A trove of missing videotapes is believed to be the key to unveiling the dark secrets of a notorious serial killer said to be ‘worse than Jeffrey Dahmer.’
Herb Baumeister is thought to have killed around 25 young men during his murderous rampage in the early 1990s.
The married father-of-three and wealthy businessman would meet his victims at gay bars in downtown Indianapolis and lure them back to his 18-acre suburban estate Fox Hollow Farm where he killed them, burned their remains and scattered their bones around the family property.
As cops closed in on him and searched his home in the summer of 1996, Baumeister fled to Canada and killed himself – taking his secrets to the grave and leaving several unanswered questions about his horror crimes.
Three decades on, the number of victims and their identities remains unclear with only nine so far named while 10,000 human remains found on Fox Hollow Farm are yet to be identified.
The serial killer’s methods of murder also remain a mystery as the only person known to have lived to tell the tale as a victim has changed his story multiple times.
And whether or not Baumeister may have had an accomplice continues to puzzle some of those connected to the case.
But, a secret stash of tapes could finally answer these questions and solve this dark mystery that still haunts the communities in Baumeister’s hunting ground of downtown Indianapolis and his killing field in Westfield.
An air vent in the ceiling of the basement in Herb Baumeister’s Fox Hollow Farm where he is believed to have hidden a camera to record his victims
Herb Baumeister is thought to have killed around 25 young men after luring them back to Fox Hollow Farm (pictured)
Investigators have long believed Baumeister filmed his victims, before, during or after their murders with a secret camera hidden in an air vent in the basement of his home.
Baumeister is believed to have taken this crucial evidence with him when he fled to Canada.
His wife said his large tape collection had gone missing from their home and Canadian police spotted a box of tapes inside his vehicle in the days before his death.
To this day, the whereabouts of these suspected ‘snuff films’ remains unknown.
In the new four-part ABC News Studios docuseries ‘The Fox Hollow Murders: Playground of a Serial Killer,’ retired Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office Detective Cary Milligan recalled the moment during the summer 1996 search of Baumeister’s property when law enforcement officers found an air vent in the ceiling of the pool bar area of the basement, where Baumeister is believed to have killed his victims.
He said there was a screw missing from it, meaning the vent was loose and looked as though someone had been in a hurry to take something out.
‘Inside it was big enough that a video camera could have been placed up there,’ Milligan said.
‘It was positioned so if you inserted a camera it would look directly down on a chaise lounge.’
Herb Baumeister masqueraded as a wealthy businessman and family man while hunting for victims at local gay bars, luring them to his home where he murdered them and left their remains scattered around the property
He said cops believed Baumeister would position a videocamera in the vent to film possible ‘snuff films’, pointing out that serial killers often keep trophies or mementos ‘to relive the murders.’
‘He was recording something elicit. That’s why he got rid of the tapes,’ Milligan said.
The man long thought to be the sole survivor of the serial killer has also claimed Baumeister made him watch some of the videos when he went back to Fox Hollow Farm with the serial killer one night in August 1994.
Mark Goodyear told ABC News Studios the footage was so ‘bad’ it made him scream.
‘It was bad, bad. You couldn’t make it out,’ he said.
‘It was like having a camera right up against something. You’re not going to be able to tell what’s going on but the minute you got a flash of what was going on, it made you scream.’
Goodyear – who has changed his story numerous times about his interactions with the infamous serial killer – did not specifically reveal what he saw in the video.
But he said ‘he begged to die’ as he described the disturbing moment ‘insane’ Baumeister grabbed his tongue to stop him from screaming.
Mark Goodyear (pictured) claims in the new docuseries that Baumeister forced him to watch some of his videos
‘He put his hands inside my mouth when I screamed. He grabbed my tongue, he held my tongue,’ he said.
‘Oh it’s the most gruesome thing. “Hold your tongue, hold your tongue,” he’d tell you.’
He added: ‘For somebody to put themselves inside your mouth and grab your tongue. You’re scared to death, you’re just scared, you’re terrified… I begged to die. Begged to die.’
But a search of Baumeister’s home uncovered no tapes.
