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The Horrors Of The Fox Hollow Farm Serial Killer · The conspiracy

0:00
Speaker 1: It began with bones in the quiet woods behind a
0:03
Speaker 1: wealthy Indiana estate. Investigators made a grizzly discovery, scattered fragments
0:09
Speaker 1: of human remains buried beneath the leaves, burned, broken and forgotten.
0:14
Speaker 1: And what they uncovered in that soil would unravel the
0:17
Speaker 1: facad of a man who, by all appearances at it
0:21
Speaker 1: all a thriving business, to loving family, a mansion hidden
0:25
Speaker 1: among the trees. But behind closed doors, something unthinkable was happening.
0:30
Speaker 1: He was charming, respected, a devoted husband, and he was
0:34
Speaker 1: stalking young men and dragging them into the dark. This
0:37
Speaker 1: is not just the story of a killer. It's a
0:39
Speaker 1: story of an entire community that wasn't heard, a survivor
0:44
Speaker 1: who refused to stay silent, and the horrifying truth buried
0:48
Speaker 1: beneath the surface of a seemingly perfect life. This is
0:51
Speaker 1: a story of Herb Baumeister. Crime, conspiracy, cults, serial killers,
0:56
Speaker 1: and murder, all things that I love to consume and
0:59
Speaker 1: I know you do too, you sick, twisted, beautiful, intellectually
1:02
Speaker 1: minded free goa sounded like a burb Sorry about that.
1:09
Speaker 1: Yet today we're getting into a big case, a case
1:12
Speaker 1: that was highly recommended. I saw dozens of comments requesting
1:17
Speaker 1: this case. It has taken a while to get done,
1:20
Speaker 1: but we are here. It is absolutely horrifying, So trigger
1:25
Speaker 1: warning there, but without further ado, let's unbuckle our seatbelts,
1:27
Speaker 1: go mock five down the highway, slam on the brakes,
1:29
Speaker 1: and buster this windshield into this horrifying case together. So.
1:48
Speaker 1: Herbert Richard Baumeister was born in Indianapolis on April seventh,
1:52
Speaker 1: nineteen forty seven, and he was the oldest of four
1:54
Speaker 1: children and a comfortable middle class family, and his father,
1:57
Speaker 1: doctor Herbert E. Baumeister, was an anniestysiologist, and his mother, Elizabeth,
2:02
Speaker 1: was a homemaker. So outwardly, Herb's early childhood seemed pretty normal,
2:07
Speaker 1: but as he entered adolescence, disturbing behavior began to emerge,
2:12
Speaker 1: like we see with many serial killers in their early adolescents,
2:16
Speaker 1: just doing the most fucked up shit. So classmates and
2:20
Speaker 1: teachers noted that young Herb developed morbid fascinations, one being
2:25
Speaker 1: he was intensely curious about the taste of human urine. Yeah,
2:30
Speaker 1: we're really we're really getting into it really quick with
2:32
Speaker 1: this one, so you know, buckle up. And also you
2:36
Speaker 1: guessed it had a tendency to play with dead animals.
2:39
Speaker 1: Just we're making that serial killer stew real quick. And
2:43
Speaker 1: in one incident, he placed a dead crow on a
2:46
Speaker 1: teacher's desk at North Central High School. Kid was fucked
2:49
Speaker 1: up two ways to Sunday. And on another occasion, he
2:52
Speaker 1: urinated on his teacher's desk, just shocking his entire classroom.
2:57
Speaker 1: It's like he needed that shock factor, he needed to
3:00
Speaker 1: be the center of attention in the most morbid ways.
3:04
Speaker 1: And such bizarre antics went far beyond typical teenage rebellion
3:08
Speaker 1: and hinted at a deeply, deeply troubled mind. I mean,
3:12
Speaker 1: we had some jokesters in high school, but nobody was
3:15
Speaker 1: pissing on the teacher's desks and leaving you know, effigies
3:19
Speaker 1: of dead crows there too. So it's just like a
3:22
Speaker 1: little too much. So alarmed by his son's behavior, Herb's
3:26
Speaker 1: father arranged for a psychiatric evaluation during Herb's teens. Good on, dad,
3:31
Speaker 1: Usually we don't hear this. We just hear the parents
3:34
Speaker 1: ignoring this. So that's good at least. And he was
3:35
Speaker 1: a doctor, so that makes sense. And the doctors diagnosed
3:38
Speaker 1: her with paranoid schizophrenia as well. As antisocial personality disorder.
3:44
Speaker 1: So you know, we have nature nurture. There's both going
3:47
Speaker 1: on here. He's got an excuse, but also not Okay,
3:51
Speaker 1: it's not an excuse. It's not an excuse as to
3:53
Speaker 1: it's to harming things and doing horrible things, you know.
3:57
Speaker 1: But at least you know they nipped it in the bud. Great,
4:00
Speaker 1: he's going to get some medication maybe and he'll be great,
4:02
Speaker 1: right right, No, No, we wouldn't. We wouldn't be here
4:07
Speaker 1: talking if if that were the case. So having these
4:09
Speaker 1: disorders meant that HERB might suffer delusions or extreme paranoia
4:14
Speaker 1: and had a diminished sense of empathy or regard for
4:17
Speaker 1: social norms. So something quite literally out of his control.
4:21
Speaker 1: So again I'm not going to give him anything, but
4:23
Speaker 1: there is something that he can't control on his own,
4:26
Speaker 1: at least without therapy or medication or anything like that.
4:29
Speaker 1: But despite this diagnosis, there was no evidence Herb received
4:32
Speaker 1: sustained treatment at that time, and that's the big issue
4:36
Speaker 1: because it could have been a different story if he
4:38
Speaker 1: actually got the real help that he needed or actually
4:42
Speaker 1: stayed with some sort of treatment, but he did not,
4:44
Speaker 1: and instead he was eventually just returned to school. The
4:49
Speaker 1: kid didn't know what's going on. He's got a fucked
4:51
Speaker 1: up brain, and they're just like, ah, he'll be all right.
4:54
Speaker 1: So for a brief period, Herb's behavior improved enough to
4:57
Speaker 1: appear socially acceptable, and he managed to graduate high school
5:02
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty five. However, his reputation had already been
5:05
Speaker 1: tainted by his earlier outbursts and mccawb interests and classmates
5:10
Speaker 1: shunned him, remembering the boy who toyed with dead creatures
5:13
Speaker 1: and caused classroom disruptions. So her But became increasingly withdrawn
5:17
Speaker 1: and reclusive during his late teens. You have the nature
5:22
Speaker 1: where it's like he can't help but have this these
5:25
Speaker 1: awful disorders that he can help. And then there's the nurture,
5:29
Speaker 1: which is like he's clearly not being nurtured through this,
5:32
Speaker 1: he's not being treated for this, and he's just kind
5:35
Speaker 1: of being thrown to the wolves in a very vulnerable,
5:38
Speaker 1: fucked up state. Again, I'm not I am, by no
5:42
Speaker 1: means justifying what he's going to do in the future,
5:44
Speaker 1: because I think he should burn in hell. But when
5:47
Speaker 1: you're a kid, hopefully you can get that help. And
5:50
Speaker 1: this kid did not get any meaningful help, and I'll
5:53
Speaker 1: leave it at that. It's part of the reason why
5:55
Speaker 1: I actually like looking into these cases, because I like
5:58
Speaker 1: looking at the psychological eye suspect and nature versus nurture,
6:02
Speaker 1: and how they were raised and what caused it and
6:04
Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff. And sometimes there's just a shiny,
6:08
Speaker 1: tiny little inkling of sympathy here and there when they're
6:11
Speaker 1: like kids and they can't do anything about it, but
6:13
Speaker 1: it's all gone when they're adults. You know, you learn
6:16
Speaker 1: societal norms and you know you might suffer with these
6:19
Speaker 1: kinds of things. But unless you get help, I don't
6:24
Speaker 1: know what you can do. I'm not a doctor. I'm
6:26
Speaker 1: just a stupid YouTuber. But Herb, like many other serial killers,
6:30
Speaker 1: had those early warning signs that are almost all there
6:33
Speaker 1: for most cases we go through, and that is obsession
6:37
Speaker 1: with your nation or wedding the bed, and obsession with
6:40
Speaker 1: death and volatile emotional outbursts. All we're missing at this
6:44
Speaker 1: point is arsony, basically, But in the conservative nineteen sixties
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Speaker 1: such behavior was often quietly swept under the rug. Different time,
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Speaker 1: so Herb Baumeister was a troubled young man who learned
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Speaker 1: to mask his oddities when needed, a skill he would
7:00
Speaker 1: later use to hide far darker impulses knowingly. And this
7:05
Speaker 1: is where we get into the oh. He knows what
7:07
Speaker 1: he's doing is wrong. That's wrong, and that's terrible, and
7:11
Speaker 1: that makes you evil. So after high school, Herb's attempts
7:14
Speaker 1: at higher education and steady employment were checkered, and he
7:18
Speaker 1: would enroll in Indiana University in nineteen sixty five, but
7:22
Speaker 1: would drop out after one semester, and he returned to
7:25
Speaker 1: IU in nineteen sixty seven, where he would meet his
7:28
Speaker 1: future wife, Juliana or Julie Satyr, but again left before
7:32
Speaker 1: completing a term. So in nineteen seventy two, Herb tried
7:35
Speaker 1: taking classes at Butler University, with similar results, quitting after
7:39
Speaker 1: a single semester. Guy has commitment issues, and during this period,
7:43
Speaker 1: in November of nineteen seventy one, twenty four year old
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Speaker 1: Herb Baumeister married Juliana Satir, who was a former high
7:49
Speaker 1: school journalism teacher who he had courted in college. And Julie,
7:53
Speaker 1: by all accounts, was a smart and patient woman, which
7:57
Speaker 1: you needed to be if you were with this fing,
8:00
Speaker 1: and notably a fellow young conservative. So the two had
8:04
Speaker 1: bonded in part over working together at the university's Young
8:07
Speaker 1: Republicans club, and to Julie and others, Herb could seem
8:11
Speaker 1: eccentric but essentially harmless. So nobody really saw those red
8:15
Speaker 1: flags because nobody knew about these outbursts that happened when
8:19
Speaker 1: he was younger. I mean it was the sixties. It's
8:20
Speaker 1: not like he was posted online or anything. If he
8:23
Speaker 1: was able to quite literally shove all that under the rug.
