Herb Baumeister
Herbert Richard Baumeister (7 April 1947 - 3 July 1996) was an American serial killer. Under investigation for the disappearence of dozens of gay men in the Indianapolis area, he committed suicide in 1996 after the bodies of eleven of his victims were found on his estate. He is also the prime suspect in the case of the I-70 Strangler, an unidentified serial killer who murdered twelve gay men from 1980 - 1991 along Interstate 70.
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Biography
Baumeister was born in Indianapolis in 1947. He appeared relatively normal as a child, but by adolescence he had begun to display anti-social behaviour such as playing with dead animals and urinating on a teacher's desk. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia but received no treatment. As an adult, Baumeister drifted through a series of jobs, where he was noted for his high work ethic but also displayed increasingly bizarre behaviour. He married Juliana Saiter in 1971 and had three children with her, and founded the successful Sav-A-Lot store chain in 1988.
In the 1990s Indianapolis police were investigating the disappearence of a series of gay men of similar age, height and weight. Most of these men had disappeared while visiting gay bars. In 1992, a man named Tony Harris called the police and reported that he and a friend of his had been picked up from a gay bar by a man calling himself "Brian Smart" who had then strangled his friend to death with a pool hose during autoerotic asphyxiation and tried to do the same to him. In August 1995 Harris reported that he had seen "Smart" again and copied his car's number plate, allowing police to identify the man as Herb Baumeister.
Baumeister refused to consent to a search of his estate, Fox Hollow Farm, when informed he was a suspect in the disappearances. However, in June 1996 Baumeister's wife Julie, who was growing afraid of his erratic behaviour, divorced him and allowed police to search the farm. Police found the bodies of eleven men buried on the property. Eight of the bodies were identified as John Lee Bayer, Richard Hamilton, Steven S. Hale, Allen Broussard, Jeffrey A. Jones, Manuel Resendez, Roger Allen Goodlet and Michael Kiern. A warrant was issued for the arrest of Baumeister, who fled to Ontario. He shot himself at Pinery Provincial Park on 3 July 1996. His suicide note cited his reasons as his failing business and the breakdown of his marriage and did not mention the murders.
Baumeister was posthumously suspected of the murders of twelve gay men by the unidentified "I-70 Strangler" along Interstate 70 from June 1980 - October 1991. An Indianapolis resident identified Baumeister as the man seen leaving The Vogue Theatre with Michael Riley shortly before he was found strangled. It was also observed that the bodies of victims ceased to be found after Baumeister bought the Fox Hollow Farm, where he hid the bodies of his victims. However, no evidence was ever found linking Baumeister to the murders. It has been alleged that police used Baumeister as a scapegoat for the I-70 crimes in order to explain why they never found the killer.