Coroner questions Baumeister suicide as Fox Hollow Farm killings haunt investigation

A Hamilton County coroner said at CrimeCon 2025 that Herb Baumeister’s death may not have been by his own hand, prompting renewed scrutiny of the Fox Hollow Farm murders and the evidence trail that remains incomplete decades after his rampage. Jeff Jellison, who is overseeing the unidentified remains from one of the nation’s most infamous serial cases, told attendees there are “a lot of questions” surrounding Baumeister’s suicide and the accompanying suicide note, which did not mention the crimes.

Baumeister is believed to have killed as many as 25 young men during the early 1990s in Indianapolis. By day, he appeared to be a devoted husband and father who owned several thrift stores; by night, he frequented downtown gay bars to lure men back to his 18‑acre Fox Hollow Farm estate, where investigators say he killed them, burned their bodies and scattered bone fragments across the property. In the summer of 1996, as police closed in, Baumeister fled the city and was later found dead in a Canadian park from a self‑inflicted gunshot wound. A suicide note was left behind, but investigators have long questioned whether he killed himself or was murdered to silence him.

The coroner’s remarks come as Jellison continues an unprecedented, multi‑year effort to identify the victims whose remains are recovered from the Fox Hollow Farm site. The identification project, launched in 2022, targets roughly 10,000 human remains associated with the case—the largest unidentified‑remains effort in United States history aside from the World Trade Center. Jellison said redactions in older case files hampered prior attempts to identify victims, and he indicated the current owner of Fox Hollow Farm—a local historian who has uncovered materials from the investigation—is in possession of a box of photographs from the original inquiry that have not yet been fully examined.

The coroner and a longtime cold‑case detective, Steve Ainsworth, both say Baumeister likely did not act alone. They contend a single individual could not have moved and disposed of dozens of victims without help. “There had to be [an accomplice],” Jellison said, noting that the mechanics of the killings and the removal of bodies suggest at least one other person’s involvement. Ainsworth echoed the sentiment, adding that the truth could extend in several directions and describing the case as an “oyster” whose layers keep expanding the more they examine it.

Two more victims have been named since Jellison reopened the case: Allen Livingston and Daniel Halloran, with Livingston’s and Halloran’s families receiving answers after years of uncertainty. In addition, three more sets of remains have been identified as DNA profiles, though none match the missing‑person samples provided by families. Those three profiles have been sent to the forensics lab Othram for genetic‑genealogy comparison, a step the coroner said could yield names in the coming months even as officials press for more evidence to close gaps in the case.

As investigators press to determine the identities and fates of Baumeister’s victims, there remains the thorny question of whether Baumeister acted alone. The lingering questions about Mark Goodyear—who once escaped Baumeister and briefly figured in the investigation—have persisted for years. Goodyear, who has given varying accounts over time, has not been charged in connection with the murders, though witnesses and a 1997 police report have connected him to the broader narrative. An ABC News Studios series examining the case highlighted that other individuals who knew too much could be linked to the killings, though no definitive charges have followed.

Officials stress that, while Baumeister’s death in 1996 ended his direct involvement, the Fox Hollow Farm case remains active in two respects: identifying the victims and understanding the full scope of the killings. Jellison has said the bone fragments and ashes collected from the property represent real people—sons, brothers, fathers—whose lives were ended by a killer who operated with a level of deception that shocked a community.

The ongoing investigation has faced institutional friction. Jellison described initial resistance from the local sheriff’s department when he reopened the unidentified‑remains inquiry, including delays and redactions that impeded efforts to match remains with families. He said the mission would continue despite those early obstacles, emphasizing that the goal is to bring closure to relatives and to document every victim connected to Fox Hollow Farm. The crime’s scale—extending over several years and involving the dispersal of thousands of bone fragments across the estate—has compelled authorities to pursue every lead, including possible accomplices and undisclosed evidence.

Baumeister’s alleged career as a serial killer predates the 1996 discovery of his body and the subsequent, shelved investigation that left many questions unanswered for decades. By combining historical records with modern forensic techniques and genetic genealogy, investigators hope to finalize the victim list and reveal the full portrait of the Fox Hollow Farm murders. Jellison’s team plans to announce further identifications in the months ahead, and they will continue reviewing existing evidence for additional clues about the crime’s perpetrators and any collaborators who may have assisted in the killings. As the search for truth unfolds, the case remains a stark reminder of a chapter in American criminal history marked by deception, fear, and a community grappling with the scale of loss at Fox Hollow Farm.