firm that they were taking him
off the case, the police chief does say that maybe Detective Carter was told to temporarily
stop working on the case.
Police go on to say that Detective Carter will assist the cold case detectives.
Police officer Major Chris Bailey, when asked if Detective Carter should be allowed to continue
to work on the case, said, quote, he probably shouldn't be.
It should be the case investigator, end quote.
Police also say that all of the money donated for the DNA testing would be returned.
Police said that they don't believe the test would hold up well in court and that they
mistakenly approved paying for the first one to begin with.
Truly after this drama with Detective Carter being kicked off and the fundraising money
being returned and all of that, that was the last update I could find on Carmen's case.
So with that, if you know anything about the murder of Carmen Van Hus in March of 1993,
please call either Crimestoppers of Central Indiana at 317-262-8477, the Indianapolis
Metropolitan Police Department at 317-327-1270, or the FBI VICAP at 1-800-634-4097.
And the sources for the timeline today come from the FBI, the Indianapolis Star, and the
Indianapolis News.
So that is the case of Carmen Van Hus.
My first reaction to Carmen's case is how truly colossal of a loss of one person's life
can be in an instance like this where someone is viciously murdered.
The ripple effect it can have in that loved one's life and that one person making this
horrible, evil decision that it not only ends the life of the person, the victim, but it
ends other people's lives or parts of their lives forever.
That one decision can create just massive collapse in a family.
And I feel like that is so present in this family, it was heartbreaking to listen to.
That's really where I hung in the heaviness of listening to this because I just, I couldn't
believe what it did to this poor family after her loss and then her grandmother, Carmen's
grandmother.
Yeah, it's absolutely devastating, the ripple effects that a murder has on every family.
But like here you could really see that happening in real time.
Like her grandmother was ill, but I'm sure none of this helped anything.
I'm so grateful that you brought this to the front of our minds because as I was counting
in my head when you said 93, I think I was like, oh, that was like 10 years ago or 20
years ago because you know, your mind does that as you get older.
And I realized it was a little, probably 31 years old now-ish.
And I think it's a case that's completely solvable.
I wanted to get more of your thoughts and comments on this, but I also agreed with law
enforcement that it was probably someone that she knew even if it wasn't like first tier,
you know, close friends, maybe second or third, like acquaintance or someone she had seen
out at the bar or whatever, someone that she knew enough to let him into her apartment.
No, I had the same reaction when I started researching this case.
I think it's completely solvable.
I do agree that I think she knew her murderer for all the same reasons that, you know, police
pointed out that she was heard like laughing with this person and talking with them.
And for the reasons that you pointed out, you know, she felt comfortable enough to invite
them into her apartment.
And like, you know, they were eating some fast food, like sharing a beer, like it seems
like a pretty casual like hang, just like a late night hang, you know?
So yeah, I think it's somebody maybe not in her close friend circle.
I like almost wonder if she like ran into somebody from like her childhood or something,
you know, and was like, how are you?
Like, let's catch up.
Do you want to come hang out?
Like, you know, her grandmother was really sick.
Maybe she was just like looking for some company, like to pass the time to like kind of distract
herself a little bit.
Maybe she like ran into somebody that she like kind of knew and was just like, great,
like, let's hang out.
This will distract me for a little bit and then I'll go to bed and I'll work tomorrow
and you know, repeat.
But then this guy might have just gotten the wrong idea.
We do know that Carmen had a boyfriend who was out of town.
So I don't think she was like looking for, you know, like a physical comfort in any form.
I think the person who was invited over got the wrong idea.
I mean, I would even go as far to say he didn't get the wrong idea.
He just made a decision about what the interaction was.
And I don't, I didn't think that the prior statement was victim blaming in any way.
But I more, I also just like want to speak on how about how I think how cool it is that
Carmen was really trying to carve out a space in the world for herself at such a yes, an
adult age, but a young age, like an apartment on your own and like a stable job and trying
to turn your life around.
I think that that's incredible.
I think it's incredible when anyone tries to do it at any age.
But this young woman who was struggling, like I think it was an incredible gift that she
gave to herself that it was to try in her life and to try to like give herself a happy
journey in the world.
I'm so sad that it was taken much, much, much too soon that her journey was cut short.
But it seems like she left quite the impression on the world and her family.
Well, some questions that I have in this case, what's happening with the case today, there
was all this momentum happening in 2013, 2014.
And there hasn't been any updates on the case that I could find since then since this like
kind of drama within the police department, which just as an outside observer just seems
like a lot of ego getting caught up in what was happening, like just feels like a bunch
of ego.
So a question that I would just have today is like, what are we doing today?
