Who was American serial killer Herbert Baumeister? His wife, kids, and what he did for a living, explained

Serial killer Herbert Baumeister was back in the news in early 2024 when remains found on Baumeister’s Fox Hollow Farm were identified as Manuel Resendez, missing since 1993. Here are details about what Baumeister did, what he did for a living, and whether he had a wife and kids.

Among Indiana’s most infamous serial killers, Baumeister killed an estimated 25 people in the 1980s and `90s. Baumeister’s crimes were uncovered when bone fragments were discovered in 1994 on his 18-acre property, Fox Hollow Farm, near Indianapolis. It’s believed Baumeister picked up gay men in the city, brought them to Fox Hollow, and then strangled them and disposed of their bodies on his land.

In the `80s, around a dozen young men disappeared and were later found dead in rural areas near Indianapolis. Each man was last seen in the same three-block radius of the city known for gay nightlife. In 1988, Baumeister moved to the spacious Fox Hollow, and the discoveries in other remote areas stopped. Indiana police found out why when bones turned up at Fox Hollow eight years later, FOX59.com reported.

What did Herbert Baumeister do for a living?

Herbert Baumeister’s ability to buy a million-dollar, 18-acre farm with a pool and horse stables suggests he was a wealthy man, and he was. That wealth was generated in the late 1980s when he founded Sav-a-Lot thrift stores. Baumeister was known to give to charities with the money he earned from his successful business, and he was otherwise a known and well-respected businessman in the community.

According to ThoughtCo., Baumeister was born in Indianapolis and came from an affluent family. Signs of trouble began in childhood, however, and as a young man, Baumeister was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and is believed to have also suffered from dissociative identity disorder. It’s unknown whether he ever received treatment for those conditions. Before his murders were uncovered, Baumeister had a criminal record, including a hit-and-run arrest in 1985.

Did Baumeister have a wife and kids?

In 1971, Herbert Baumeister married his college girlfriend, Juliana Saiter. Their relationship was rocky, as Baumeister’s troubled behaviors continued. Early in Baumeister’s marriage, Juliana’s father sought mental health treatment for his son-in-law for an unknown reason, likely unaware of the crimes he would one day commit. Still, in 1979, Marie, the Baumeisters’ first child was born, followed by Erich in 1981 and Emily in 1984. Despite his problems, Baumeister was known as an attentive and caring father.

Baumeister’s children, however, play a crucial part in the harrowing story. Erich, Baumeister’s teenage son, found the first skeletal remains on the Fox Hollow property. Once confronted, Baumeister claimed his father, an anesthesiologist, used human remains in his work, which Baumeister found and then buried. Juliana and his children believed him, and all the while, Baumeister continued to stalk Indianapolis gay bars at night, hunting his next victim, as police investigated a string of missing men in the area.

What happened to Baumeister?

As gay men linked within the same neighborhood of Indianapolis vanished, a private investigator took the case and distributed missing persons posters to the gay bars in the city. Eventually, someone named Tony, a man who knew one of the searched-for men, noticed another man looking intently at one of the posters. That man introduced himself as Brian Smart, but it was Baumeister.

Baumeister, posing as Brian Smart, invited Tony back to Fox Hollow, where he said he was only staying for a little while. While there, a sexual encounter happened between the two men involving autoerotic asphyxiation, but Tony survived. Suspicions arose, and Tony, the private investigator, and Indiana police worked together to learn what happened to the missing men, now linked to Baumeister. By 1996, thousands of bone fragments were discovered at Fox Hollow.

As the investigation intensified and his marriage, family, and business fell apart, Baumeister disappeared and was later found dead from suicide in Ontario, Canada. Strangely, Baumeister’s suicide note mentioned private problems, but never mentioned murder. Since then, Baumeister has also been linked to the I-70 killings in Ohio, for men found along the interstate where Baumeister was known to travel around the same period.

Today, the human remains discovered on Fox Hollow Farm are stored at the University of Indianapolis’ archaeology department. As of 2024, efforts were underway to account for all of Baumeister’s potential victims using modern DNA technology.