Ind. Man Had 10,000 Fragments of Human Remains on Property. Here's How Police Plan to ID All of His Victims

Herb Baumeister’s macabre double life began to unravel in 1994 when his 13-year-old son found a human skull and a pile of bones in the woods of Fox Hollow Farm, his $1 million estate in Westfield, Ind.

Baumeister, who owned a string of thrift stores, had an easy explanation for the chilling discovery: The bones came from a skeleton his late father, an anesthesiologist, obtained in medical school, PEOPLE reported in 1996.

Two years later, Baumeister, 49, was faced with many more questions when police unearthed thousands of human bones and bone fragments at the estate.

The day after police made the grisly discovery, Baumeister vanished. Eight days later, he was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a park in Canada.

Investigators would soon learn that Baumeister was likely one of the most prolific serial killers in Indiana history, one believed to have hunted his prey in gay bars while his wife and three children were away at the family’s lake house.

In 2022, Hamilton County Coroner Jeff Jellison said in a press release that investigators believe the 10,000 human bones and fragments police found at Baumeister’s property in the 1990s could be comprised of the remains of 25 victims.

That same year, Jellison launched a renewed effort to identify some of the suspected serial killer’s victims, this time using advances in DNA technology including genetic genealogy, the Associated Press reports.

Jellison and his team are still seeking DNA samples from relatives of men who vanished in the mid 1980s and mid-1990s, CBS News and the AP report.

The team compares those samples to DNA profiles scientists piece together from the mostly charred remains found at Baumeister’s 18-acre property, according to ABC News and the AP.

The team has received about 40 DNA samples submitted by people who believe their missing male relatives may have been one of Baumeister’s victims, Jellison said, the AP reports.

Related: Indiana Father Had 10,000 Fragments of Human Remains on His Property. Police Are Still IDing Victims

Baumeister is suspected of killing at least 12 men in the early 1990s and hiding their bodies on his property, NBC 5 Chicago reports.

He is also suspected of the murders of at least 11 boys and men that authorities had believed were victims of the “I-70 Strangler,” a notorious serial killer whose identity remains a mystery, according to NBC 5 Chicago.

Who Were Baumeister's Victims?

In 2022, Jellison announced that he was launching an initiative to try to identify the remains of the victims.

In May 2024, he identified one of the victims as Jeffrey Jones, of Fillmore, Ind., who was reported missing in 1993 and whose remains were recovered in 1996 from Fox Hollow Farm, according to a release from the Hamilton County Coroner’s Office.

Jones was the third victim to be identified from Jellison’s renewed investigation into the more than 10,000 remains recovered at Fox Hollow Farm, according to the release.

“Because many of the remains were found burnt and crushed, this investigation is extremely challenging; however, the team of law enforcement and forensic specialists working the case remain committed,” the release said.

In October 2023, Jellison announced that the team had identified another Baumeister’s presumed victims, Allen Livingston, according to the AP.

Livingston's sister, Shannon Doughty, told the AP she was relieved to find out what had happened to her older brother. “Just knowing, it’s a multitude of emotions,” she said. “You wanted to know but you didn’t want to know. But you needed to know.”

Relatives of missing men who want to provide family DNA reference samples for the effort to identify remains can contact the Indiana State Police missing persons hotline at 833-466-2653 or the Hamilton County Coroner’s Office at 317-770-4415.

Read the original article on People