8:26
Speaker 1: So they would settle into a home in an Indianapolis
8:29
Speaker 1: suburb and would go on to have three children together
8:32
Speaker 1: in the coming years. But Herb's personal eccentricities did not
8:37
Speaker 1: disappear during this time, because it was only six months
8:40
Speaker 1: into the marriage. His mental health faltered very badly, and
8:44
Speaker 1: he became so depressed and erratic that his father had
8:47
Speaker 1: him committed to a psychiatric hospital for about two months
8:50
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy two. Quote he was hurting and needed
8:54
Speaker 1: help unquote. Julie later explained of that period. So again,
8:58
Speaker 1: at least he's getting help at this point that he
9:01
Speaker 1: really didn't get as a kid. So Herb would recover
9:05
Speaker 1: enough to assume a normal life, that he continued to
9:08
Speaker 1: exhibit unusual behavior and struggled to hold jobs. Similar to
9:13
Speaker 1: him dropping out all the time. You just got tired
9:15
Speaker 1: of stuff really fast, and that could be very much
9:18
Speaker 1: a part of the disorders she already has and part
9:21
Speaker 1: b that he just thought he was too good to
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Speaker 1: be a part of anything that was going on in society.
9:25
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Speaker 1: So in the nineteen seventies, he worked as a copy
11:25
Speaker 1: boy at the Indianapolis Star newspaper and later landed a
11:28
Speaker 1: position at the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles, which was BMV.
11:32
Speaker 1: And at the BMV, Herb initially impressed colleagues with his
11:36
Speaker 1: strong work ethic, but his bizarre conduct soon resurfaced because
11:41
Speaker 1: see again, the sky didn't last long and people would
11:43
Speaker 1: start to notice that Herb had a dark, offbeat sense
11:47
Speaker 1: of humor and a tendency to flout norms. And at
11:51
Speaker 1: one point he sent his coworkers an inappropriate Christmas card
11:54
Speaker 1: showing himself and another man dressed in drag, which is
11:58
Speaker 1: like today slick, you know, but in the nineteen sixties
12:03
Speaker 1: psycho psychiatric prison, you know. So the prank did not
12:06
Speaker 1: go over well in the conservative office environment, shockingly, so
12:10
Speaker 1: as time went on, Herb grew domineering and aggressive with
12:14
Speaker 1: his colleagues, started to get an ego, and the breaking
12:17
Speaker 1: point came in nineteen eighty five when BMV officials discovered
12:21
Speaker 1: that someone had urinated on the manager's desk. You guessed it, issol.
12:28
Speaker 1: Herb loves pisson on shit like a dog, which is
12:32
Speaker 1: what he is, just a dirty, disgusting dog, as we
12:37
Speaker 1: will see. So Herb was caught having urinated on a
12:40
Speaker 1: letter addressed to the governor, and it was determined he
12:43
Speaker 1: was likely responsible for the earlier incident of urine left
12:46
Speaker 1: on his manager's desk. So this utterly shocking misbehavior obviously
12:52
Speaker 1: got Herb fired in nineteen eighty five, and it was
12:54
Speaker 1: just a humiliating end to his government job. And it
12:58
Speaker 1: just foreshadowed the increasingly erratic pattern of Herb's adult life.
13:02
Speaker 1: So by his late thirties, Herb Baumeister was outwardly a
13:05
Speaker 1: married father of three, but he was also a man
13:08
Speaker 1: grappling with mental illnesses and concealed desires, And unbeknownst to
13:13
Speaker 1: his wife, Herb began spending time in Indianapolis's gay night
13:17
Speaker 1: life scene after losing his B and V job. So
13:20
Speaker 1: on top of everything else, Paranoids gets fronty of personality disorder.
13:24
Speaker 1: He's also by all accounts gay, but he has to
13:29
Speaker 1: internalize it, whether it's just because of the time period,
13:32
Speaker 1: or that he's embarrassed, or because he has a family,
13:34
Speaker 1: and he's cheating on his wife all the stuff. So
13:36
Speaker 1: he's got a lot of things internally building up, which
13:40
Speaker 1: is really bad with somebody that who tends to be
13:43
Speaker 1: violent and have outbursts. So he would go out drinking
13:47
Speaker 1: at gay bars, likely exploring a side of himself that
13:50
Speaker 1: he kept hidden at home. And in nineteen eighty five
13:53
Speaker 1: and nineteen eighty six he had two run ins with
13:55
Speaker 1: the law, one for a hit and run while driving
13:58
Speaker 1: drunk and another for conspiracy to commit theft, and both
14:02
Speaker 1: charges were eventually dropped. But these incidences just show herb
14:06
Speaker 1: skirting the edges of criminal behavior years before his killing
14:09
Speaker 1: Spury even began, so we already had this superiority complex
14:13
Speaker 1: building inside of himself because he could get away with everything,
14:18
Speaker 1: you know, besides pissing on his manager's desk or whatever.
14:20
Speaker 1: He got fired for that at least, And this is
14:22
Speaker 1: when friends and family noticed changes as well, because at
14:26
Speaker 1: home in the suburban stein Meyer neighborhood, neighbors found her
14:29
Speaker 1: odd and unpredictable because it could be generous in one moment,
14:33
Speaker 1: handing out free magazines and concert tickets to neighbor kids,
14:37
Speaker 1: and in the next moment he'd get explosively angry over
14:40
Speaker 1: trivial things. And this is this is with the personality
14:44
Speaker 1: disorder coming to head, probably on top of the paranoid schizophrenia.
14:48
Speaker 1: And Julie later revealed an intimate detail that spoke volumes
14:51
Speaker 1: about their marriages because in over twenty five years together,
14:55
Speaker 1: she and Herb had only been silly intimate only six
14:59
Speaker 1: times times, and she had never even seen him fully nude.
15:04
Speaker 1: So this lack of physical closeness suggests Herb's settle interests
15:08
Speaker 1: late elsewhere as we know, I mean he liked to
15:11
Speaker 1: go to gay bars, I can safely assume was just
15:14
Speaker 1: using Julie as a beard, as the kids may say nowadays,
15:18
Speaker 1: which is basically a cover like he wanted to appear
15:21
Speaker 1: like he had straight life, when in actuality he was
15:25
Speaker 1: gay and internalizing all sorts of horrible feelings, like the
15:29
Speaker 1: violent ones. Not that you're gay. You can be gay,
15:31
Speaker 1: that's totally fine, But in the sixties it was a
15:33
Speaker 1: different story. So indeed, Herb was living a closeted life,
15:37
Speaker 1: maintaining the appearance of a straight, conservative family man while
15:40
Speaker 1: secretly engaging with men at gay bars. So the conflict
15:43
Speaker 1: between his public persona and private desires would only intensify
15:47
Speaker 1: in the coming years, setting the stage for his double
15:51
Speaker 1: life as a serial killer. So by the late nineteen eighties,
15:54
Speaker 1: Herbaudmeister seemed to find his footing as an entrepreneur, even
15:58
Speaker 1: as his personal oddities persisted, and in nineteen eighty eight,
16:01
Speaker 1: with financial help from his mother, Herb opened a thrift
16:04
Speaker 1: store called Save a Lot in Indianapolis. It's a great name, Herb,
16:09
Speaker 1: and Herb would just pour his energy into this store
16:13
Speaker 1: like he hadn't done with any other job before, and
16:16
Speaker 1: his hard work would pay off because Save a Lot
16:19
Speaker 1: was clean, well organized, and stocked with quality used goods,
16:24
Speaker 1: quickly setting it apart from other thrift shops, and it
16:26
Speaker 1: became a modest success, and Herb's confidence would just grow
16:31
Speaker 1: from this, because it didn't take much for this guy's
16:34
Speaker 1: head to just blow up with ego. So over the
16:36
Speaker 1: next few years he expanded, eventually operating two and by
16:39
Speaker 1: some reports three Save a Lot thrift store location in
16:43
Speaker 1: the Indianapolis area. So with this business boom came a
16:46
Speaker 1: significant lifestyle upgrade, and in November of nineteen ninety one,
16:50
Speaker 1: despite recent marital strains, Herb and Julie made a bold purchase,
16:54
Speaker 1: which was a sprawling eighteen acre estate in Westfield, just
16:59
Speaker 1: north of Indianapolis, and the estate, which Herb named Fox
17:03
Speaker 1: Hollow Farm. Yeah Yeah, this is the place, featured a
17:08
Speaker 1: one thousand plus square meter Tudor style mansion completed with
17:12
Speaker 1: elegant features like stained glass windows, multiple fireplaces, and an
17:16
Speaker 1: indoor swimming pool, and the property was reportedly worth nearly
17:19
Speaker 1: one million dollars, which was a testament to the outward
17:23
Speaker 1: success the Bowmeisters projected and to neighbors and friends, the
17:27
Speaker 1: Bowmeister's family now seemed to be living the American dream,
17:31
Speaker 1: a booming business, country manor home and three happy children,
17:35
Speaker 1: and Julie continued to stand by Herb, working in the
17:38
Speaker 1: business and raising their son and two daughters. So few
17:42
Speaker 1: could have guessed the turmoil in secrets that festered behind
17:46
Speaker 1: closed doors at Fox Hollow Farm, because despite the beautiful
17:50
Speaker 1: new home and thriving stores, Herb's double identity was intensifying,
17:55
Speaker 1: and as coworkers and employees began noticing that their boss's
17:58
Speaker 1: behavior grew more volatile in the early nineteen nineties, because
18:02
Speaker 1: Herb would be absent from work for long stretches during
18:06
Speaker 1: the day without any sort of explanation and became increasingly
18:10
Speaker 1: irritable and erratic when present and financial problems also started
18:14
Speaker 1: to mount, and by nineteen ninety four, the Save a
18:17
Speaker 1: Lot enterprise was faltering because the second store had not
18:21
Speaker 1: replicated the success of the first and debts were starting
18:24
Speaker 1: to pile up and vendors were suing for unpaid bills.
18:28
Speaker 1: Guy pulled the trigger before he actually reached like a
18:31
Speaker 1: state of success. It was all about image for Herb.
