A peaceful, multi-million dollar ranch in Indiana has long harbored a dark secret: it was a serial killer’s playground.
When police finally searched Herb Baumeister’s 18-acre estate in Westfield, north of Indianapolis, they found about 10,000 human remains — mostly crushed and burned bone fragments of teenage boys and young men Baumeister had kidnapped and murdered in the 1980s and 1990s.
Nearly 30 years after Baumeister committed suicide while fleeing police, authorities are still examining the body and identifying the victim.
The Hamilton County coroner announced last month that remains recovered from Herb Baumeister’s Fox Hollow farm in 1996 have been positively identified as those of Jeffrey A. Jones, who went missing in 1993.
Jones is the third victim to be identified in recent months.
Four more unidentified DNA profiles were found on Baumeister’s property, bringing the total number of victims to 12. Hamilton County Coroner Jeff Jellison said:
“This investigation has been extremely challenging as many of the bodies were found burned or crushed, but our team of law enforcement and forensic experts continues to do everything they can to assist in the investigation,” Jellison said.
Baumeister, a businessman and married father of three, preyed on gay teenagers and men in central Indiana since at least 1980. He is believed to have killed at least 25 people. Fox News Digital reported.
He reportedly used the alias “Brian Smart” and targeted young gay men he met in bars.
Jones is the third victim identified by the medical examiner’s office in the past six months, following Allen Livingston, who disappeared in August 1993 at age 27, and Manuel Resendez, who disappeared in 1996 at age 34.
Baumeister, who moved to the farm with his family in 1988, hid thousands of decomposed bodies in the farm’s vast gardens and adjacent paths, until his teenage son discovered a human skull and delivered it to his mother.
His wife, who initially prevented police from searching his property, divorced him as the evidence against him mounted.
Authorities eventually searched the building while Baumeister was away and found the bodies of several of the victims.
Baumeister, who was 49 at the time, fled to Ontario, Canada in 1996 after a warrant was issued for his arrest and shot himself.
He was never charged with murder and did not admit to any guilt in his suicide note.
The remaining unidentified bones and bone fragments were stored until Jellison decided it was time to reopen the case in 1996. According to WRTV.
The Hamilton County Coroner’s Office is working with the FBI, the Indiana State Police Laboratory, Dr. Krista Latham of the University of Indianapolis Department of Biology and Anthropology, and DNA experts from the Otram Laboratory in Texas to identify the additional remains.
