Who is Herb Baumeister? Bone found during Sunday search on serial killer's farm

Police are frantically looking for the victims of a serial murderer who is thought to have killed over 25 men during the 1980s and 1990s. At Herbert Baumeister's farm in the Indiana suburb of Westfield, decaying and burnt bone parts were purportedly discovered in large quantities by Hamilton County sheriff's deputies in 1996. The authorities have now intensified their search for further victims so they can be laid to rest. Authorities think that 49-year-old Herbert Baumeister killed at least 25 people at his home in Fox Hollow Farms, which is located in Westfield and is immediately west of US 31 on 156th Street. Shortly after the police started their investigation, Baumeister committed suicide. On Sunday, December 4, agents from the Hamilton County Coroner's Office and 10 cadaver dogs went back to the area to look for remains. Indiana police found a human bone after a long search. "Those bones represent people, these are people that we're talking about, have lied dormant in storage,” said Jeff Jellison, coroner elect and chief deputy at the Hamilton County Coroner’s Office. “It's time now to re-examine, take a look [and] see where we're at with this," Jellison added. "Let's look at this again. Let's get as many of these people identified as we possibly can and begin to get some closure for some families of some missing people," he said, according to The Sun.

Who was Herbert Baumeister?

Herb, who was born in Indianapolis in 1947, wed his wife Juliana in 1971, and the two went on to have three kids. He established the well-known Sav-A-Lot thrift shops in the late 1980s, which had two sites around Indianapolis. According to The Indianapolis Star, Juliana filed for divorce from Herb in January 1996 after the police began questioning her regarding Herb's potential involvement in several young men's disappearances. According to police, Baumeister picked up young men at gay bars, lured them to his house, and strangled them to death before his wife and kids left for the summer. Investigators think that areas of Baumeister's 18-acre farm were used to dispose of the majority of the bodies' remains after pulverizing their bones and burning the bodies. Baumeister left the nation before going on trial for his crimes in 1996, when authorities found the remains of at least 25 individuals on his home. On July 3, 1996, Baumeister, 49, shot himself in the head at Canada's Pinery Provincial Park. He later passed afterwards. He left behind a three-page suicide note in which he expressed regret for his failed marriage and business ventures, as well as for ruining the scenery of the Canadian park where he committed suicide. He made no mention of the murders or the victims who were discovered buried in his backyard, though. Police now believe there may be a number of other victims of Baumeister. Initially, investigators thought at least 25 people had fallen prey to him. Only eight of the victims' bodies have been recognized thus far, 26 years after their remains were found. These are people, and that is what we must keep in the foreground of our thoughts, Jellison said. "These people need to be returned to their loved ones so that they can be given a final resting spot."