18:34
Speaker 1: He needed to have that manner, to have that outward
18:37
Speaker 1: appearance of being like the perfect American family, but an
18:40
Speaker 1: inactuality was much different. And under all this strain, Herb's
18:45
Speaker 1: marriage was deteriorating, to say the least, and in early
18:48
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one, in just months before buying Foxhall of Farm,
18:52
Speaker 1: Herb had briefly moved out of the family home and
18:54
Speaker 1: even filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences, which for Herb
18:59
Speaker 1: means he likes men and not women. But yet I
19:02
Speaker 1: don't think Julie knew that, Or maybe she did know that,
19:04
Speaker 1: I don't really know yet. He and Julie reconciled later
19:07
Speaker 1: that year, deciding to give the marriage another try, while
19:10
Speaker 1: moving into the new Westfield State, but still the relationship
19:14
Speaker 1: remained very rocky, and Julie noticed Herb's moods swinging wildly,
19:19
Speaker 1: and former colleagues later describe Herb as a quote perfectionist
19:23
Speaker 1: given to sudden, unprovoked rages. Sounds awful just recalling how
19:29
Speaker 1: the smallest thing could just set him off. And these
19:32
Speaker 1: fits of angers, combined with Herb's secretive habits, made life
19:37
Speaker 1: at Foxhole Farm increasingly tense for his family, and Julie
19:41
Speaker 1: would later admit that her husband was becoming quote erratic
19:44
Speaker 1: and difficult to live with during this period. And crucially,
19:48
Speaker 1: Herb's hidden life continued alongside his family life because at
19:52
Speaker 1: night or when his wife and kids were out of town,
19:55
Speaker 1: Herb frequented gay bars in downtown Indianapolis, introducing himself to
19:59
Speaker 1: strangers as Brian Smart. Even called himself smart. He got
20:04
Speaker 1: to make up a name for himself and he called
20:07
Speaker 1: himself smart. What a fucking dumbass. But during this time
20:11
Speaker 1: he was living out urges he could not openly acknowledge
20:14
Speaker 1: in his conservative household. So this clandestine behavior just suggested
20:18
Speaker 1: that Herb felt he had to compartmentalize his identity and
20:21
Speaker 1: the respectable heterosexual family man in one compartment and the
20:26
Speaker 1: gay man seeking anonymous encounters in another. And it is
20:29
Speaker 1: within the secret, nocturnal world that Herb's darkest tendencies began
20:34
Speaker 1: to manifest. Because Herb's ability to maintain his facade of
20:38
Speaker 1: normalcy kept suspicions at bay for a while, because by
20:42
Speaker 1: day he was a store owner and dad driving his
20:44
Speaker 1: kids to school, and at night he prowled gay bars
20:47
Speaker 1: at night with the fake name Brian Smart. So he
20:50
Speaker 1: just straddled these two worlds, and for a time he
20:53
Speaker 1: managed to keep each from discovering the other. And in hindsight,
20:56
Speaker 1: the contradictions in Herb Baumeister's life were very stark, because
21:01
Speaker 1: he lived in a mansion, yet his businesses were verging
21:04
Speaker 1: on bankruptcy. And he presented as a devoted husband, yet
21:07
Speaker 1: had almost no physical intimacy with his wife, and you know,
21:11
Speaker 1: cheated honor with the other men. And he championed family
21:15
Speaker 1: values in public, yet spent his free hours cruising gay
21:18
Speaker 1: clubs in secret. And friends and family who knew her
21:21
Speaker 1: in the early nineties would later struggle to reconcile the
21:25
Speaker 1: duality that they observed. So by the early nineteen nineties,
21:29
Speaker 1: gay men in Indianapolis were quietly vanishing without explanation, and
21:33
Speaker 1: in May of nineteen ninety three, the trend became alarming
21:36
Speaker 1: because one by one, young men who frequented Indianapolis gay
21:40
Speaker 1: bars were reported missing. And at first these disappearances attracted
21:44
Speaker 1: little public attention because there was no bodies immediately found,
21:48
Speaker 1: just men who went out for the evening and never
21:50
Speaker 1: returned home. And within the LGBTQ plus community, words spread
21:54
Speaker 1: that something was terribly wrong, and amid this backdrop, Herb
21:58
Speaker 1: Baumeister was about to begin his killing spree in earnest.
22:01
Speaker 1: So investigators now believe Herb's murderous activities started around the
22:05
Speaker 1: nineteen eighties, possibly as early as the mid eighties, and
22:09
Speaker 1: then escalated in the nineteen nineties. So authorities suspected that
22:13
Speaker 1: Baumeister may have been an uncaught serial killer known as
22:16
Speaker 1: the I seventy Strangler, which we've briefly talked about in
22:20
Speaker 1: one of my three part video series. But I feel
22:23
Speaker 1: like I should do like a full blown video on
22:26
Speaker 1: that person which could have been Herb Baumeister, because throughout
22:29
Speaker 1: the nineteen eighties, between nineteen eighty and nineteen ninety one,
22:32
Speaker 1: at least eleven men were found strangled and dumped in
22:35
Speaker 1: rural areas near in a state, seventy in Indiana and Ohio.
22:40
Speaker 1: And these victims were mostly young gay men who had
22:43
Speaker 1: last been seen at Indianapolis gay bars, and they're not
22:46
Speaker 1: clothes or partially clothed. Bodies were discarded off highways, in
22:50
Speaker 1: streams or ditches, and the killings mysteriously stopped in nineteen
22:55
Speaker 1: ninety one, the same year, Herb purchased Foxhall of Farm,
22:58
Speaker 1: and in nineteen ninety eight, investigators noted that once Herb
23:01
Speaker 1: had his secluded eighteen acre property, he no longer needed
23:05
Speaker 1: to risk dumping bodies along the interstate. That's the theory,
23:09
Speaker 1: and there's reasons why we can't confirm this, but I'll
23:11
Speaker 1: get into that later. But if all true, Herb Bowmeister's
23:15
Speaker 1: murder career had begun well before he ever killed on
23:18
Speaker 1: his own property, and as possible, he honed his methods
23:21
Speaker 1: on those highway killings, and then once he had Foxhall
23:24
Speaker 1: of Farm as a private murder ground, he brutally reached
23:28
Speaker 1: new heights. So by nineteen ninety three, Bowmeister was actively
23:32
Speaker 1: hunting victims in Indianapolis. Specifically the Indianapolis gay bars, and
23:36
Speaker 1: he typically targeted men in their teens to twenties or
23:40
Speaker 1: even thirties, though one victim was as old as forty six,
23:44
Speaker 1: and usually Herb's victims were white males. And Herb's m
23:48
Speaker 1: was both cunning and predatory because he would spend the
23:51
Speaker 1: evening cruising popular gay bars like the five ozho One
23:54
Speaker 1: Club or others along Massachusetts Avenue, and he presented himself
23:59
Speaker 1: as a friendly, fire, unloving man named Brian Smart and
24:03
Speaker 1: Baumeister would single out a potential victim, often someone who
24:07
Speaker 1: was alone, and he would strike up a conversation, and
24:11
Speaker 1: he had a practical charm and was generous with free
24:14
Speaker 1: drinks as well, and eventually he'd invite the target out
24:18
Speaker 1: to his home, mentioning the indoor pool or promising a
24:21
Speaker 1: private after party at his estate. And the offerer must
24:25
Speaker 1: have sounded tempting a trip to a mansion with an
24:28
Speaker 1: apparently friendly, successful man, I mean, sounds like a dream. Right,
24:32
Speaker 1: never go to his second location with the stranger, because
24:36
Speaker 1: tragically accepting the offer was a fatal mistake for many young,
24:41
Speaker 1: unfortunate men. Because at Foxhall, a farm, Herb had carefully
24:45
Speaker 1: prepared a killing ground that hid behind the trappings of
24:49
Speaker 1: the luxury, and the indoor swimming pool area in his
24:52
Speaker 1: mansion was decorated with Mannikin's posed infestive positions, psychotic, as
24:59
Speaker 1: if a never ending party were happening. This is it's
25:05
Speaker 1: so disturbing to even think about. Like it sounds made up.
25:08
Speaker 1: It sounds like a hormone, but it's real, and it's
25:11
Speaker 1: it is horrifying in this specific details suggests Herb's peculiar
25:16
Speaker 1: sense of atmosphere and perhaps an attempt to put his
25:19
Speaker 1: guest at ease or disorient them. When they first walk
25:22
Speaker 1: in or close they could see maybe shadows, and they
25:24
Speaker 1: could see that maybe there's others people in here. So
25:26
Speaker 1: it's chill, it's fine, everything's fine, and he gets them
25:29
Speaker 1: to put their guard down, but in actuality they're store mannequins,
25:34
Speaker 1: and once alone with his victim, Herb would initiate se
25:38
Speaker 1: activity and introduce a dangerous twist because he loved erotic exit.
25:45
Speaker 1: Of course, of course, of course you like this, and
25:48
Speaker 1: according to later testimony from a survivor, Herb known as Brian,
25:52
Speaker 1: would suggest they check each other during intimate acts to
25:56
Speaker 1: heighten the pressure and again, if you're in a you know,
25:58
Speaker 1: a consenting situation, it doesn't seem that crazy. I guess
26:03
Speaker 1: whatever you're into, I don't know. It's just it's so
26:06
Speaker 1: incredibly sad for these men. I can't even imagine the
26:10
Speaker 1: fear that would come upon them like during these acts.
26:13
Speaker 1: It's so incredibly horrible. But this particular practice involves temporarily
26:19
Speaker 1: cutting off oxygen for arousal, and it's a risky act
26:23
Speaker 1: even when consensual. But for Herb, however, it was more
26:27
Speaker 1: than a game. It was his means to a kill.
26:30
Speaker 1: And he would encourage the victim to let him tighten
26:33
Speaker 1: something around their neck, such as a pool hose or
26:37
Speaker 1: a belt, and this was under the pretense of a
26:39
Speaker 1: consensual kink. And then at the crucial moment, Herb would
26:44
Speaker 1: refuse to release his scripe and he would derive gratification
26:48
Speaker 1: from the act of doing this to someone until they
26:52
Speaker 1: were dead, just exerting total control over the victim's life.
