Indiana Business Man Lured Men to Death; Police Say more than 25 Victims after 10K Bone Fragments Discovered at his Estate; Victims’ Identification Ongoing
A recent development in the investigation of the bones discovered at the Indiana estate of a deceased businessman, who was suspected of being involved in a series of murders, has led to the identification of additional victims.
The coroner announced on Tuesday that the number of presumed victims has now reached 13. This update serves as another somber reminder of the ongoing nature of this case, which has extended over several decades.
Hamilton County Coroner Jeff Jellison announced that four additional DNA profiles have been acquired as part of the ongoing effort to identify the remains. These profiles will be forwarded to the FBI for a genetic genealogy analysis in hopes of determining their identities.
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Nine men were previously identified as presumed victims of Herb Baumeister, who tragically took his own life in Canada in July 1996. Investigators were seeking to question him after the discovery of about 10,000 charred bones and bone fragments at his sprawling estate, Fox Hollow Farm.
According to Jellison, investigators have reason to believe that the bones and fragments may potentially be the remains of at least 25 individuals.
“As of now, there have been 13 victims discovered on the Fox Hollow Farm property,” Jellison stated on Tuesday.
Authorities suspect that Baumeister, a married man with children, would entice men to his residence and commit acts of violence against them at his property in Westfield, located approximately 16 miles north of Indianapolis.
In 2022, Jellison initiated a fresh endeavor to connect Baumeister’s other possible victims with the numerous charred, crushed bones, and fragments discovered on his estate in the 1990s, which were subsequently stored away by authorities.
Jellison is urging the families of young men who disappeared during the 1980s and 1990s to provide DNA samples for the ongoing identification project.
Up to this point, three men have been identified through the use of DNA extracted from the bones. Two individuals, Jeffrey A. Jones and Manuel Resendez, were among eight men identified in the 1990s as potential victims of Baumeister.
Jones and Resendez, both in their early thirties, were reported missing in 1993. Last week, the FBI and Jellison’s office successfully identified Jones’ remains using forensic genetic genealogy analysis, according to the coroner’s announcement on Tuesday. Resendez’s remains were identified using a similar technique earlier this year.
Last October, through the assistance of a DNA sample provided by his mother, additional bone fragments were positively identified as belonging to Allen Livingston, who was 27 years old. Livingston vanished on the same day as Resendez, as reported by the Doe Network. During that period, Livingston’s identification marked him as the ninth presumed victim identified by investigators.
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