The Fox Hollow Farm case: Who Killed the gay men and What Happened to the Killer?

Hulu’s The Fox Hollow Murders: Playground of a Serial Killer is making waves. The docuseries is finally shining light on a killer who didn’t gain as much national attention as Jeffrey Dahmer or John Wayne Gacy did but his crimes are no less gruesome. In this article, we will talk about the Fox Hollow Farm murders. 

What is the Fox Hollow Farm case? What Happened to Herbert Baumeister?

Hailing from Westfield, Indiana; businessman Herbert Baumeister lived a normal family life on the outside. He had a wife and three children who lived on a sprawling farm. Baumeister was considered a decent man who went to Church. 

However, as per ABC news, he had claimed the life of at least 13 men and potentially more. After all, 10,000 bone fragments and bones were found on his Fox Hollow Farm. Multiple reports dating back to 1993 show that gay men were going missing from local gay bars.

These men were roughly the same size and same age. His victims were allegedly mostly gay men and to this day, all of their identities haven’t been discovered. However, coroner Jeff Jellison of Hamilton County has opened a fresh investigation into this case with the help of DNA technology including genetic genealogy. Jellison said:

“When you look at the original investigation back in the '90s, when the search warrant was served, I don't think we were prepared to really handle an investigation like that.”

Back then, as the authorities delved deeper into the case, they found potential accomplices, missing evidence, and key witnesses who kept changing their testimony. Before Baumeister could be arrested, he went to Canada and took his own life in an Ontario park. The investigation also ended with him, but the forensics team still wants to identify as many victims as possible.

Jellison said, “We have 10,000 bone and bone fragments. Well, to put it into perspective, this is the second-largest number of unidentified human remains in this country.”

As per NBC Chicago, authorities also suspect that Baumeister could have been the unidentified serial killer called the I-70 Strangler, who took the lives of at least a dozen men and boys from 1980 to 1991.  

Mark Anthony Goodyear- An Alleged Accomplice or a Survivor?

Back in 1994, some families of missing gay men hired a private investigator after they didn’t return home. The case gained traction when a self-proclaimed survivor named Mark Anthony Goodyear talked to a private investigator and revealed a strange encounter, he had with a man he had met at a bar. 

Goodyear mentioned that he had met a man called Brian at a gay bar in Indianapolis. There, Brian had persuaded Goodyear to accompany him to his home so that they could continue talking there. At his place, they went to the basement where the pool was located. Goodyear reported there being mannequins around the pool area. 

Goodyear said, “I knew something was strange about him already. I wouldn't take a cocktail from him. He was trying to get me to drink or whatever. So, I went to the bathroom with the cocktail. Dumped it out. Rinsed the glass. Came back with a glass of water.”

In an interview with ABC News, Goodyear said, “I never introduced anyone to Herb Baumeister. I would introduce Herb Baumeister to persons, yes. This is your killer. Don’t leave the building with him. Don’t be alone with him. At the top of my lungs. A shrill shriek. While standing on furniture in public places. No, I never set anybody up.”

10,000 Human Remains on the Property

Goodyear did help put detectives on the right path. A friend of his got the license plate number of the person matching Brian’s description. Indianapolis Police Department detective Mary Wilson found out that the car belonged to Herbert Baumeister. 

Mary Wilson shared that, “My first impression of Mr. Baumeister when I first saw him at the store was a very strange man. But just, he was so very nervous. He has a wife and three children, and he said nobody in his family knew the fact that he goes into gay bars.”

This was the first time Baumeister had fallen on the police radar. When the police went to check his home, they found from his wife that she had filed a divorce and he didn’t live there. Julie Baumeister reported to detectives that her husband had been acting strangely. 

She also recounted an incident where her son had found a human skull near their home. Back then Herb Baumeister had said that the skull as well as the bones found with it were a part of the medical school skeleton his anaesthesiologist father had brought home.

She let the police search the Fox Hollow property where detectives found burnt bone fragments. Investigators and forensic anthropologists found more than 10,000 human remains but only 13 were identified. 

The Fox Hollow Murders: Playground of a Serial Killer is streaming on Hulu.