Save a lot stores serial killer

Indiana investigators believe Baumeister was responsible for as many as 16 deaths of teenage boys and men who they believe he had picked up from bars in Indianapolis. The cause of death was thought to be strangulation. He drove to Canada, where he shot and killed himself about a week after the Hamilton County Sheriff's Department began investigating the discovery of the bones.

Two years after Baumeister's death, police concluded he also had killed nine other young men whose partially nude bodies were found dumped into shallow streams along I across Central Indiana and western Ohio during the s. She can be reached at or natalia. Keep up with all things Hamilton County. Get the latest news, things to do and more delivered to your inbox. Sign up for the IndyStar North newsletter. A serial killer buried bodies on his Westfield property. Now some of the land is for sale.

Natalia E. Contreras IndyStar. They were able to link those items to the murders and disappearances of nine women in three states, including Illinois. Herb Baumeister is suspected of killing at least 9 men along I in Indiana and Ohio. Eleven bodies were discovered on his property. Born in , Herb Baumeister struggled from the start.

He was diagnosed with schizophrenia as a teenager. Friends recall him playing with dead animals and bringing them to school.

He would attend Indiana University but dropped out. His father then had him committed to a mental institution. That ended abruptly when it was discovered Baumeister urinated on a letter that was to be sent to the Indiana governor. Baumeister would marry his wife Julie, have three children, borrow money from his mother, and open a Save-A-Lot store. Business soon boomed, and he opened a second store. Herb Baumeister was not only on his way to becoming a millionaire, he became an important man in the community.

Baumeister purchased Fox Hollow Farms, set on 18 acres of wooded land. He lived in an 11,square-foot Tudor-style mansion, with an indoor swimming pool and riding stable. Herb Baumeister was living the rags-to-riches American Dream. When his wife was out of town, Baumeister would frequent gay bars, going by the name of Brian Smart, and bring men back to his home.

By the early s, gay men began disappearing in the Indianapolis area. They seemed to have similar age, height, and weight.

Police got a tip claiming that a gay bar patron calling himself Brian Smart had killed a man. They were given a license plate number and traced it to Baumeister. Investigators went to search his home, but Julie denied them access. That changed later when one of the Baumeister children found a skull while playing in the woods of Fox Hollow Farms.

Julie went to the woods, where she found a pile of human bones. When she questioned Herb about it, he claimed it was a medical skeleton that his father, a doctor, had given him years ago. The Save-A-Lot business started to suffer, and so did the Baumeister marriage. And now, Julie began to wonder. With her husband out of town on a business trip, she called police back. They could search Fox Hollow Farms. It didn't take long. Within days, more than 5, bones were found. Bones and body parts barely covered with leaves sat just 50 feet behind Baumeister's mansion.

Eleven bodies were discovered. It was a mass disaster scene. Besides those on his estate, Baumeister is suspected of killing at least nine more men along Interstate 70 between Indiana and Ohio, starting in the Indianapolis area.

Tony said he was at a gay club when he noticed another man who seemed overly captivated by the missing person's poster of his friend, Roger Goodlet. As he continued to watch the man, something in his eyes convinced Tony that the man had information about Goodlet's disappearance. To try to learn more, Tony introduced himself. The man said his name was Brian Smart and he was a landscaper from Ohio.

When Tony tried to bring up Goodlet, Smart became evasive. As the evening progressed, Smart invited Tony to join him for a swim at a house where he was temporarily living, doing landscaping for the new owners, who were away. Tony agreed and got into Smart's Buick, which had Ohio plates. Tony was not familiar with northern Indianapolis, so he could not say where the house was, though he described the area as having horse ranches and large homes. He also described a split-rail fence and a sign that read "Farm" something.

The sign was at the front of the driveway that Smart had turned into. Tony described a large Tudor home, which he and Smart entered through a side door. He described the interior of the home as being packed with furniture and boxes.

He followed Smart through the house and down steps to the bar and pool area, which had mannequins set up around the pool. Smart offered Tony a drink, which he turned down.