According to the ABC News Studios series, Baumeister’s wife Julie Baumeister told cops at the time that her husband was a very keen videographer.
She led investigators to a room in their home where he stored hordes of tapes. But, she found they had all gone. In the room, investigators did find two VHS recorders that could be used to record from one tape to another.
Where the tapes went is unclear but it has been revealed that Baumeister was spotted in possession of a stash of tapes after he fled to Canada during the search of Fox Hollow Farm.
ABC News Studios reported in the series that, in the days before he killed himself, Canadian police had come into contact with Baumeister when officers noticed him sleeping in his car.
The swimming pool room in the basement of Herb Baumeister’s home. It was this room where he is believed to have killed his victims
When investigators swooped on Herb Baumeister’s Fox Hollow Farm estate (pictured), his tape collection was gone
The officers noticed a big box of videotapes in the backseat of his gray Buick, ABC News Studios reported.
Days later, on July 4 1996, Baumeister was found dead next to his car in Pinery Provincial Park, Ontario. He had shot himself.
A search of the car found it had been stripped of all the carpet – and the tapes were nowhere to be seen.
DailyMail.com has reached out to the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office for further information.
Three decades later, these mystery tapes have never been found.
It is unclear what they may reveal about Baumeister’s killing spree. It is also unclear if Baumeister disposed of the tapes in Canada or if he had help in hiding them before he killed himself.
In the ABC News Studios docuseries, Goodyear also claimed Baumeister came to his home on the day law enforcement began searching Fox Hollow Farm.
He said the serial killer had a gun and was watching the news coverage of the search on TV.
When asked in the show about a previous claim he made that Baumeister had brought a box with him, Goodyear refused to comment.
‘Yeh, we’re not going to discuss that. How about that?’ he said.
‘No there was something else. A tidbit there that I have not divulged.’
Goodyear has never been charged or accused of any crime in connection to the Baumeister case.
He denied having any involvement in the murders in the ABC News Studios docuseries when confronted with speculation that he could have been Baumeister’s accomplice.
However he admitted that he lied about key aspects of his story to police back in the 1990s, revealing that he was ‘never attacked’ by the serial killer.
Eric Pranger, the cousin of Baumeister victim Allen Livingston, told DailyMail.com he thinks Goodyear is ‘a really sketchy guy.’
‘I think he knows more than what he told police back then,’ he said.
Investigators are seen searching Herb Baumeister’s sprawling $1 million estate for human remains
Authorities finally unearthed the killing field of one of Indiana’s most prolific suspected serial killers Herb Baumeister in 1996
Pranger said he believes Baumeister must have had an accomplice to his heinous crimes, in part due to the sheer physical toll it would have taken to drag dozens of bodies from the home all the way into the surrounding woods.
‘I don’t think Baumeister did this alone. I think more people were involved,’ he said. ‘I believe it’s a whole group of men.’
DailyMail.com previously asked the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office whether authorities ever looked into the possibility that there was more than one killer.
‘Not that I am aware of,’ a spokesperson said.
While many questions remain about the case, Hamilton County Coroner Jeff Jellison is working to answer some through a new investigation seeking to identify all 10,000 still-unidentified human remains found at the farm.
He spoke to DailyMail.com last month revealing it is ‘the second largest investigation into unidentified human remains in United States history, second only to the World Trade Center.’
The team is now very close to identifying two more victims among the remains, he revealed – bringing the number of Baumeister’s named victims to 11.
The Fox Hollow Murders: Playground of a Serial Killer’ is produced by One Traveler, an All3Media Company for ABC News Studios. Alex Jablonski is director. Jen Casey, Nick Gilhool, Alex Walton and Jacob-Cohen Holmes are executive producers for One Traveler and All3 Media. Alex Jablonski serves as executive producer, with Angela Borg and Sophie Kruz as co-executive producers. Victoria Thompson serves as executive producer, and David Sloan serves as senior executive producer for ABC News Studios.
‘The Fox Hollow Murders: Playground of a Serial Killer’ premieres on Hulu on February 18.