26:56
Speaker 1: And detectives later concluded that Baumeister likely murdered his victims
26:59
Speaker 1: right there by the pool, where the sound of struggle
27:02
Speaker 1: would be muffled by the walls and waters. Acoustics and
27:06
Speaker 1: Herb was a very hands on killer, literally feeling the
27:09
Speaker 1: life drain from his victims as part of his depsidistic satisfaction,
27:14
Speaker 1: and after the victims stopped breathing, Bowmeister set about the
27:18
Speaker 1: grim task of disposing of the body. And as we know,
27:21
Speaker 1: he had eighteen acres of isolated land at his command
27:25
Speaker 1: and he used it to its full advantage. And under
27:28
Speaker 1: the cover of darkness, Herb would take his now deceased
27:31
Speaker 1: victim out into the wooded sections of his property behind
27:34
Speaker 1: the house, and there he engaged in what investigators believe
27:38
Speaker 1: were post mortem quote rituals to prevent identification of the
27:43
Speaker 1: victim in case they actually were dug up, and evidence
27:46
Speaker 1: suggests Bowmeister dismembered some victims and burned many of the bones,
27:51
Speaker 1: using the farm's remote grounds as his personal dumping site.
27:55
Speaker 1: Just an absolute fucking monster, and years later forensic teams
27:59
Speaker 1: would find yards of charred bone and ash in fire
28:02
Speaker 1: pits and scattered through the dirt, indicating attempts to cremate
28:05
Speaker 1: the bodies in open air. But Bowmeister was thorough and
28:09
Speaker 1: he likely crushed some of the larger bones to fragments
28:13
Speaker 1: and even pulled out some of the teeth from skulls
28:15
Speaker 1: to hinder identification, and one investigator learned through a confidant
28:19
Speaker 1: of Herbs that he allegedly had a habit of using
28:22
Speaker 1: particular tools to extract his victim's teeth, then tossing the
28:26
Speaker 1: teeth down a hallway like tick tax in a grotesque
28:30
Speaker 1: display of triumph, which is beyond words, fucked up, it's vomited, ucing,
28:37
Speaker 1: it's sick. But all these details just paint a picture
28:41
Speaker 1: of a man reveling in the aftermath of murder, taking
28:44
Speaker 1: steps to ensure his victims became anonymous piles of forgotten bones.
28:50
Speaker 1: The neighbors would never report anything terribly amiss, and Bowmeister
28:55
Speaker 1: orchestrated his crimes around his family's schedule. Julie and the
28:58
Speaker 1: children were nearly always away when the murders took place,
29:02
Speaker 1: because during summer breaks, Julie would take the kids to
29:05
Speaker 1: visit her mother at a lake cottage in northern Indiana,
29:08
Speaker 1: leaving Herb alone at Fauxhallo Farm for weeks at a time,
29:12
Speaker 1: and those lonely stretches of summer were Herb's opportunity to hunt,
29:16
Speaker 1: and investigators later determined that each known victim's disappearance coincided
29:21
Speaker 1: with times when Herb's wife and children were out of town,
29:25
Speaker 1: which again is just so sick to know that your
29:27
Speaker 1: husband and your father was doing this kind of stuff
29:30
Speaker 1: when you were gone. Oh god, it just I just
29:33
Speaker 1: don't know how you how do you even get over that?
29:36
Speaker 1: Or you probably don't at all. And on some occasions,
29:39
Speaker 1: Herb likely also exploited business trips or claimed to be
29:43
Speaker 1: working late to cover his lethal outings. And his pattern
29:47
Speaker 1: just shows deep, deep calculation, like murder in the first
29:51
Speaker 1: first degree. He's always planning it out. But Baumeister just
29:55
Speaker 1: compartmentalized his life so effectively that he could a man
30:00
Speaker 1: to death in his pool one night, then cheerfully host
30:04
Speaker 1: a family barbecue in the same spot the next week
30:07
Speaker 1: as if nothing happened, just no sense of remorse. So
30:11
Speaker 1: from nineteen ninety three to nineteen ninety five, the disappearances
30:15
Speaker 1: continued uninterrupted, and young men would vanish from downtown Indianapolis
30:19
Speaker 1: and were never seen alive again, and no bodies were
30:22
Speaker 1: immediately found as we know, so the link between these
30:25
Speaker 1: missing persons was not obvious, but within the gay community,
30:29
Speaker 1: fear was mounting because someone who met men in bars
30:32
Speaker 1: was preying on them, and police seemed slow to catch on.
30:36
Speaker 1: And although Herbs seemed to really hone in his perfect
30:40
Speaker 1: killing scheme, mistakes were starting to be made and close
30:44
Speaker 1: calls were bound to accumulate because the more he killed,
30:47
Speaker 1: the greater chance that eventually something or someone would blow
30:51
Speaker 1: his cover, And by late nineteen ninety four, events were
30:54
Speaker 1: set in motion that would lead to Herb Baumeister's downfall.
30:58
Speaker 1: So the known victims of her Baumeister's Foxhola Farm murders
31:02
Speaker 1: were all men who vanished in the mid nineteen nineties,
31:05
Speaker 1: leaving behind distraught families and friends, and it took years
31:09
Speaker 1: for investigators to piece together their identities from the bone
31:12
Speaker 1: fragments found on Baumeister's property, And as of twenty twenty five,
31:17
Speaker 1: ten victims have been positively identified and several more are suspected.
31:22
Speaker 1: And these men's lives and tragic ends illustrate the horrific
31:26
Speaker 1: scope of Baumeister's crimes. And I want to go over
31:29
Speaker 1: these key victims and their fates as understood from the investigation.
31:34
Speaker 1: So first we have Roger Allan Goodlett, who was thirty
31:37
Speaker 1: three years old and was a resident of Indianapolis and
31:40
Speaker 1: Roger was reported missing on July twenty second, nineteen ninety four,
31:45
Speaker 1: and he was last seen leaving a downtown gay bar,
31:48
Speaker 1: heading out with a man who introduced himself as Brian Smart.
31:52
Speaker 1: And Roger's disappearance deeply alarmed his family and frustrated with
31:56
Speaker 1: the police's slow progress, Roger's mother and friends blast the
32:00
Speaker 1: city with missing persons posters, and Roger's case would become
32:04
Speaker 1: pivotal because a friend of his was turned amateur sleuth
32:07
Speaker 1: under the alias Tony Harris ultimately would help crack the mystery,
32:11
Speaker 1: but sadly, Roger never came home, and years later, authorities
32:15
Speaker 1: confirmed that some of the remains were covered at Foxhall
32:18
Speaker 1: of Farm belonged to Roger Goodlett, and he is believed
32:21
Speaker 1: to be one of Baumeister's victims strength on the estate
32:24
Speaker 1: in the summer of nineteen eighty four. And then there's
32:26
Speaker 1: Alan Wayne Broussard who's twenty eight years old, and Alan
32:30
Speaker 1: was also from Indianapolis and had disappeared on June sixth
32:33
Speaker 1: of nineteen ninety four, and like Roger, Allan was last
32:36
Speaker 1: seen at an Indianapolis gay bar and never returned, and
32:39
Speaker 1: Alan's mother grew concerned and also reached out for help,
32:42
Speaker 1: and she and Roger Goodlett's mother enlisted the aid of
32:45
Speaker 1: a private investigator because the police weren't doing shit. And
32:49
Speaker 1: this private investigator was Virgil Vandergriff And it wasn't until
32:52
Speaker 1: the Foxhall of Farm bones were analyzed that the truth
32:55
Speaker 1: would emerge that Alan Broussard's remains were found among the
32:59
Speaker 1: thousands of fragments, confirming he had fallen victim to the
33:02
Speaker 1: killer as well. And then there was Johnny john Behar,
33:05
Speaker 1: who was twenty years old and one of the youngest
33:09
Speaker 1: identified victims. Johnny Bear was an Indianapolis man who went
33:13
Speaker 1: missing on May twenty eighth, nineteen ninety three, and he
33:16
Speaker 1: was reportedly working at a fast food restaurant at the time.
33:18
Speaker 1: And Johnny said goodbye to his mother on his way
33:21
Speaker 1: to work one day and then just vanished. And for
33:24
Speaker 1: years his family heard nothing, and only a single rib
33:28
Speaker 1: bone of Johnny's was eventually recovered at Foxhall of Farm,
33:31
Speaker 1: found among the thousands of pieces of remains, and that
33:34
Speaker 1: rib would be DNA match to Johnny in the late
33:36
Speaker 1: nineteen nineties, finally giving his mother an answer, and in
33:40
Speaker 1: a heartbreaking statement, Johnny's mother said in nineteen ninety nine,
33:44
Speaker 1: one rib bone. Even though they gave me his rib
33:47
Speaker 1: bone and we had the services, it's not real to me.
33:51
Speaker 1: I can still see him someday coming up to the door.
33:54
Speaker 1: And her hope for her son's return had been cruelly
33:57
Speaker 1: destroyed by the confirmation of his death. And Johnny Bayer's
34:01
Speaker 1: name was among the first confirmed in the investigation, and
34:04
Speaker 1: he represents the many young men whose lives were cut
34:07
Speaker 1: short just as they were starting out. And then there
34:10
Speaker 1: was Richard A. Douglas Hamilton, who was also twenty years old.
34:14
Speaker 1: He was also a local to Indianapolis and his last
34:16
Speaker 1: sighting was on July thirty first in nineteen ninety three,
34:20
Speaker 1: and little is publicly recorded about the circumstances of Richard's disappearance,
34:24
Speaker 1: but by September nineteen ninety six, Richard Hamilton's remains had
34:28
Speaker 1: been confidently identified by forensic anthropologists sorting through all the
34:32
Speaker 1: bones found at Faux Sohla Farm. And then there was
34:34
Speaker 1: Stephen Sperlin Hale who was twenty six years old and
34:37
Speaker 1: vanished on April first, nineteen ninety four, and he was
34:40
Speaker 1: also from Indianapolis and was working as a custodian at
34:44
Speaker 1: a restaurant at the time and on the night of
34:46
Speaker 1: April first, he was last seen in Indianapolis Central Library,
34:50
Speaker 1: a known a gay meetup spot. But unfortunately, his bones
34:53
Speaker 1: would also be analyzed from Foxholar Farm and it would
34:56
Speaker 1: be confirmed that he had been killed on the property.
