WESTFIELD, Ind. — Decades after researchers unearthed thousands of human bones and bone fragments from the property of a suspected Indiana serial killer, a renewed quest is playing out in laboratories to solve a long-running mystery: who were they?
A new team who are working to identify the unknown dead, says the key to their success will be for relatives of men who disappeared between the mid-1980s and the mid-1990s to provide samples of their own DNA.
These samples can then be screened against DNA profiles scientists are extracting the remains, which were found beginning in 1996 on Herbert Baumeister’s sprawling property in suburban Indianapolis.
The original investigators believed that at least 25 people had been buried on Baumeister’s 7.3-acre Fox Hollow Farm property in Westfield, based on evidence that included 10,000 bones and bone fragments, as well as handcuffs and shotgun shells.
Baumeister, a 49-year-old thrift store owner and married father of three, committed suicide in Canada in July 1996 before police could question him, taking with him many secrets, including the names of his suspected victims.
Investigators believed that while his family was traveling, Baumeister, who frequented gay bars in Indianapolis, lured men to his home, where he killed and buried them.
By the late 1990s, authorities had identified eight men using dental records and available DNA technologies. But then those efforts stopped, although the remains of at least seventeen people may still have not been identified.
Hamilton County Coroner Jeff Jellison said the renewed identification efforts showed that county officials at the time decided not to fund additional DNA testing, which “essentially halted further efforts to identify the victims and cost of a murder investigation of relatives of missing people explained. ”
“I can’t speak for those investigators, but it was just game over,” Jellison said.
As decades passed, the bones and fragments lay in boxes at the University of Indianapolis’ Human Identification Center, whose staff helped unearth the remains.
That changed after Eric Pranger sent Jellison a Facebook message in late 2022. The Indianapolis man’s family has long believed his older cousin, Allen Livingston, was among Baumeister’s victims.
Livingston was 27 when he disappeared in August 1993 after getting into someone else’s car in downtown Indianapolis. After learning about Baumeister three years later, his mother, Sharon Livingston, and other family members began to suspect that Allen, who was bisexual, was among the dead.
Jellison was about to take office when Pranger asked if he could help get answers for his aunt, who had serious health problems.
“How do you say no to that? That is our job under the law as coroners to identify the deceased,” Jellison said.
At the end of 2022, police took DNA samples from Sharon Livingston and one of her daughters. Jellison began working with a team that includes the Indiana State Police, the FBI, the Human Identification Center, local law enforcement and a private company that specializes in forensic genetic genealogy.
Staff at the Human Identification Center, where the remains are stored in a room with controlled temperature and humidity, selected some of the most promising bones for DNA analysis.
At the Indiana State Police Laboratory, scientists cut out parts of the bone, froze them with liquid nitrogen and pulverized them into a fine powder. They then used heat and chemicals to break open bone cells in the first step toward extracting a complete DNA profile.
Nearly a year after hearing from Pranger, Jellison made the announcement in October 2023 a ninth Baumeister victim was identified: Allen Livingston.
Sharon Livingston finally got some form of closure. She died in November 2024.
“It made me happy that I could do this for my aunt,” said 34-year-old Pranger. “I’m the one who got the ball rolling to bring her son home after thirty years and I felt privileged.”
“After Allen was identified, I was so excited and then I asked myself, ‘What now? I have answers, but what about all the other families?” Pranger added.
Jellison said about 40 DNA samples have been submitted by people who believe a missing male relative may have been killed by Baumeister. He said these have been entered into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System. or CODISbut are used solely for identifying missing persons.
The coroner and his partners hope to obtain more DNA samples from relatives of men from across the U.S. who disappeared between the mid-1980s and the mid-1990s. They noted that the men may have been traveling and stopped in Indianapolis to visit friends or sample the nightlife.
So far, scientists have extracted eight unique DNA profiles – all male – from more than 70 of the 100 bones collected by Dr. Krista Latham, director of the Human Identification Center, were sent to the Indiana State Police Laboratory.
One matched DNA samples taken from Livingston’s mother and sister. Four matched four of the eight men first identified in the 1990s: Jeffrey Jones, Manuel Resendez, Johnny Bayer and Richard Hamilton.
The three other DNA profiles have still not been identified and two are still being tested. These three have brought the number of Baumeister’s suspected victims to twelve.
Jellison and his partners say their identification efforts could take several years.
Most of the bones were crushed and burned, reducing their potential to yield useful DNA. Latham, professor of biology and anthropology, said bone fragments found to be in poor condition are held back from the destructive testing process in the hope that future DNA technologies can unveil their secrets.
She noted that some men may have been estranged from family members or ostracized because of their sexuality. No one may have noticed when they disappeared.
“These are individuals who have been marginalized in life. And we just have to make sure that this doesn’t continue even in death,” Latham said.
For the ongoing work, Jellison has obtained reference DNA samples from relatives of seven of the eight men originally identified in the 1990s. The eighth man, Steven Hale, was adopted and efforts to locate biological relatives have so far been unsuccessful, the coroner said.
Relatives of missing men who would like to provide family DNA reference samples for the effort to identify remains can contact the Indiana State Police Missing Persons Hotline at 833-466-2653 or the Hamilton County Coroner’s Office at 317-770-4415.
Once the remains are identified piece by piece, families can choose to have them cremated and buried at a memorial to be dedicated in Westfield in August. It includes a plaque with the names of the nine identified victims, with room for more names.
Linda Znachko, whose nonprofit is based in Indianapolis He knows your namepaid for the monument, said at the monument’s dedication that the identification campaign will “bring honor to those who lost their lives in the Fox Hollow tragedy.” Remains of Livingston and Jeffrey Jones were added to the monument’s ossuary and white doves were released during the dedication.
Livingston’s younger sister, Shannon Doughty, was present with several family members, including Pranger. She said it was a relief to finally know what happened to her brother, despite his tragic end.
“At least you know,” said Doughty, 46. “The fear of the unknown is the worst, right? So when you know, it’s a multitude of emotions. You wanted to know, but you didn’t want to know. But you had to know.”