772742936154816512
Herb Baumeister was a serial killer who operated in Indiana and possibly in Ohio, although his true motives will forever remain a mystery. Herb was said to have had a perfectly normal upbringing, but on the onset of adolescence began exhibiting antisocial behaviors such as playing with dead animals and urinating on his teacher’s desk. He was soon diagnosed with schizophrenia, although never received any treatment for it. In the 70s he got married and had three children of his own. Also in that decade he was committed to a psychiatric facility by his father. In the late 80s he founded a successful thrift store chain in Indianapolis called ‘’Sav-A-Lot’’. In the early 90s, police began investigating the mysterious disappearances of gay men who were all eerily close in age, height, and weight. Every lead resulted in a dead end, that is until a man contacted investigators to report that a man who goes by ‘’Brian Smart’’ and frequents gay bars had killed his friend and attempted to kill him as well. Police were able to track down the identity of ‘’Brian Smart’’ who turned out to be Herb Baumeister. When they informed him that he was a suspect in the men’s disappearances and asked to search his property, he refused to let them. In 1996, Herb’s wife filed for divorce and gave police permission to search their 18-acre farm while Herb was on vacation. It was then that police unearthed the bodies of eleven men. Herb is also suspected to be responsible for the murders of nine other men whose bodies were found along the corridor of Interstate 70 between Indianapolis and Columbus, Ohio.
Police never had a chance to arrest the killer, as he had fled to Ontario, Canada, and shot himself in the head. He left a suicide note behind describing his failing marriage and business as reasons for why he killed himself, but nowhere did he mention the eleven men that were buried on his property. It seems that the answers his family, police, and the victims’ loved ones had been seeking were taken to the grave with him.