34:58
Speaker 1: And then there was Manuel mann Rissindez, and Manny was
35:02
Speaker 1: a bit different from the other victims in that he
35:04
Speaker 1: was from Lafayette, Indiana, which was about an hour north
35:08
Speaker 1: from Indiana, and he was reported missing in early August
35:11
Speaker 1: of nineteen ninety three, and for decades, Manny's fate was
35:14
Speaker 1: unknown and an a testament to dogged work of forensic experts.
35:19
Speaker 1: Manuel's remains were finally DNA confirmed in twenty twenty four,
35:22
Speaker 1: nearly thirty years after he vanished, but at least his
35:26
Speaker 1: family could get some semblance peace and knowing that he
35:30
Speaker 1: was found, but obviously it's still horrible, but this would
35:34
Speaker 1: make headlines in twenty twenty four, bringing closure to the
35:37
Speaker 1: Rosendas family after so many years. And then there was
35:40
Speaker 1: Jeffrey Allen Jeff Jones, and he was also an Indianapolis
35:44
Speaker 1: man who went missing on July sixth, nineteen ninety three
35:47
Speaker 1: at the age of thirty one, and he was suspected
35:49
Speaker 1: early on as a possible victim of the Fox Hollow
35:52
Speaker 1: Killer via earlier identification, but it wasn't until May of
35:56
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four that Jeff's remains were conclusively identified through
36:00
Speaker 1: genetic genealogy. And then there was Michael Frederick Mike Kern,
36:04
Speaker 1: who was forty six years old, one of the oldest victims,
36:07
Speaker 1: and he would go missing on March thirty first in
36:09
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety five. And Mike's disappearance came relatively late in
36:13
Speaker 1: Bowmeister's spree, and it suggests herb had not yet been deterred,
36:17
Speaker 1: even after a suspicious incident in nineteen ninety four, and
36:20
Speaker 1: we'll say more on that soon because it is frecked up.
36:23
Speaker 1: And then there was Alan Livingston who was twenty seven
36:25
Speaker 1: years old and he was last seen getting into someone's
36:28
Speaker 1: car in downtown Indianapolis in August of nineteen ninety three,
36:32
Speaker 1: and Sharon Allan's mother began to suspect that he was
36:35
Speaker 1: among the Fox Hellow Farm victims when news broke about
36:38
Speaker 1: Bowmeister in nineteen ninety six, but she would continue to
36:41
Speaker 1: hold on to hope that her son would maybe return,
36:44
Speaker 1: and she allegedly kept her home phone line connected for
36:47
Speaker 1: decades in the hope that Allan might call, which is
36:50
Speaker 1: so heartbreaking because this was the only number he would
36:53
Speaker 1: have known to call. But his remains would finally be
36:57
Speaker 1: identified in twenty twenty three. And then there were Daniel
37:00
Speaker 1: Thomas Hollerin whose age is unknown. And Daniel wasn't reported
37:04
Speaker 1: missing nor even suspected as a victim, yet his remains
37:08
Speaker 1: were discovered amongst the bones in Foxhall of Farm. And
37:11
Speaker 1: then there was Jerry Williams Comer who was thirty four
37:14
Speaker 1: years old, and he would go missing on August eighth,
37:16
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety five. And while Jerry was confirmed to have
37:19
Speaker 1: been a victim of Baumeister, this discovery was not from
37:23
Speaker 1: the Foxhall of Farm remains. His vehicle was discovered after
37:26
Speaker 1: his disappearance, and he fit the victim profile as a
37:29
Speaker 1: young gay man in Indianapolis. But these names, excluding Jerry,
37:33
Speaker 1: are only the identified victims from Foxhall of Farm. In total,
37:37
Speaker 1: more than ten thousand bone fragments were recovered on the property,
37:42
Speaker 1: which represents an estimated twenty five or more individuals that
37:47
Speaker 1: Bawmeister may have murdered, which is sickening, and that means
37:51
Speaker 1: over a dozen victims remain unidentified to this day, and
37:55
Speaker 1: their families might still not know what became of their
37:58
Speaker 1: loved one who disappeared in the nineteen eighties or nineteen nineties.
38:02
Speaker 1: And among those still unnamed could be some victims of
38:05
Speaker 1: the I seventy strangler killings that are now attributed to her.
38:09
Speaker 1: Again unconfirmed, but it's it's likely, it seems, and it's
38:15
Speaker 1: also possible Bowmeister killed additional men who remains have not
38:18
Speaker 1: been found at all, and if you chose to dump
38:20
Speaker 1: a body elsewhere, or if some evidence on the farm
38:23
Speaker 1: was completely missed, but the full extent of his carnage
38:26
Speaker 1: might never be known. But authorities firmly believe at least
38:30
Speaker 1: twenty five murders can be laid on Herb Baumeister's feet,
38:33
Speaker 1: and the impact of these murders on the Indianapolis LGBTQ
38:36
Speaker 1: plus community was profound and traumatic because during the early
38:41
Speaker 1: nineteen nineties, as gay men kept going missing, fear spread
38:45
Speaker 1: that a serial killer was specifically targeting their community, and
38:48
Speaker 1: many also felt that the police were not taking the
38:50
Speaker 1: disappearances seriously enough because the victims were gay and at
38:54
Speaker 1: the time, relationships between law enforcement and LGBTQ plus citizens
38:59
Speaker 1: were often trained by prejudice and mistrust, and a former
39:03
Speaker 1: publisher of a local gay magazine, Josh Thomas, voiced the
39:06
Speaker 1: community's frustration bluntly saying, quote, if somebody were killing cheerleaders
39:11
Speaker 1: at a suburban high school, nobody would rest until the
39:14
Speaker 1: killers were found unquote, and he would tell to press
39:16
Speaker 1: this in nineteen ninety six, But because it was only
39:19
Speaker 1: quote only gay men, the urgency was lacking, and families
39:24
Speaker 1: of missing gay men sometimes encountered apathy or harmful assumptions,
39:29
Speaker 1: and police might suggest that a missing man had simply
39:32
Speaker 1: run off to quote live the gay lifestyle somewhere else,
39:36
Speaker 1: rather than treat it as a potential crime that it was.
39:40
Speaker 1: And in Indianapolis, this dynamic led several families to take
39:43
Speaker 1: matters into their own hands, hiring private investigator Virgil Vandergriff
39:48
Speaker 1: to look for their loved ones, and as mentioned, Vandergriff
39:51
Speaker 1: quickly noticed the pattern multiple gay men disappearing in the
39:54
Speaker 1: same area in a short timeframe, and the Mountain community
39:57
Speaker 1: pressure eventually forced the police to acknowledge the pos pusibility
40:00
Speaker 1: of a serial killer to do their fucking job. But sadly,
40:04
Speaker 1: by the time the case broke open, many lives had
40:07
Speaker 1: already been lost. But the fact that the members of
40:09
Speaker 1: the LGBTQ plus community banded together to demand action was
40:14
Speaker 1: significant and it ensured that these victims were not forgotten
40:18
Speaker 1: and helped bring a killer spree to an end. So
40:21
Speaker 1: let's get into that. So, throughout the early nineteen nineties,
40:24
Speaker 1: as young men vanished in and around Indianapolis, their families
40:28
Speaker 1: grew desperate for answers and missing persons reports piled up,
40:32
Speaker 1: but initial police response was sluggish and fragmented. And then
40:35
Speaker 1: part of the challenge was that multiple jurisdictions were involved.
40:39
Speaker 1: Some men disappeared from Indianapolis, while others from surrounding areas
40:43
Speaker 1: or even other cities like Lafayette. In the case of
40:46
Speaker 1: men well and without bodies or crime scenes, police departments
40:50
Speaker 1: had little evidence to go on, and the pattern tying
40:52
Speaker 1: the cases together wasn't immediately recognized or cared about clearly.
40:57
Speaker 1: And additionally, the aforementioned fact that many victims were gay
41:01
Speaker 1: may have contributed to a lack of urgency on the
41:03
Speaker 1: part of the investigators, who assumed the men just might
41:06
Speaker 1: have left town voluntarily. So nineteen ninety three turned into
41:10
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety four, and the list of missing persons just
41:12
Speaker 1: started to lengthen, and it became harder to ignore that
41:15
Speaker 1: something sinister was afoot. And a major turning point in
41:19
Speaker 1: the investigation came thanks to the determination of a private
41:22
Speaker 1: investigator and a brave survivor. So former Marion County Sheriff's
41:26
Speaker 1: detective Virgil Vandergriff had retired from law enforcement and started
41:30
Speaker 1: a private investigation firm, and in nineteen ninety four he
41:33
Speaker 1: was hired by the families of Roger Goodlett and Alan Roussard,
41:38
Speaker 1: just two mothers who refused to let their sons disappearances
41:41
Speaker 1: be shrugged off, and Vandergriff took their concern seriously, you know,
41:45
Speaker 1: like the police should have. And he began comparing notes
41:48
Speaker 1: with police and other families and realized at least eight
41:51
Speaker 1: young men had gone missing under similar circumstances in a
41:54
Speaker 1: short span of time. So sinsing the hallmarks of a
41:56
Speaker 1: serial offender, Vandergriff coordinated an informal tasksk force. He and
42:01
Speaker 1: his associates visited the gay bars, distributed quote missing flyers,
42:06
Speaker 1: and interviewed patrons to gather any clues, and this grassroots
42:10
Speaker 1: slothing paid off because they learned that many in the
42:14
Speaker 1: gay community felt a predator was lurking in their midst
42:17
Speaker 1: and one name, or rather alias would surface, and that
42:21
Speaker 1: was Brian Dumbass I mean Smart, because some Bargoers were
42:26
Speaker 1: counted encounters with a middle aged man who called himself
42:29
Speaker 1: Brian and who was friendly, if a bit odd, and
42:32
Speaker 1: who sometimes invited people out to his quote a state
42:36
Speaker 1: and it sounded benign at first, but at least one
42:39
Speaker 1: man had a terrifying story about Brian Smart, and he
42:44
Speaker 1: lived to tell the tale. And that man is known
42:46
Speaker 1: by the pseudonym Tony Harris. And in nineteen eighty four
42:50
Speaker 1: Tony Harris approached authorities with a haunting account. He believed
42:54
Speaker 1: he had survived an encounter with a serial killer. That
42:57
Speaker 1: Tony was a good friend of Roger Goodleaf, and after
43:00
Speaker 1: Roger vanished, Tony grew determined to find out what happened.
