'Several Tragedies' Still Left in Fox Hollow Farm Serial Killer Case, Coroner Says

It will take years to identify every victim of the Indiana serial killer Herb Baumeister, but the coroner on the case maintains that each individual is a “tragedy,” not a “statistic.”

Hamilton County Coroner Jeff Jellison shared an update on his office’s ongoing work to identify each victim in a new interview with Fox News Digital.

Back in 2022, the coroner stated that investigators believe the 10,000 human bones and fragments found at Baumeister’s property in the 1990s could belong to 25 victims.

Of the approximately 25 victims buried on the infamous Westfield, Ind., estate, known as Fox Hollow Farm, 10 have been identified so far, the Hamilton County Coroner’s Office announced last month. The latest to be identified was Daniel Thomas Halloran, Fox News Digital reported.

The office currently has three more DNA profiles that have not yet been identified, and, regardless of the exact victim count, “several tragedies” remain in the decades-old serial killer case, Jellison told the outlet.

“We have 10,000 bone and bone fragments, so how many victims, you know, that will be is undetermined,” the Hamilton County coroner added to Fox News Digital.

“I heard someone say recently that one death is a tragedy, two or more deaths is a statistic. And I think we have several tragedies because you have to treat each one of these individuals separately,” he continued. “So, we look at it really, you know, it’s not how many potential victims do we have, but let’s just continue working hard to identify. And then, at the end, we’ll tally that up.”

The coroner said that despite how far the office has come, the nature of the case — and sheer number of victims — means it will likely take years to identify every person Baumeister killed and buried at Fox Hollow. 

“This investigation will far exceed my time in this office,” Jellison told Fox News Digital.

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Baumeister’s double life first began unraveling in 1994 after his son, who was 13 at the time, found a human skull and a pile of bones in the woods of Fox Hollow.

At the time, the serial killer, who owned a string of thrift stores, claimed the bones came from a skeleton his late father, an anesthesiologist, obtained in medical school.

Two years later, however, he was faced with many more questions when police unearthed thousands of human bones and bone fragments at the Indiana estate.

The day after authorities uncovered the remains, Baumeister vanished. Eight days later, he was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a park in Canada.

Shortly after, investigators learned that Baumeister was likely one of the most prolific serial killers in Indiana state history. They also learned that he hunted his victims in gay bars while his wife and three children were away at the family’s lake house.

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Among the victims already identified by the Hamilton County Coroner’s Office is Jeffrey Jones, of Fillmore, Ind., who was reported missing in 1993, and whose remains were recovered in 1996 from Fox Hollow Farm.

In the press release announcing the news, the office said that “because many of the remains were found burnt and crushed, this investigation is extremely challenging; however, the team of law enforcement and forensic specialists working the case remain committed.”

Allen Livingston was also identified as one of Baumeister’s victims. After he was identified in 2023, his sister, Shannon Doughty, told the Associated Press she was relieved to find out what had happened to her older brother.

“Just knowing, it’s a multitude of emotions,” she told the outlet. “You wanted to know but you didn’t want to know. But you needed to know.”

Relatives of missing men who want to provide family DNA reference samples for the effort to identify remains can contact the Indiana State Police missing persons hotline at 833-466-2653 or the Hamilton County Coroner’s Office at 317-770-4415.