Coroner questions suicide in Fox Hollow Farm murders as investigation widens

Hamilton County Coroner Jeff Jellison is raising questions about whether Herb Baumeister died by suicide as authorities concluded in 1996, and about how many victims remain unidentified from the Fox Hollow Farm murders near Indianapolis. Baumeister, a married father of three who ran several local thrift stores, is believed to have lured dozens of young men to his 18-acre Fox Hollow Farm estate in the early 1990s, where investigators allege he killed them, burned their remains, and scattered bone fragments across the property.

Baumeister fled Indianapolis when investigators closed in during the summer of 1996 and was found days later in a park in Canada with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, police said. A suicide note left behind did not reference the crimes. The case has long captivated the public, but Hamilton County Coroner Jeff Jellison, who is leading a broader effort to identify victims among roughly 10,000 human remains, says the circumstances of Baumeister’s death warrant more scrutiny. Speaking at CrimeCon in Denver on Saturday, Jellison said there are “all sorts of questions” about the suicide and the note. He emphasized that the inquiry into the broader Fox Hollow Farm murders remains active and complex, with new information continuing to emerge.

Two other investigators familiar with the case echoed the hesitations about Baumeister’s death. Retired Boulder County Sheriff’s Office detective Steve Ainsworth, who has worked cold cases and is assisting the CrimeCon discussions, said there is a possibility Baumeister did not act alone and that someone could have killed him to cover up the full scope of the crimes. “A suicide is very easy to stage,” he said. “But there are indicators to look at.” He added that the investigation’s breadth—moving bodies, managing evidence, and confronting a sprawling estate—likely required more than a single person.

A broader thread in the discussions centers on missing evidence from the original 1996 investigation. Jellison told the Daily Mail that some photos and materials released to the public may have never should have been disseminated, and that a current Fox Hollow Farm owner, who has spent years studying the case, has said someone involved in the original inquiry offered to sell him evidence. The owner is reportedly in possession of a box containing case photos and has shared some with Jellison’s team, though the coroner could not confirm what items were obtained or by whom. Both Jellison and Ainsworth stress that the possibility of an accomplice remains, given the scale of the alleged killings and the physical challenge of moving dozens of bodies from the house’s pool room to surrounding woods.

For years, the precise number of Baumeister’s victims remained unknown. In 1996, eight victims were identified: Johnny Bayer, Jeff Jones, Richard Hamilton Jr., Steven Hale, Allen Broussard, Roger Goodlet, Mike Keirn, and Manuel Resendez. The subsequent decades yielded far more bones and remains, stored in boxes on a shelf as investigators wrestled with the scope of the crime. In 2022, Jellison reopened the investigation into unidentified remains, launching what he described as the largest investigation into unidentified human remains in United States history aside from the World Trade Center disaster. He faced pushback from local law enforcement when he sought access to case files, reporting that files were redacted and names and addresses that could help identify victims were withheld. Yet he pledged that the work would continue, noting that every fragment of bone represents a person who was someone’s son, brother, or father.

Since the reboot of the identification effort, two more victims have been named—Allen Livingston, 27, and Daniel Halloran, who was identified this year as the 10th known victim. Three more DNA profiles have been identified among the remains but do not match any DNA samples provided by families with missing loved ones. Those profiles have been sent to the forensics lab Othram for genetic genealogy analysis, with the families awaiting matching results. While names have not yet been restored to those remains, Jellison has said it could be a matter of months before researchers can confirm new identities.

Authorities estimate that Baumeister’s kill count could approach 25, with victims lured from gay bars in downtown Indianapolis and taken to Fox Hollow Farm, where bodies were allegedly disposed of in woods surrounding the property. The full extent of the crimes has been described by investigators and precursors to trials as one of America’s worst serial killer cases. As CrimeCon attendees consider the public memory of the case, Jellison and other investigators stress the importance of piecing together every fragment of evidence—whether bone, photo, or testimony—to honor the victims and bring closure to families still seeking answers. The investigation remains active, and officials say new developments could emerge as forensic techniques improve and additional records become unsealed or recovered.

The case of Herb Baumeister, and the broader Fox Hollow Farm murders, sits at the intersection of historical police work and modern forensic science. Ainsworth noted that advances in genetic genealogy can transform cold cases by connecting bones to living relatives, even decades after the killings. Jellison, speaking at CrimeCon, said he would not abandon the mission to identify the remains and determine how many people were harmed at Fox Hollow Farm. He reminded audiences that the bones belong to real people with stories and families who deserve answers, even as new questions about Baumeister’s death and the possible existence of accomplices continue to surface.