43:04
Speaker 1: So he spent time at the bars Roger used to frequent,
43:07
Speaker 1: on the lookout for any information, And in the course
43:10
Speaker 1: of this investigation of his own, Tony met a man
43:14
Speaker 1: calling himself Brian Smart. And Brian was sociable and allegedly
43:18
Speaker 1: said he was from out of town temporarily living at
43:21
Speaker 1: a client's farm estate, and one night Brian invited Tony
43:25
Speaker 1: to go for a swim at the place he was staying,
43:28
Speaker 1: and Tony accepted, hoping he might learn if Brian was
43:32
Speaker 1: involved in Roger's disappearance. Which is extremely brave but also terrifying.
43:38
Speaker 1: But it's like a movie. It's absolutely insane, but also
43:41
Speaker 1: like the police are doing shit. So Tony is just
43:45
Speaker 1: like main character. He like what a guy, absolutely insane
43:51
Speaker 1: but amazing at the same time, just wanting to get
43:54
Speaker 1: justice for his friend and figure out what the's going on.
43:57
Speaker 1: But Tony Harris's decision almost cost him his life because
44:00
Speaker 1: he would ride out with Brian out to this unfamiliar
44:03
Speaker 1: property in the suburbs, which we know as Foxhallo Farm,
44:07
Speaker 1: and it was dark when they arrived, but Tony noticed
44:09
Speaker 1: that the home was large and very isolated, and inside,
44:13
Speaker 1: Brian led him to the indoor pool, where mannequins stood
44:17
Speaker 1: around as if attending an endless cocktail party with statues.
44:23
Speaker 1: The fuck I can't even imagine just seeing that and
44:27
Speaker 1: being like, Okay, I need to I need to run,
44:31
Speaker 1: I need to closeline and run the out of here,
44:34
Speaker 1: but he didn't. I guess Brian smart somehow explain that away,
44:40
Speaker 1: or Tony just wanted to figure out more information. And
44:43
Speaker 1: they would swim and engage in some consensualle activity and
44:48
Speaker 1: Tony's accounts actually vary during this, but this is this
44:52
Speaker 1: is like the main one that I'm giving you right now.
44:55
Speaker 1: So Brian would offer Tony a drink, which Tony switched
44:59
Speaker 1: out with water when Brian wasn't paying attention, which is
45:02
Speaker 1: so smart because he had just a weird vibe from
45:05
Speaker 1: the whole situation. Then Brian suggested something unexpected and he
45:10
Speaker 1: asked Tony to him to enhance the experience as we
45:14
Speaker 1: know eroticiation, and Tony would go along with this and
45:19
Speaker 1: Brian's eyes would light up with excitement as he did so.
45:22
Speaker 1: And when Brian then wanted to reciprocate to Tony because
45:26
Speaker 1: if you do this thing where Brian or herb would
45:30
Speaker 1: let them him first to kind of gain that trust,
45:33
Speaker 1: and then he'd be like, Okay, now I'll do it
45:34
Speaker 1: to you. It's like this really psychological thing, just planning,
45:38
Speaker 1: like he knows what he's doing. It's all part of
45:41
Speaker 1: his plan. But Tony would feel uneasy and decline the offer,
45:45
Speaker 1: and that's when the mood shifted, because, according to Tony's account,
45:49
Speaker 1: Brian suddenly wrapped a pool hose around Tony's throat and
45:53
Speaker 1: began to try to strigle him, and there were allegedly
45:57
Speaker 1: multiple attempts like this throughout the evening, and it's mentioned
46:01
Speaker 1: in a few accounts that Tony even faked passing out
46:04
Speaker 1: to cause Brian to stop. But at some point, for
46:06
Speaker 1: reasons unknown, perhaps because Tony was a larger man than
46:10
Speaker 1: Brian which made killing him difficult, or that Tony was
46:13
Speaker 1: not incapacitated from the drink he avoided. Brian then drove
46:17
Speaker 1: Tony back to Indianapolis. So he was now certain that
46:22
Speaker 1: Brian Smart was the one responsible for Rogers disappearance and
46:26
Speaker 1: likely many others, and Tony Harris immediately went to the
46:30
Speaker 1: police with the story, and he provided a description of
46:33
Speaker 1: Brian Smart and recounted the location as best he could
46:37
Speaker 1: because he hadn't known the actual address since he was
46:39
Speaker 1: driven there. But unfortunately, locating both Brian and the farm
46:44
Speaker 1: proved to be very difficult because it wasn't until several
46:47
Speaker 1: months later that Tony would cross paths with Brian again,
46:51
Speaker 1: and this time he made sure to get Brian's license
46:53
Speaker 1: plate number, which is again so smart, and when police
46:56
Speaker 1: ran the plate, it came back registered to Herb of Westfield, Indiana,
47:02
Speaker 1: and this was the break. They desperately needed, a concrete
47:05
Speaker 1: lead linking the pseudonyms to a real individual, and at
47:09
Speaker 1: this point, Herb Baumeister, a man with no criminal record
47:13
Speaker 1: of violence, popped up on the radar of authorities investigating
47:16
Speaker 1: the missing men, and detectives from Hamilton County Sheriff's Department
47:20
Speaker 1: and the Indianapolis's Police Department quietly began looking into Herb's background,
47:26
Speaker 1: and what they found was intriguing, to say the least,
47:29
Speaker 1: because Baumeister owned Fox Hollow Farm, matching Tony's description of
47:33
Speaker 1: the estate with an indoor pool, and Herb also had
47:36
Speaker 1: a history of mental instability and erratic behavior, which fit
47:40
Speaker 1: the profile of a disturbed avender. However, the police knew
47:43
Speaker 1: that suspicions were not enough. It's circumstantial. But also they
47:47
Speaker 1: have the account of Tony literally getting strangled by this guy.
47:52
Speaker 1: So I don't really know why they can't just jump in.
47:54
Speaker 1: But what do I know. You know, I'm not a cop,
47:56
Speaker 1: I'm just a stupid YouTuber, But they would need evidence
47:59
Speaker 1: to the Bowmeister property, So in late nineteen ninety five,
48:03
Speaker 1: they approached her directly asking for permission to search Fox
48:06
Speaker 1: Hollow in connection with the missing men, and Bowmeisirch. He
48:11
Speaker 1: was pissed, he was outraged and very uncooperative, and he
48:16
Speaker 1: would just flatly refuse the search request, just adamantly denying
48:22
Speaker 1: any involvement and likely feigning shock at the implication. Oh
48:25
Speaker 1: what me what? No, I have a family and at
48:28
Speaker 1: a large property, and I'm bankrupt, and i'm and I'm
48:32
Speaker 1: I'm in the closet and I'm very sad, and I
48:35
Speaker 1: like to kill people. What what was that? Oh? Nothing?
48:38
Speaker 1: I trailed off, I blacked out for twenty seconds. What's
48:40
Speaker 1: going on again? Just a fun monster piece of shit.
48:43
Speaker 1: So without a warrant or consent, law enforcement was stuck
48:47
Speaker 1: because they didn't have enough for a judge to grant
48:50
Speaker 1: a search warrant at the time, which again I don't understand,
48:52
Speaker 1: because they literally have a victim saying he was like
48:55
Speaker 1: attempted murder. I don't really know why that should be
48:58
Speaker 1: a reason. You know, I don't really understand that. But again,
49:02
Speaker 1: what do I know, I'm a stupid you tuber. During
49:04
Speaker 1: this time, Herb surely realized that as long as he
49:07
Speaker 1: didn't allow a search, the police had nothing concrete on
49:10
Speaker 1: him because it was only a survivor's word versus his,
49:13
Speaker 1: So investigators would then turn their heads over to his wife,
49:17
Speaker 1: Julie Baumeister, in hopes of gaining an ally. So in
49:20
Speaker 1: late nineteen ninety five, two detectives met with Julie and
49:24
Speaker 1: delicately informed her that her husband was under investigation for
49:28
Speaker 1: a quote, homosexual homicide. Why is that different than regular homicide?
49:33
Speaker 1: Why is it called homosexual homicide? It's just faking homicide anyway,
49:37
Speaker 1: different time, really, not that long ago whatever. But it
49:41
Speaker 1: was a phrase that Julie didn't even understand it first,
49:44
Speaker 1: and Julie was incredulous and certain that Herb, her husband
49:49
Speaker 1: of over two decades, couldn't possibly be a violent killer, which,
49:54
Speaker 1: like you know, I'm always just like, how do you
49:56
Speaker 1: not know? But you know, I don't know. I now
50:01
Speaker 1: he seemed to be very very premeditated, very calculated, and
50:04
Speaker 1: he put on quite the facades, so it I feel
50:08
Speaker 1: like there is absolutely possibility. She literally had no idea,
50:12
Speaker 1: like she knew he was a bit crazy, but like
50:14
Speaker 1: other than that, she was just blissfully unaware, I guess.
50:17
Speaker 1: But she would say, quote, you're wrong, that can't be true,
50:20
Speaker 1: and she would be extremely angry with the detectives, And
50:23
Speaker 1: it was unnatural response because as far as we know,
50:27
Speaker 1: she'd only ever known her as a quirky, difficult man,
50:30
Speaker 1: but not someone capable of murder. And the investigators persisted
50:34
Speaker 1: describing the pattern of missing men and the incident with
50:37
Speaker 1: quote Brian Smart, and Julie asked them what quote homosexual
50:42
Speaker 1: homicide even meant, and the concept that her straight laced
50:46
Speaker 1: husband might be secretly gay and murdering people was almost
50:49
Speaker 1: beyond her comprehension, which I can't even imagine. Just first
50:53
Speaker 1: to find out that your husband's been cheating on you
50:56
Speaker 1: with men, and then you find out that he's also
50:58
Speaker 1: been murdering these men, Like it's a lot to take on.
51:01
Speaker 1: You know, if she didn't know, that's horrible, I mean,
51:03
Speaker 1: it's horrible. It's all horrible. Then you want to be like,
51:05
Speaker 1: how did you how did you not know? You know,
51:07
Speaker 1: how did you not know? But you know, some people
51:10
Speaker 1: just aren't as observant and they're just living in their
51:12
Speaker 1: life and they're just not not caring, I guess, but
51:15
Speaker 1: that's two blows for sure. Can't even imagine the thought
51:20
Speaker 1: process there. So this whole thing was just an exceedingly
51:23
Speaker 1: frustrating time for law enforcement just explaining this to Julie.
