Katharina Buczek
By the following afternoon of March 24, though, Carmen’s father knew that something had gone terribly wrong. He had received a call from Pizza Hut and learned that his daughter never showed up for her last two shifts. This was extremely uncharacteristic of Carmen, who was known to be a trustworthy and hard worker.
So, the teen’s father attempted to call her numerous times. And after he could not get through to Carmen, he decided to travel to her apartment.
Upon arrival, he was met with the noise complaint, which had been left on his daughter’s unlocked door. Then, after walking inside, he found Carmen– who had been assaulted and stabbed numerous times– lying only partially clothed on the floor of her apartment.
Authorities were immediately called, and investigators arrived on the scene to gather evidence. There, police collected bottles of beer and remnants of fast-food items that had been last touched the evening before. This fact alone led investigators to believe that Carmen had known her killer.
The teen’s two past boyfriends were subsequently interviewed, one of whom was out of the state at the time of her murder. Nonetheless, both exes were cleared via DNA testing.
And even though DNA collection and testing were completed very early in Carmen’s case investigation, this evidence actually proved useless– because it was soon revealed that the crime lab actually sent out the wrong DNA samples to be tested. More specifically, the samples that were tested belonged to Carmen– not her killer.
So, by 2015, Carmen’s case had still tragically remained cold, but Detective Sargeant William Carter did not want her murder to go unsolved. In turn, he coordinated a GoFundMe campaign in hopes of raising enough money to fund new DNA tests of the evidence in her case.
The fundraiser’s initial goal was nine hundred and ninety-six dollars. But, in just over one day, the community had banded together to raise over one thousand and two hundred dollars.
This amount of money allowed the detective to not only pay for the case’s DNA tests but also to add additional money to the reward fund. Soon after, though, Sgt. Carter’s plans came crashing down.
Apparently, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department began to make conflicting statements regarding Sgt. Carter’s employment at the station. Rumors also swirled that he had actually been taken off of Carmen’s case.
It was clear that Sgt. Carter was trying to fight for Carmen, though. So after Carmen’s family heard the news, they actually organized a petition to reinstate the officer.
