Police found 10,000 bones on Herbert Baumeister's Fox Hollow farm. Decades later, they continue to identify missing gay men

Jonny Bayer was 20 when he said goodbye to his mother and went to work in a fast food restaurant in the US state of Indiana in 1993.

He never came home.

Warning: This story contains content that may be distressing for some readers.

More than half a decade later, a single rib belonging to him would be found among 10,000 human remains scattered across a property owned by a suspected serial killer.

Investigators now say they have identified other victims of Herbert Baumeister, who died before he could be charged.

The “perfectionist” owner of a vast estate

Fox Hollow Farm is a sprawling seven-acre estate located in Westfield, Indiana.

In the middle of the property is a 10,000-square-foot home with four bedrooms, a five-car garage, two libraries, stained glass windows and an indoor pool.

In 1994 it belonged to businessman Herbert Baumeister.

Baumeister, already in his forties, had grown up in the state capital of Indianapolis and met his wife, Julie, at Indiana University in 1967.

The couple married in 1971, with Baumeister working at the State Bureau of Motor Vehicles.

His former colleagues would later say that he was “a perfectionist, prone to sudden, unprovoked anger,” according to People magazine.

After leaving the office, he turned his attention to thrift stores, opening the first of three “Sav-A-Lots” in 1989.

The initial success did not last. Businesses began to fail and financial pressures increased.

By 1991, the marriage had become strained and Baumeister left home and filed for divorce, but the couple reconciled soon after.

In November of that year, the family purchased Fox Hollow Farm.

In May 1993, gay people began disappearing in Indianapolis.

As the men disappear, a human skull appears in the courtyard

Virgil Vandagriff, a former police detective turned private investigator, was asked to investigate the disappearances of Allen Wayne Broussard and Roger Allen Goodlet, by the families of both men.

“I had investigators go to the gay bars and start gathering information and handing out wanted posters,” he told news channel WRTV in 2022.

“And we found out very quickly that there were a lot of missing people, a lot of gay people missing in Indianapolis or the Indiana area.”

Community members were angry, feeling that police were not taking the situation as seriously because it involved gay men.

Former magazine editor Josh Thomas said in later years that he believed homophobia and strained relations with police were not helping the situation.

In mid-1994, the Baumeisters' 13-year-old son brought home a human skull he had found in the woods near the family home.

Herb Baumeister told his family that the skull – and the pile of other bones found with it – were part of a medical school skeleton that his anesthesiologist father had brought home.

Police were still investigating the multiple disappearances.

A man came forward and told them about an incident with a man calling himself Brian, who took him to a large estate and tried to strangle him during sex.

He gave them a license plate number – registered to Herb Baumeister.

Baumeister refused to let police search the estate, and for five months in 1995, investigators had to try to convince Julie Baumeister of what they knew.

“I was angry,” she later said. “I said, 'You're wrong. This can't be true.'”

As the police kept contacting her, she remembered thinking, “What if the police were right and I was wrong?”

On June 24, 1996, she let them search the estate while Baumeister was not home.

Before he could be arrested, he fled to Canada and committed suicide in an Ontario park, leaving behind a three-page suicide note.

He was sorry for ruining the park's scenery, he was sorry for the damage to his marriage, he was sorry for the financial problems of the businesses.

What was missing, according to authorities at the time, was any mention of the human remains scattered across his property.

Police have since identified at least 10 alleged victims who all disappeared between 1993 and 1995.

They also suspect Baumeister may be an unidentified serial killer known as the I-70 Strangler, who killed at least a dozen boys and men between 1980 and 1991.

The bodies stopped showing up along Interstate 70 just as the family purchased Fox Hollow Farm.

“I know this man got it, I just know it”

Allen Livingston disappeared in 1993, just a month before his 28th birthday.

His mother, Sharon Livingston, left her landline phone operational for nearly 40 years in the hope that her son would call her.

“When Allen disappeared, there was only one landline,” she told the media in 2022.

“That was the only number he knew because there was no cell phone.

“He was always happy and he never had a bad word to say about anyone. He was just a wonderful person.

Police eventually identified Allen's remains among the bones found at Fox Hollow Farm last November, along with those of 34-year-old Manuel Resendez.

They were identified as part of a “renewed” investigation launched by the Hamilton County Coroner's Office.

A few weeks ago, another name was announced: that of Jeffrey A Jones, who also disappeared in 1993.

There are four other DNA profiles that have not been identified and have been sent to the FBI for genetic genealogy testing.

Coroner Jeff Jellison said: “As many remains were found burned and crushed, this investigation is extremely difficult.

“However, the team of law enforcement and forensic specialists working on the case remains engaged.”

DNA testing underway for remains found on farm

Jonny Bayer's mother, Rose Dewey, buried his rib in a cemetery not far from where he grew up.

“A rib bone,” she told the Indianapolis Star in 1999.

“They did DNA testing and identified a rib bone. The first right rib.

“Herbert Baumeister took away normal things from us. He left us with a lot of unanswered questions.

“Even though they gave me his rating and we got the services, it’s not real to me.

DNA testing of other remains found at Fox Hollow Farm continues.