Smart excused himself and when he returned he was a lot more talkative. Tony suspected that he had snorted cocaine. At some point, Smart brought up autoerotic asphyxiation receiving sexual pleasure while choking or being choked and asked Tony to do it to him. Tony went along and choked Smart with a hose while he masturbated. Smart then said it was his turn to do it to Tony.

Again, Tony went along, and as Smart began choking him , it became obvious that he was not going to let go. Tony pretended to pass out, and Smart released the hose. When he opened his eyes, Smart became rattled and said he was scared because Tony had passed out. Tony was considerably larger than Smart, which was probably why he survived. He also refused drinks that Smart had prepared earlier in the evening. Smart drove Tony back to Indianapolis, and they agreed to meet again the following week.

To learn more about Smart, Vandagriff arranged to have Tony and Smart followed at their second meeting, but Smart never showed up. Believing Tony's story, Vandagriff turned again to the police, but this time he contacted Mary Wilson, a detective who worked in missing persons whom Vandagriff respected.

She drove Tony to the wealthy areas outside Indianapolis hoping that he might recognize the house that Smart took him to, but they came up empty. Tony met Smart again a year later when they happened to stop at the same bar. Tony got Smart's license plate number, which he gave to Wilson. She found that the plate was registered to Herbert Baumeister. As Wilson discovered more about Baumeister, she agreed with Vandagriff: Tony had narrowly escaped becoming the victim of a serial killer.

Wilson went to the store to confront Baumeister, telling him that he was a suspect in an investigation into several missing men. She asked that he let investigators search his home. He refused and told her that in the future, she should go through his lawyer. Wilson then went to Juliana, telling her what she had told her husband, hoping to get her to agree to a search.

Although shocked by what she heard, Juliana also refused. Next, Wilson tried to get Hamilton County officials to issue a search warrant, but they refused, saying there was not enough conclusive evidence to warrant it. Baumeister appeared to suffer an emotional breakdown over the next six months. By June, Juliana had reached her limit. The Children's Bureau canceled the contract with Sav-a-Lot, and she faced bankruptcy. The fairy tale she had been living began to dissipate, as did her loyalty to her husband.

The haunting image of the skeleton that her son had discovered two years earlier had not left her mind since she first spoke to Wilson. She decided to file for divorce and tell Wilson about the skeleton. She would also let detectives search the property.

Herbert and Erich were visiting Herbert's mother at Lake Wawasee. Juliana picked up the phone and called her lawyer. On June 24, , Wilson and three Hamilton County officers walked onto the grassy area next to the Baumeisters' patio. As they looked closely, they could see that the small rocks and pebbles where the Baumeister children had played were bone fragments. Forensics confirmed that they were human bones. The following day, police and firemen began excavation. Bones were everywhere, even on the neighbor's land.

Early searches found 5, bone fragments and teeth. It was estimated that the bones were from 11 men, though only four victims could be identified: Goodlet, 34; Steven Hale, 26; Richard Hamilton, 20; and Manuel Resendez, Juliana began to panic. She feared for the safety of Erich, who was with Baumeister.

So did the authorities. Herbert and Juliana were in the beginning stages of divorce. It was decided that before the discoveries at the Baumeisters' hit the news, Herbert would be served with custody papers demanding that Erich be returned to Juliana.

When Baumeister was served, he turned Erich over without incident, figuring that it was just legal maneuvering. Once news of the bones' discovery was broadcast, Baumeister vanished.

Baumeister apparently had shot himself in the head. He left a three-page suicide note explaining why he took his life, citing problems with the business and his failing marriage. There was no mention of the murder victims scattered across his backyard. With Juliana's help, investigators of the Ohio murders of gay men pieced together evidence that linked Baumeister to the I murders. Juliana provided receipts showing that Baumeister had traveled I during the times that the bodies were found along the interstate.

Bodies had stopped appearing beside the highway about the time that Baumeister moved into Fox Hollow Farms, where there was plenty of land to hide them. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads.