Driving past the dense treeline of Westfield, Indiana, you might miss the entrance to the estate. It looks like any other high-end suburban property from the road. Large. Secluded. Quiet. But the Fox Hollow Farm house carries a weight that most architectural structures simply don't have to bear. For decades, this Tudor-style mansion hasn't just been a piece of real estate; it has been a focal point for true crime historians, paranormal investigators, and locals who remember the 1990s all too well. It's a place where the macabre meets the mundane.
The property gained its notoriety because of Herb Baumeister. To his neighbors, he was a quirky businessman who ran the Sav-A-Lot thrift stores. He was a family man. He had a wife and children. But behind the brick walls of the Fox Hollow Farm house, a much darker reality was unfolding throughout the early 1990s. While his family was away at their lake house, Baumeister was allegedly transforming his 18-acre estate into a graveyard.
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Honestly, the scale of what happened there is hard to wrap your head around. When investigators finally gained access to the grounds in 1996, they didn't just find evidence; they found a literal field of bone fragments. Thousands of them. It wasn't just a crime scene. It was a forensic nightmare that would take years—and eventually decades—to fully untangle.
The Grim Discovery at Fox Hollow Farm House
In the summer of 1996, the silence of the Westfield countryside was shattered. Hamilton County police, acting on tips and mounting evidence linking Baumeister to the disappearance of several men from the Indianapolis area, began a systematic search of the woods behind the home. What they found was staggering. Over 10,000 charred bone fragments and teeth were recovered from the property.
The investigation was gruesome.
Because the remains had been burned and scattered across the forest floor, identifying the victims was an incredibly slow process. For a long time, only a handful of men were officially identified. However, the tragedy of the Fox Hollow Farm house didn't end when the police tape was taken down. In recent years, there has been a massive push by the Hamilton County Coroner’s Office to use modern DNA technology to identify the remaining fragments.
Coroner Jeff Jellison has been vocal about the fact that these victims deserve their names back. In 2023 and 2024, new identifications were made, bringing closure to families who had been left in the dark for nearly thirty years. It’s a reminder that the story of this house isn't just about the "maniac" who lived there; it’s about the people who never came home.
Life Inside the Mansion
You’ve gotta wonder what it was like to live there before the world knew. The house itself is sprawling. It features an indoor pool—a place that figures prominently in many of the survival stories told by men who managed to escape Baumeister’s clutches. They described a setting that felt luxurious but deeply unsettling.
The contrast is what gets people.
On one hand, you have the beautiful architecture of a multimillion-dollar estate. On the other, you have the chilling reality of what was happening in the basement and the backyard. Herb Baumeister's wife, Julie, eventually spoke out about how she had no idea what was happening. She even found a human skull on the property once, which Herb explained away as a "medical model" left over from his father’s practice. She believed him. Why wouldn't she? It’s hard to accept that your husband is a serial killer.
The Haunting Legacy and the Paranormal Debate
After Baumeister took his own life in Canada before he could be brought to justice, the Fox Hollow Farm house didn't just disappear. It was sold. New owners moved in. And that's when the "ghost stories" started.
Now, look, whether you believe in ghosts or not is one thing, but the sheer volume of paranormal reports coming out of that property is hard to ignore. Former owners, like Rob and Vicky Graves, have shared stories that would make anyone's skin crawl. They reported seeing a man in a red flannel shirt—matching the description of Baumeister—wandering the woods. They heard footsteps. They felt "heavy" spots in certain rooms.
The house has been featured on shows like Ghost Adventures and Paranormal Witness. These episodes often focus on the pool area or the woods where the remains were found.
- The "Man in Red": Multiple witnesses have claimed to see a figure in the woods near the "kill zone."
- Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP): Investigators claim to have recorded voices pleading for help or whispering names.
- The Heavy Atmosphere: Visitors often report a sudden drop in temperature or an overwhelming sense of dread when entering the back acreage.
Is it haunted? Or is it just the "stone tape" theory, where the intense trauma of the events is somehow etched into the environment? Whatever the case, the Fox Hollow Farm house has become a pilgrimage site for those obsessed with the intersection of true crime and the supernatural.
What People Get Wrong About the Case
Most people think we know everyone who died at the Fox Hollow Farm house. We don't. Not even close.
While the "I-70 Strangler" investigation initially focused on a specific set of victims, the sheer number of bone fragments suggests there could be many more. The recent DNA breakthroughs have identified men who weren't even on the original list of suspected victims. This suggests that Baumeister’s timeline of violence might have been longer or more frequent than initially thought.
Another misconception is that the house is "abandoned" or a "ruin." It’s actually a beautiful, well-maintained private residence. It’s someone’s home. This creates a weird tension in the community. You have the "dark tourists" who want to take photos and trespass, and you have a neighborhood that just wants to move on from a decades-old nightmare.
Basically, it's a living memorial that some people wish would just go away.
The Forensic Battle for Identification
The work being done today by the Hamilton County Coroner’s office is probably the most important part of the Fox Hollow Farm house story right now. They are using Genetic Genealogy—the same tech used to catch the Golden State Killer—to map out the DNA of the fragments.
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Think about the complexity of that. You aren't dealing with intact skeletons. You're dealing with tiny, burnt pieces of bone that have been sitting in acidic soil for thirty years.
In 2024, the identification of Manuel Resendez was a huge milestone. He had been missing since 1993. His family finally got to bury him. This isn't just "spooky" history; it's active forensic science. The coroner has even asked families of men who went missing in the Indianapolis area between the 1980s and 90s to provide DNA samples. They still have thousands of fragments to test.
The scale of the task is honestly mind-blowing.
Why We Are Still Obsessed
Why do we keep talking about this specific house? There are plenty of serial killer sites in America. But Fox Hollow is different. It’s the "suburban nightmare" personified. It’s the idea that evil can live in the house next door, with a manicured lawn and a successful business, and you’d never know.
It also taps into our fascination with "place memory." We want to believe that a location can hold onto its history. When we look at the Fox Hollow Farm house, we aren't just looking at bricks and mortar. We are looking at a puzzle that we are still trying to solve, fragment by fragment.
Visiting (Virtually) and Respecting the History
If you're interested in the case, don't go driving up the driveway. It’s private property, and the current owners deserve peace. Instead, you can engage with the history through the actual records.
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- Follow the Hamilton County Coroner’s Updates: This is where the real news happens. Every time a new victim is identified, it’s a major event for the community.
- Read "You Think You Know Me": This book by Ryan Green gives a deep, albeit chilling, look into the Baumeister psychology and the environment of the house.
- Support Missing Persons Organizations: Many of the victims at Fox Hollow were marginalized men whose disappearances weren't taken seriously at the time. Supporting groups that advocate for the missing is a way to honor their memory.
The Fox Hollow Farm house will likely never be "just a house" again. As long as there are unidentified remains and stories of shadows in the woods, it will remain a landmark of Indiana's darkest chapter. The goal now is to ensure that the focus stays on the victims and the incredible scientific work being done to bring them home, rather than just the sensationalism of the man who caused the pain.
If you want to keep track of the forensic progress, the best way is to monitor the official press releases from Hamilton County. They are the only source of truth in a case that is often clouded by urban legend and internet rumors. The process is slow, but it's the only way to finally close the book on what happened behind those Tudor walls.