51:27
Speaker 1: And they had a very strong, circumstantial evidence against Herb,
51:31
Speaker 1: but no physical evidence. And meanwhile, Herb surely sensed the heat,
51:35
Speaker 1: so police likely surveillanced Foxhall of farm when they could,
51:40
Speaker 1: just hoping Herb might slip up. But Herb kept a
51:43
Speaker 1: very low profile and notably, no known murders occurred after
51:48
Speaker 1: late nineteen ninety five, suggesting now my sir may have
51:51
Speaker 1: stopped killing once he knew he was under suspicion, and
51:54
Speaker 1: Michael Mike Kern's disappearance in March of nineteen ninety five
51:58
Speaker 1: and at Jerry williams Omer in August of nineteen ninety
52:02
Speaker 1: five are the latest victims linked to him. But still
52:05
Speaker 1: the stalemate continued into the spring of nineteen ninety six,
52:09
Speaker 1: and investigators periodically checked in with Julie Baumeiser, gently urging
52:13
Speaker 1: her to reconsider and allow a search of the property,
52:16
Speaker 1: but each time she declined, torn between loyalty to her
52:20
Speaker 1: husband and the disturbing allegations she was hearing. If somebody
52:24
Speaker 1: came up to me and told me that my husband
52:25
Speaker 1: was just all this stuff, I'd be like, yeah, check
52:28
Speaker 1: the property to rule that out, like put my pride away,
52:33
Speaker 1: check that shit out. There was a chance I was
52:35
Speaker 1: living with a murderer. It just doesn't make sense to me.
52:38
Speaker 1: But whatever, what do I know. I'm just stupid YouTuber.
52:40
Speaker 1: I don't know anything. So then as they kept contacting Julie,
52:44
Speaker 1: she recalled thinking, quote, what if the police are right
52:48
Speaker 1: and I'm wrong. There we go, Julie, she's getting it now,
52:51
Speaker 1: and you know, benefit of the doubt. I can't even
52:55
Speaker 1: imagine getting that news and just like hoping, just that
52:58
Speaker 1: hope that there it's still the wrong guy. Couldn't be him.
53:01
Speaker 1: That's all she's ever known is this guy that's been
53:03
Speaker 1: a good husband. And then I don't know, you probably
53:07
Speaker 1: just start watching him and being like, yeah, maybe he
53:09
Speaker 1: could be So I'm not I'm never gonna victim blame.
53:12
Speaker 1: And in this situation, if she didn't know, absolutely a
53:15
Speaker 1: victim in this, it's just all like looking on it,
53:17
Speaker 1: you're like, what, but we don't know, we weren't there
53:21
Speaker 1: you know. So, the breakthrough finally came from within the
53:25
Speaker 1: Bellmeister family, and by early nineteen ninety six, Herb and
53:28
Speaker 1: Julie's marriage had reached a breaking point and the financial
53:32
Speaker 1: strain from the thrift stores had worsened. One store was
53:36
Speaker 1: severely struggling, and Herb's behavior was getting more and more erratic.
53:41
Speaker 1: And in early nineteen ninety six, after police approached her
53:44
Speaker 1: with the allegations, Julie decided to file for divorce. Nice
53:48
Speaker 1: Julie high five, Hell yeah. This was a bold move,
53:51
Speaker 1: signaling that her faith in Herb was waiting, and importantly,
53:55
Speaker 1: as part of the divorce and custody process, Julie took
53:58
Speaker 1: steps that gave her more leverage over the property because
54:03
Speaker 1: she's turning into a boss as bitch now. So by
54:05
Speaker 1: June nineteen ninety six, Julie had found herself reflecting on
54:08
Speaker 1: the detective's warnings and shared a number of worrying incidences
54:11
Speaker 1: with her lawyer, and one in particular had been nagging
54:15
Speaker 1: at her memory. And this is where I go back
54:17
Speaker 1: and I'm like, how didn't you know? But again, I'm
54:19
Speaker 1: just I'm gonna give it the benefit of the doubt,
54:21
Speaker 1: because what do I know, but it's because a skeleton
54:25
Speaker 1: was found on the property by her son two years earlier,
54:31
Speaker 1: and she knew about this incident, and she just was like, ah,
54:36
Speaker 1: it's probably a dog, even though it's a human skull.
54:39
Speaker 1: I don't know. So that's that's where I go back,
54:42
Speaker 1: and I'm like, well, I don't think she I think
54:44
Speaker 1: she just really wants to be in a nice house
54:46
Speaker 1: and maybe just not not want to hold her husband accountable.
54:49
Speaker 1: But again, like I don't I feel like that can't
54:51
Speaker 1: be possible with her, like knowing he was a murderer.
54:54
Speaker 1: But anyway, I'm digressing deeply. Let me know what you
54:57
Speaker 1: think in the comments. But really strange, which kid found
55:01
Speaker 1: a human skeleton on the property, and this whole skeleton
55:05
Speaker 1: finding incident from nineteen ninety four suddenly seemed a little
55:08
Speaker 1: bit more sinister than I guess it did back then.
55:12
Speaker 1: So the unraveling of Herb Baumeister's deadly secrets began with
55:16
Speaker 1: a gruesome discovery at his home. And that was a
55:18
Speaker 1: discovery that incredibly was overlooked because in the late fall
55:22
Speaker 1: of nineteen ninety four, Herb's then thirteen year old son
55:26
Speaker 1: was playing in a wooded area in the fox hall
55:28
Speaker 1: of farm when he stumbled upon a human skull lying
55:31
Speaker 1: on the ground, and not far from the skull where
55:34
Speaker 1: several more bone fragments were found later on from a
55:38
Speaker 1: human skeleton, and this boy, his son, would bring the
55:42
Speaker 1: skull home to show his mother, And when Julie confronted
55:45
Speaker 1: Herb about this morbid find, Herb had a ready explanation.
55:50
Speaker 1: And this is where I'm back to. You know, he
55:52
Speaker 1: was really good at talking Julie, like, why would Julie,
55:55
Speaker 1: why would you think that your husband can do that?
55:58
Speaker 1: You know you'd liked it, So I'm back, I'm back,
56:00
Speaker 1: I'm back with Julie. But he calmly told his wife
56:03
Speaker 1: that the skull was an old medical specimen, likely part
56:06
Speaker 1: of a skeleton used in anatomy study that his late father,
56:10
Speaker 1: remember doctor Baumeister was a physician, had owned and left
56:14
Speaker 1: among his belongings, and Herb even suggested that perhaps his
56:18
Speaker 1: father's medical skeleton had been stored in their garage and
56:21
Speaker 1: animals dragged it into the woods. So animals don't eat
56:24
Speaker 1: bones or skulls. Usually it's left because there's no meat
56:28
Speaker 1: on it. But okay, so it was an odd story.
56:33
Speaker 1: But Herb delivered it earnestly and astonishingly. Julie believed him,
56:38
Speaker 1: or at least accepted the explanation at the time, which
56:41
Speaker 1: again I'm just give it the benefit of the doubt,
56:45
Speaker 1: but she later said Herb was so matter of fact
56:47
Speaker 1: and reassuring about it that she saw no reason to
56:50
Speaker 1: suspect otherwise, which okay, sure. And Herb then took the
56:54
Speaker 1: skull from her and said he would dispose of it,
56:57
Speaker 1: and likely he threw it back onto the pile remains
57:00
Speaker 1: in the woods or hit it elsewhere on the grounds,
57:03
Speaker 1: And this incident in nineteen ninety four was perhaps the
57:06
Speaker 1: closest Herb came to being exposed during his act of
57:09
Speaker 1: killing years and it's chilling to realize that if things
57:14
Speaker 1: had gone differently, the case might have been blown open
57:16
Speaker 1: then or he could have hurt his family. So it's
57:19
Speaker 1: almost I don't know, I mean, it's so many lives
57:24
Speaker 1: would have been saved if there was some deeper thinking
57:28
Speaker 1: going on, just so horrifying and unfortunate. However, the seed
57:32
Speaker 1: of doubt was planted, and even if Julie didn't fully
57:35
Speaker 1: realize it, because that skull sighting effectively ended Herb's killing
57:39
Speaker 1: spree for a time, and investigators believe Herb was so
57:43
Speaker 1: alarmed at a Sun's discovery that he stopped murdering in
57:46
Speaker 1: late nineteen ninety four, at least until the spring of
57:48
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety five, because he had come perilously close to
57:52
Speaker 1: being caught and likely become more cautious. So fast forward
57:56
Speaker 1: to June nineteen ninety six. Julie Baumeister, now in the
57:59
Speaker 1: midst of divorce proceedings, was reflecting on her life with
58:02
Speaker 1: Herb and all the peculiar, unsettling moments, including that skull. Meanwhile,
58:07
Speaker 1: the police were still politely knocking on her door, armed
58:11
Speaker 1: with new urgency after hearing that Herb's business was failing
58:15
Speaker 1: and the marriage was collapsing, stressors that might prompt Herb
58:18
Speaker 1: to flee or destroy evidence. So Julie finally reached a
58:22
Speaker 1: tipping point and on June twenty fourth, nineteen ninety six,
58:26
Speaker 1: she contacted her attorney and authorities and gave them the
58:30
Speaker 1: green light they'd been waiting for, and that was permission
58:33
Speaker 1: to search Fox Hollow Farm, and critically, she chose a
58:36
Speaker 1: moment when Herb was out of the house. So with
58:39
Speaker 1: Herb safely away, Julie met with Hamilton County detectives and
58:42
Speaker 1: allowed them onto the property, and one could only imagine
58:45
Speaker 1: her dread and resolve in that moment. She likely hoped
58:49
Speaker 1: nothing would be found, yet part of her must have
58:52
Speaker 1: feared the worst, and investigators would waste no time because
58:56
Speaker 1: now armed with consent and by extension, a property search
59:00
Speaker 1: weren't Teams from the Hamilton County Sheriff's Affix and the
59:03
Speaker 1: Indianapolis's Police, along with forensic anthropologists from the University of Indianapolis,
59:08
Speaker 1: descended onto Foxhall of Farm in the last week of
59:11
Speaker 1: June nineteen ninety six, and what they found was beyond
59:15
Speaker 1: anyone's imagination because in that wooded area near the back
59:19
Speaker 1: of the house, an officer spotted what looked like a
59:23
Speaker 1: human leg bone just laying on the ground, almost immediately,
59:28
Speaker 1: like bones were just laying on the property, and upon
59:32
Speaker 1: closer inspection, the surrounding soil glinted with white fragments of
59:36
Speaker 1: bone shards and they were everywhere. And as they ventured further,
59:41
Speaker 1: investigators found a sort of dumping ground, just a pile
59:45
Speaker 1: of burned, charred bone pieces didn't even care enough to
59:50
Speaker 1: bury them, and two main clusters of remains were identified
59:54
Speaker 1: in the woods, and another section of the property to
59:56
Speaker 1: the west of the house revealed yet more bones. The
1:00:00
Speaker 1: sheer volume of these bones were staggering, and over the
1:00:03
Speaker 1: next several days, evidence technicians collected bone after bone, teeth,
1:00:09
Speaker 1: and even personal items and nan covered handcuffs suggesting restraints
1:00:14
Speaker 1: were used on victims. They found shell casings from a firearm,
1:00:18
Speaker 1: though it's not believed herb ever shot any of his victims,
1:00:22
Speaker 1: so the casings might have just been from shooting on
1:00:24
Speaker 1: the property. But by the end of the two week search,
1:00:26
Speaker 1: more than ten thousand human bones and fragments had been recovered,
1:00:31
Speaker 1: and these remains would later be analyzed and found to
1:00:33
Speaker 1: represent at least eleven distinct individuals and possibly up to
1:00:37
Speaker 1: seventeen more, though only the ten that we went over
1:00:40
Speaker 1: earlier are confirmed as of twenty twenty five. So for
1:00:43
Speaker 1: a quiet Indianapolis suburb, this discovery was the stuff of nightmares,
1:00:49
Speaker 1: a serial killer's burial pit right in their backyard, and
1:00:52
Speaker 1: Julie Baumeister, who was present during some of the search,
1:00:55
Speaker 1: was absolutely distraught as the evidence mounted that her husband
1:00:59
Speaker 1: had an indeed been killing men on their property, and
1:01:02
Speaker 1: the realization that she and her children had lived alongside.
