Herb Baumeister

American serial killer

Herbert Richard Baumeister (April 7, 1947 – July 3, 1996) was an American businessman and suspected serial killer. A resident of the Indianapolis suburb of Westfield, Indiana, Baumeister was under investigation for murdering over a dozen men in the early 1990s, most of whom were last seen at gay bars. Police found the remains of eleven men, eight identified, on Baumeister's property. Baumeister committed suicide after a warrant was issued for his arrest. He was later linked to a series of murders of at least eleven men along Interstate 70, which occurred in the early 1980s to the early 1990s.

Herb Baumeister was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on April 7, 1947, the oldest of four children born to anesthesiologist Dr. Herbert Eugene Baumeister (d. November 12, 1986, aged 66) and Elizabeth Baumeister née Schmidt (d. April 7, 2013, aged 89). His childhood was reportedly normal but he began exhibiting antisocial behavior by the onset of adolescence. Friends later recalled Baumeister's urophilia and how he used to "ponder what it would be like to taste human urine". Baumeister also enjoyed playing with dead animals and urinating on teachers' desks. In his teens, Baumeister's behavior caught the attention of his father, who secreted him off to mental examinations. Baumeister was subsequently diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and antisocial personality disorder but did not receive further psychiatric treatment. Because his school, North Central High School, focused on sports activities, Baumeister could not become part of the "in" crowd and "just didn't blend in." He withdrew to himself, spent many hours alone, and did not date. In 1965, Baumeister attended Indiana University for a semester before dropping out, but returned in 1967. As an adult, Baumeister drifted through a series of jobs, marked by a strong work ethic but also by increasingly bizarre behavior. Saiter later said they had been sexually intimate only six times in over twenty five years of marriage and never saw her husband nude. Though officially unsolved, Baumeister was named the prime suspect in the case in April 1999 by law enforcement. According to investigators, bodies related to the I 70 Strangler case stopped being found in 1991 after Baumeister bought the Fox Hollow Farm, which he would use as a burial site for his subsequent victims. The topless corpse of Maurice Allen Taylor, 22, was found on July 21, 1982, in the Weasel Creek in rural Hamilton County Indiana. Eric Allen Roettger, 17, vanished on May 7, 1985, with his shirtless body found a few days later near a stream in rural Preble County, Ohio, east of Lewisburg. When found, he had an apparent burn mark on his left shoulder, and had been strangled with a rope. The body of 29 year old Michael Allen "Mike" Glenn, clad only in his underwear, was found in a ditch near Eaton, Ohio on August 15, 1986. He lived separately from his parents in a trailer park located on the outskirts of Indianapolis and worked as a handyman. The exact date of his disappearance was not established. Strangulation marks, possibly from a rope, were found on his neck. He was identified three years after his discovery with the help of fingerprinting. The corpse of 26 year old Steven Lynn Elliott, clad in his underwear, was found on August 12, 1989, in rural Preble County, Ohio, near Interstate 70. Thomas Ray Clevenger Jr., 18, vanished without a trace on September 6, 1990, and his semi nude corpse was later found at an abandoned railroad track near Greenville, Ohio.

