Westfield, Indiana is usually the kind of place people move to for the schools and the quiet. But then there’s that one spot. Fox Hollow Farm. You’ve probably heard the name whispered if you’ve lived in Hamilton County for more than five minutes. It’s an 18-acre estate that looks like a dream from the outside—a Tudor-style mansion, woods, a pool. But for decades, it’s been the center of one of the most haunting serial killer investigations in American history.
Honestly, the story of what happened here isn't just about the past. It’s still unfolding right now in 2026.
The Man Behind the Tudor Mansion
Herb Baumeister was, by all outward appearances, a success. He was a married father of three and the owner of the Sav-A-Lot thrift store chain in Indianapolis. People saw him as a quirky but successful businessman.
But Herb had a double life. While his wife and kids were away at the family’s condo at Lake Wawasee, Herb was frequenting gay bars on Indianapolis’s Mass Ave. He used a fake name—Brian Smart. He’d lure men back to the secluded Fox Hollow Farm under the guise of a party or a swim in his indoor pool.
Most of those men never came home.
That Day in 1996
Everything fell apart because of a 15-year-old boy. In late 1994, Herb’s son, Erich, was playing in the woods behind the house when he found a human skull. Can you imagine? Just a kid finding that in his backyard. Herb, ever the manipulator, told the boy it was a medical skeleton from his late father’s doctor practice.
The family believed him for a while. But the tension grew. By 1996, Herb’s wife, Julie, was terrified. She filed for divorce and eventually let the police onto the property while Herb was out of town.
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What they found was a nightmare.
Investigators didn't just find a body; they found a "killing field." Over 10,000 charred bone fragments and teeth were scattered across the property, mostly near the woods and the compost heap. It wasn't just a few victims. It was an industrial-scale disposal site.
The Escape and the Suicide
Before the police could put handcuffs on him, Herb vanished. He fled to Ontario, Canada. On July 3, 1996, he walked into Pinery Provincial Park and shot himself. He left a suicide note, but it didn't offer any apologies to the families. He mostly complained about his failing business and his divorce.
Cowardly? Most people think so. He took his secrets to the grave, leaving dozens of families in a permanent state of "not knowing."
Why Fox Hollow Farm is in the News Again
For years, the investigation went cold. Local officials in the late 90s basically told families that if they wanted DNA testing, they had to pay for it themselves. It was a mess.
Fast forward to 2022. A new Hamilton County Coroner, Jeff Jellison, took office and decided he wasn't going to let those boxes of bones just sit there anymore. He reopened the case with a goal to identify every single fragment possible using modern technology that didn't exist in the 90s.
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Since this renewed effort started, things have moved fast:
- In October 2023, Allen Livingston was identified. He had been missing since 1993. His mother finally got answers just a year before she passed away.
- In early 2024, the remains of Manuel Resendez were confirmed.
- By April 2025, a tenth victim, Daniel Thomas Halloran, was identified through advanced DNA testing.
- Most recently, in late 2025, officials confirmed that remains found at the farm belonged to Roger Goodlet, a man who had been a key figure in the original 1994 tips that led police to Herb.
There are still thousands of fragments left. Jellison has been working with groups like Othram and the University of Indianapolis to piece together the puzzles. They think there could be at least 25 different people buried on that land.
The Mystery of the Secret Tapes
There’s this one detail that true crime junkies always bring up: the missing tapes.
According to reports and a recent ABC News documentary, Herb might have filmed his crimes. Detectives found a suspicious vent in the basement that looked like a perfect spot for a hidden camera. Julie Baumeister also noted that a large collection of tapes went missing from the house right before Herb fled.
Canadian police even saw a box of tapes in Herb’s car shortly before his suicide, but by the time they processed the scene, they were gone. Did he destroy them? Did he hide them in the woods? It's one of those "what ifs" that keeps investigators up at night.
Living at Fox Hollow Today
You might wonder who would ever live in a place like that. Well, people do.
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The property has changed hands a few times since the 90s. For a long time, the Graves family owned it. They’ve been very open about the fact that they occasionally find things—not just bones, but the feeling of the place. It’s frequently cited as one of the most haunted locations in Indiana.
Paranormal investigators have swarmed the place for years. They talk about "The Man in the Red T-shirt" spotted wandering the woods. Whether you believe in ghosts or not, you can’t deny the heavy energy of a place where so many lives were stolen.
Common Misconceptions
- "It’s an abandoned ruin." Nope. It’s a private residence. Don't go trespassing; the current owners and local police have zero patience for looky-loos.
- "All the victims were from the same bar." Not necessarily. While many were from the Mass Ave scene, Herb is also suspected of being the "I-70 Strangler," responsible for bodies dumped along the highway across Indiana and Ohio in the 80s.
- "The case is closed." Far from it. As long as those 10,000 fragments are being processed, this is an active homicide investigation.
How to Help the Investigation
If you have a family member who went missing in the Midwest—specifically Indiana or Ohio—between the mid-1980s and the mid-1990s, the Coroner’s office still needs you.
Basically, they need "reference samples." DNA technology is amazing, but it works best when they have a family member's DNA to compare it to.
Here is what you can do:
- Contact the Hamilton County Coroner’s Office if you have a missing relative from that era.
- Provide a DNA sample. It’s usually a simple cheek swab. It doesn't cost the family anything under the current administration.
- Spread the word. Many families of the missing moved away or stopped looking because they felt the police didn't care 30 years ago.
The goal isn't just to solve a crime anymore; it's to give these men their names back. Fox Hollow Farm may always be associated with a monster, but the work being done there now is all about the victims.
Stay updated on the latest identifications by following the Hamilton County Reporter or local Indianapolis news outlets, as new names are expected to be released throughout 2026. If you're interested in the forensic side, the work of the University of Indianapolis Human Identification Center is the gold standard for how these complex recoveries are handled.
The story of Fox Hollow Farm isn't over until the last box of remains is empty.