1:01:06
Speaker 1: This horror was almost too much to bear. I can't
1:01:09
Speaker 1: even imagine finding that out like how horrible. And as
1:01:12
Speaker 1: the news of the find broke, Herb Bowmeister got winned
1:01:16
Speaker 1: that the police were searching Foxhall of Farm, and Herb's
1:01:19
Speaker 1: reaction was swift and he would flee Indiana almost immediately.
1:01:24
Speaker 1: So on June twenty ninth, the police formally issued a
1:01:26
Speaker 1: warrant for Herb's arrest on multiple homicide charges, but they
1:01:30
Speaker 1: were too late, and Bowmeister had already driven north, crossing
1:01:34
Speaker 1: the border into Ontario, Canada. So a multi state and
1:01:37
Speaker 1: international alert went out for him, but his exact whereabouts
1:01:41
Speaker 1: were unknown for a few days, which is so scary.
1:01:44
Speaker 1: And then on July third, nineteen ninety six, two days
1:01:46
Speaker 1: after my birthday, campers in Pinery Provincial Park, a large
1:01:50
Speaker 1: park on Lake Huron in Ontario, found a man's body
1:01:53
Speaker 1: inside a parked car, and it was Herb Baumeister, taking
1:01:58
Speaker 1: the easy way out, like the peace this shit, he
1:02:00
Speaker 1: is just avoiding any sort of consequences. And Baumeister's body
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Speaker 1: was discovered just as law enforcement back home was closing in,
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Speaker 1: and he chose to take his own life rather than
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Speaker 1: face any sort of consequences or capture. So Herb's taking
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Speaker 1: of his own life meant that he would never stand
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Speaker 1: trial for his crimes, never answer the questions that so
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Speaker 1: many had, so many family members had. However, he did
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Speaker 1: leave behind a note, which was just a rambling three
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Speaker 1: page letter addressed mainly to his wife and children, But
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Speaker 1: in it Herb oddly apologized for quote messing up the
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Speaker 1: scenery of the Canadian park where he took his own life,
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Speaker 1: and he expressed regret over the breakup of his marriage
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Speaker 1: and the failure of his business, citing those as reasons
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Speaker 1: for his impending ending of life. And telling lye what
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Speaker 1: Herb's note did not mention was anything about the eleven
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Speaker 1: plus men whose remains had been found at his home,
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Speaker 1: and he made no confession or reference to the murders
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Speaker 1: at all. And this omission infuriated investigators and just devastated
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Speaker 1: the victim's families. Because Baumeister died without ever acknowledging or
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Speaker 1: taking responsibility for the lives he had brutally taken, it
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Speaker 1: was as if in Herb's mind those young men simply
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Speaker 1: just did not matter, and even in death, he stuck
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Speaker 1: to the narrative that he was the victim of the
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Speaker 1: circumstance with his failed marriage and business woes, and that
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Speaker 1: he was not a murderer. So police and prosecutor's publicly
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Speaker 1: voiced frustration that Baumeister's final act was one of cowardice
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Speaker 1: and silence, robbing the families of any chance at answers
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Speaker 1: or justice in court. And with herb dead, the case
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Speaker 1: moved from a manhunt to a massive forensic identification effort.
1:03:47
Speaker 1: So throughout late nineteen ninety six and into nineteen ninety seven,
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Speaker 1: anthropologists and law enforcement worked tirelessly to identify the bone
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Speaker 1: fragments recovered from Foxhollow Farm, and it was painstaking work
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Speaker 1: has the burned, crushed and intermingled bones made it extremely
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Speaker 1: challenging to match pieces to specific individuals, and still progress
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Speaker 1: was made, and by nineteen ninety nine authorities announced they
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Speaker 1: had confidently identified the remains of several men from the property,
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Speaker 1: and the identifications were done via methods like dental records
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Speaker 1: d and A comparisons with family members and personal items found,
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Speaker 1: and each identification brought a mix of sorrow and relief
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Speaker 1: to the families, sorrow to have confirmation of death, but
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Speaker 1: relief to finally know and to be able to hold funerals.
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Speaker 1: For instance, when bones belonging to Alan Bussard were identified,
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Speaker 1: his mother Sharon felt vindicated in her long held intuition
1:04:40
Speaker 1: that quote, I know he's there at Fox Hollow. I
1:04:43
Speaker 1: just know it. A mother always knows. And the scope
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Speaker 1: of Baumeister's crimes had fully come to light for the public,
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Speaker 1: and the case would just shock Indiana and the entire nation,
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Speaker 1: revealing that a serial killer had been active and under
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Speaker 1: the radar targeting gay men in heart of the Midwest.
1:05:01
Speaker 1: And the search of Foxhallo Farm didn't end with Herb's death,
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Speaker 1: because over the years, additional searches were conducted as technology
1:05:08
Speaker 1: improved or as new tips emerge, and remarkably, as late
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Speaker 1: as December twenty twenty two, investigators returned to Fox Hollow
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Speaker 1: with cadaver dogs and located yet another bone fragment and
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Speaker 1: several new spots of interest on the property and the
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Speaker 1: shows that even decades later, the ground at Fox Hollow
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Speaker 1: may still hold secrets and small pieces of young men
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Speaker 1: who never made it home. And a renewed effort in
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Speaker 1: the twenty twenties, spearheaded by Hamilton County Corner. Jeff Jellison
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Speaker 1: has focused on using modern DNA techniques like forensic genetic
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Speaker 1: genealogy to identify the remaining unknown victims and in twenty
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Speaker 1: twenty three. In twenty twenty four, these efforts paid off
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Speaker 1: and they would identify Alan Livingston, who had vanished in
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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety three and the aforementioned for Zendez and Jones,
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Speaker 1: and Jellison emphasized that it was quote not acceptable for
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Speaker 1: these people to remain nameless, essentially left on a shelf
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Speaker 1: in storage for years. So thanks to improve the DNA testing,
1:06:05
Speaker 1: he said, quote we need to make every effort possible
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Speaker 1: to identify these people and return them to their loved ones,
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Speaker 1: which is just amazing. It's amazing that technology has become
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Speaker 1: what has become and people are so determined to bring
1:06:20
Speaker 1: familis peace. I think it's so incredible. So the case
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Speaker 1: officially remains open and an unsolved homicide investigation in the
1:06:27
Speaker 1: sense that not all victims are accounted for and no
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Speaker 1: charges wherever filed due to herbs taking of his own life,
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Speaker 1: and for the detectives and scientists involved, there is a
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Speaker 1: commitment to continue working until as many of the victims
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Speaker 1: as possible have their names restored, and Herb Baumeister's death
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Speaker 1: marked the end of a criminal case against him, but
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Speaker 1: it did not end to the haunting questions, which is
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Speaker 1: why did he do it? And how did no one notice?
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Speaker 1: And could it have ever been stopped sooner? And these
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Speaker 1: questions have been explored in the years since through profile
1:07:00
Speaker 1: documentaries and countless discussions among true crime followers. But to
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Speaker 1: understand her Bawmeister is to delve into a perplexing psyche,
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Speaker 1: one that on the surface managed a normal life, but
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Speaker 1: underneath was driven by dark compulsions. Because what could drive
1:07:16
Speaker 1: a man like Herb Bowmeister to commit such unspeakable acts?
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Speaker 1: And we can contemplate and theorize, but at the end
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Speaker 1: of the day, we'll never know, because that piece of
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Speaker 1: shit took his own life and hopefully he's rotting in hell.
1:07:31
Speaker 1: But that is Fox Hollow Farm and Herb Baumeister what
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Speaker 1: a monster, I mean, horrible, But just the community involves
1:07:42
Speaker 1: and everyone stepping up, and Tony and the moms and
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Speaker 1: the private investigator and all the scientists. Now it is
1:07:50
Speaker 1: quite amazing what people banding together can do. And I'm
1:07:55
Speaker 1: just going to choose to remember the victims in the
1:07:57
Speaker 1: situation and not the Afroma piece of shit. But let
1:08:02
Speaker 1: me know what other cases you want me to deep
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Speaker 1: dive into in the comments below. I always read the comments,
1:08:07
Speaker 1: and also please stay safe out there and I will
1:08:09
Speaker 1: see you in the next video. Okay bye,