The Baumeisters purchased and moved to Fox Hollow Farms in May 1988. The home was built in 1978 and was sold by Julie Baumeister in 2009 for $987,500. The 18+ acre, 4 bedroom, 10 bathroom, 11,572 sqft property was listed as 'Over 18 acres of wooded private rolling grounds with a pond. The house has over 11,500 of living space, an indoor pool, a wet bar and many unique features. There is also a 5 car detached garage w/2nd floor and outside deck, 2 horse stables, tack room and exercise ring. On June 24, 1996, investigators recovered human bone fragments of at least eleven people buried in the woods at Fox Hollow Farm, an 18 acre property owned by Baumeister off 156th Street and the Monon Trail in Westfield, Indiana. A new search on December 4, 2022, found one bone and identified twenty additional locations that might have more remains buried under the ground. Only eight people have been identified since the initial discovery. The additional three remains are still unidentified although they are all believed to be male and to have been victims of homicide. Hamilton County Coroner's office have appealed to the public requesting anyone with missing family members from the mid 1980s to mid 1990s in the Indianapolis area to complete a DNA test in an effort to help identify the victims' remains. As of January 2024, forensic experts continue working in an effort to identify nearly 10,000 human remains recovered from Fox Hollow Farm. John Lee "Johnny" Bayer, 20, went missing on May 28, 1993, in Indianapolis. Jeffrey Allen "Jeff" Jones, 31, went missing on July 6, 1993, in Indianapolis. Richard Douglas Hamilton Jr., 20, went missing on July 31, 1993, in Indianapolis. Allen Lee Livingston, 27, also went missing on August 6, 1993 in Indianapolis. His remains were recovered in the initial search of the farm in 1996, but remained unidentified until October 2023. Steven Spurlin Hale, 28, went missing on April 1, 1994, in Indianapolis. Allen Wayne Broussard, 28, went missing on June 6, 1994, in Indianapolis. Roger Allen Goodlet, 33, went missing on July 22, 1994. Last seen after he left his mother's residence, where he lived, to visit a gay bar on 16th Street in Indianapolis. Two weeks before his disappearance, Goodlet was sighted in the company of Baumeister in several Indianapolis homosexual establishments. Michael Frederick "Mike" Keirn, 45, was a homosexual man last seen on March 31, 1995, at a gay bar in downtown Indianapolis. A jacket belonging to Keirn was found in Baumeister's residence. Manuel Resendez, 34, was a homosexual Hispanic male and children's counsellor from Lafayette, Indiana, who was last seen at a gay bar in downtown Indianapolis on August 6, 1993. In January 2024, Hamilton County Coroner announced the identification of remains that were recovered in 1996 from Fox Hollow Farm. A human remain recovered from the property matched a family reference sample that was submitted early 2023 and was identified as Resendez in January 2024. Resendez worked as a children's counselor prior to his disappearance.

Authorities have publicly and posthumously linked the unsolved disappearance of Jerry Williams Comer, 34, to Baumeister. Williams Comer was last seen in Indianapolis on August 8, 1995. After his disappearance, his vehicle was found at Castleton Square Mall. As a young gay man, Williams Comer fit the profile of Baumeister's victims, despite the fact that he was never recovered from his residence.

By the early 1990s, investigators with the Marion County Sheriff's Department and the Indianapolis Police Department began investigating the disappearances of gay men of similar age, height, and weight in the Indianapolis area. In 1994, they were contacted by a man named Tony Harris claiming that a gay bar patron calling himself "Brian Smart" had likely killed a friend of his, Roger Goodlet, based on his suspicious interest in Goodlet's missing persons case and had attempted to kill him with a pool hose during an erotic asphyxiation session in his mansion after he had met him at a local Indianapolis gay bar; the 501 Club. Harris eventually saw this man again in August 1995, following his car and noting his license plate number. Baumeister left a 3 page suicide note, written on yellow notepaper. He regretted messing up the park, he wrote, and felt badly about his broken marriage and failing business, but he did not mention the remains of his victims or admit to any crime.

The A&E television series Investigative Reports aired an episode about Baumeister titled The Secret Life of a Serial Killer in 1997. History featured the case in their Perfect Crimes series. The case was also featured on The Investigators on TruTV in 2008, Behind Mansion Walls on Investigation Discovery (ID), Paranormal Witness on Syfy in 2012, and Ghost Adventures in May 2014. An independent documentary film titled The Haunting of Fox Hollow Farm also explores the crimes and the possibility of hauntings on the grounds of Baumeister's former estate. ID featured the case again on the series True Nightmares, in October 2015. The Crime Junkie podcast released an episode on Baumeister on March 4, 2018. The Monster Presents: Insomniac podcast released a two part episode about the case on June 27, 2019. The All Things Comedy Mexican podcast Leyendas Legendarias released an episode where they talked about the case on October 14, 2020. Georgia Hardstark covered the case on the podcast, My Favorite Murder, in episode 67, "Live at the Egyptian Room", during a live performance in Indianapolis. The podcast The Last Podcast on the Left released part 1 of a series on Herb Baumeister titled 'Episode 568: Herb Baumeister Part I The Bone Twins' on March 29, 2024. Part 2 titled ‘Episode 569: Herb Baumeister Part II The Haunting at Fox Hallow Farm’ was released on April 5, 2024.