Serial killer Herbert Baumeister’s victims honored with public funeral
WESTFIELD, Ind. (WISH) — The ministry He Knows Your Name and Hamilton County Coroner Jeff Jellison on Thursday honored the nine identified victims of the killings at Fox Hollow Farms in the 1980s and 1990s.
Westfield serial killer Herbert Baumeister is believed to have killed the men at his Fox Hollow Farms home. In total, he is linked to the disappearance of at least 16 men.
Each of the men’s remains were found on Baumeister’s sprawling Westfield property in the late ’90s.
Baumeister died by suicide in 1996 after investigators began trying to question him.
Allen Livingston was one of the men identified. His first cousin, Matthew Pranger, honored him at Thursday’s service, which featured a formal service and a dove send-off.
“To see this today makes it to where it’s not so surreal, but it’s actually real,” Pranger said Thursday. “It’s nice to be able to look forward to peace and closure, as opposed to living in that darkness…he would be that entertainment, that life of the party. We truly believe that he lives on without us.”
Livingston’s remains were laid to rest alongside the remains of Jeffrey Jones, who was identified earlier this year.
Linda Znachko, the founder of He Knows Your Name, was passionate that the event remained centered on offering hope and dignity to the families of the men who died.
“We want to set this time apart as being holy, giving dignity to the nine lives, that we know about, to this day, who were lost, missing,” Znachko said during Thursday’s service.
She and Jellison partnered to do just that.
The coroner said the day was very emotional for him, as he has made it his personal mission to provide closure to families with identified loved ones and to create a final resting place for those who have yet to be identified.
That place manifested in a monument and dedication.
The monument is made of limestone with fractures that allow light to shine through.
“I really felt inspired from the Holy Spirit to have the monument made out of limestone because I knew that was native to Indiana, and it came from the ground,” Znachko said.
Two standing plaques with a story focused on the men, written by Znachko’s husband, are on either side of the monument.
Although the monument dedication and funeral helped to honor the men, leaders highlighted the need for any person who believes their family member could be one of the unidentified to come forward.