Because we know we have DNA.
So what are we doing?
What's being tested?
What hasn't been tested?
What's happening in the case today?
Because it does seem very solvable.
We have DNA, we've been able to eliminate some suspects, and it's somebody that was
known in her life.
It feels like if we just like really dug back into interviewing her friends, interviewing
her family, interviewing her roommates, like her co workers, somebody might pop up that
didn't a few years ago, or 30 years ago, 30 plus years ago, I guess now.
Yes, this was like a whole other section that I had questions and comments on.
And to echo you, like it also outside of like it being a total ego situation, I was thinking
to myself, this is just like a lot of bumbling and backtracking.
It just looked bad.
Like I just didn't understand what was happening at all.
And then my second immediate thought was, are you are you all trying to cover for someone
like was this someone who was in law enforcement?
That was like, also where my brain went.
And granted, I know that that's maybe not at the top of the list of what probably happened.
But when you're doing shit like that, like saying like, we shouldn't have even invested
the money in the first place on testing whatever, like, I don't know, like you're really taking
the arrow and trying to point it away from yourself.
But like the light just gets brighter and brighter and brighter.
It definitely didn't help me have any sort of more confidence in their work.
Yeah, and well, and just the fact that there hasn't been any updates or any kind of work
that seems to have been done, like I couldn't see anything that the family was saying that
was being done, anything in media that was saying that was being done.
So it just seems like you got mad that this guy was like solving cold cases, told him
to back off the family didn't want it, it turned into this, you know, bad media press.
So you backtracked, but it still seems like he's off the case because nothing's happening
with it.
So the people who are ultimately suffering are the victims family who have suffered the
most in this.
And it's like, they're the ones who are getting jerked back and forward and like getting caught
up in people's egos.
And it's just like, let's just close it.
That should just be the goal.
And there's also a part of me just as like, somebody who has a job, like if someone came
up to my desk and was like, Hey, I'm going to take this thing away from you and try to
do it.
I'd be like, okay, great.
Go.
Yeah, the end goal there, I think in doing that job, that should always be the case of
anyone who is working in that capacity of solving these cases, especially law enforcement,
if your work colleague comes up to you and says like, Hey, I think I have like an answer.
I think unanimously, everyone should always say go for it, even if it wasn't what you
thought of to begin with, like this isn't about you.
Your ego in that job should absolutely 100% always be checked at the door.
And we know that it very rarely is.
But like, I did have the feeling of like, it seems like this person wants to do good
with the power that they have and immediately was cut off from doing so.
It was, I couldn't believe that it was happening and it was publicized and that everyone knew
and that it was just like, nothing happened from it.
Yeah, that's really kind of what happened exactly that.
And I had the same reaction.
I was like, Oh, this guy who's like, he has free time.
He's working on the taxpayer's dollar.
Like, yeah, like go get some more work.
Go close some cold cases.
And he did.
He had done it already.
And like, the department like gave him gave him an award.
And it just seems like the cold case investigators were mad that that was happening.
So nothing has happened with Carmen's case since about 2015 when that testing was requested.
I guess my future hope now in, you know, us putting out an episode like this, maybe other
podcasts will hear about it and they also do their own investigation and we start circulating
her name case and story more.
Yeah, I absolutely hope this case is solved.
It does seem solvable.
I know we're 30 years out from the event, but it does seem solvable.
So I really hope that happens.
And I hope that Carmen's family get the answers that they are looking for.
And somebody has to answer for what they did to Carmen and ending like a very promising
life so early.
If you know anything about the murder of Carmen Van Huss in March of 1993, please call Indiana
Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana at 317-262-8477 or the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department
at 317-327-1270 or you can call the FBI VICAP at 1-800-634-4097.
And of course we will be putting pictures of Carmen on our Instagram this week.
So please, if you're not, follow us there as well.
And we also post about current cases that are happening, you know, just in the media
and our stories.
So it's a great resource just to stay up to date on what's happening.
Or you leave your podcast player or this page.
If you could, please rate and review us.
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But if not a five star, a thumbs up, whatever the metric is in your platform, we do appreciate
it.
If you're looking for more episodes or want to search or whatever, you can go to our website
www.coldandmissing.com and there you'll find transcripts if you or someone you love is
hard of hearing and wants to follow along that way.
You'll also find links to all the platforms that you can listen on.
So you can find us on your favorite podcast player.
But that is all I have.
Thank you again so much for listening to Cold and Missing.
It's always an honor to be a part of your week.
I'm your host Allie.
And I'm your co-host Eli.
Have a great week and stay safe y'all.
Stay safe y'all.