Fox Hollow Farm killings: 20 people provide new DNA samples hoping to find loved ones

Twenty people have provided new DNA samples to the Hamilton County Coroner's Office since the agency asked descendants of potential victims of Herbert Baumeister to come forward to identify remains from Fox Hollow Farm in Westfield.

Coroner-elect Jeff Jellison said it’s “too early in the investigation” to determine whether the DNA samples match any remains found at Fox Hollow Farm.

But Jellison encourages more people who might be relatives of victims to contact the coroner’s office.

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“If a male individual went missing in the middle 80s, middle 90s, I need to speak with them so we can get a DNA sample,” Jellison said. “It’s just a simple cheek swab. Painless. Takes just a few seconds.”

That DNA information is uploaded into a national database of missing persons, which could help other cases around the country similar to Fox Hollow Farm, Jellison said.

Jellison, who’s worked in the Hamilton County Coroner’s Office for nearly eight years, said the Fox Hollow Farm case is a “huge investigation” that will “take some time.”

The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office, Fishers Police Department DNA Unit, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department’s Missing Persons Division, Indiana State Police Biology Unit, the University of Indianapolis Archaeology and Forensic Lab are all assisting the coroner’s office in this case.

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“Our job is to provide closure,” Jellison said. “Statute requires the coroner to identify the deceased found in this county and that’s what we’re doing with the Baumeister Fox Hollow investigation.”

What happened at Fox Hollow Farm

Baumeister owned Fox Hollow Farm, an 18-acre property off 156th Street and the Monon Trail in Westfield. In June 1996, Hamilton County law enforcement found remains of at least 25 people on the property. At least 10,000 bones and bone fragments were found at Fox Hollow Farm, according to the Coroner’s Office.

Only eight people have been identified since the initial discovery of remains.

The Hamilton County Coroner’s office last week returned remains to family members of one of those eight victims identified in the mid-1990s, Jellison said.

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Police suspect Baumeister was responsible for the victims’ deaths, mostly young, gay men who he lured to his property, according to the coroner’s office.

Baumeister shot and killed himself shortly after law enforcement began investigating Fox Hollow Farm in 1996.

How to contact the Hamilton County Coroner

Call the Hamilton County Coroner at 317-770-4415.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Fox Hollow Farm Indiana: DNA samples provided to help ID remains