The Graves family moved into Fox Hollow Farm in Indiana, having no idea what was waiting for them. "Paranormal Witness" recounted the legacy of the farm. Serial killer Herb Baumeister lived there and killed at least thirteen young men before committing suicide on the property in the 1990s.
He buried their bodies around the farm. Authorities removed more than 5,000 bone fragments, but the Graves found more. They reported seeing ghosts and hearing strange knocks, but it was Joe LeBlanc, a man who rented an apartment on the property, who had the most specific encounter.
He claims to have made contact with the ghost of Herb Baumeister, even recording the session. A voice could be heard repeating the phrase, "The married one." LeBlanc had been asking who was walking in the kitchen. As all of Baumeister's victims had been single, he determined this answer must mean the spirit was Baumeister himself.
Herb Baumeister was once again the subject of a television show. The famous Hamilton County serial killer was featured on "Paranormal Witness" on SyFy. The episode is "Fox Hollow Farm" after Baumeister's property. Also in Paranormal Witness Season 2 Episode 8.
Baumeister was the Westfield businessman who authorities believe stalked Indianapolis gay bars in the mid-1990s, picked up unsuspecting men and drove them to his property where he allegedly killed and buried them.
He was considered a suspect by police but fled to Canada as investigators began digging up the backyard. The remains of several men were found on the grounds.
Early life
The oldest of four children, Baumeister's childhood was reportedly normal. By the onset of adolescence, however, he began exhibiting antisocial behavior; acquaintances later recalled the young Baumeister playing with dead animals and urinating on a teacher's desk. As a teenager, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia but did not receive further psychiatric treatment. As an adult, he drifted through a series of jobs, marked by a strong work ethic, but also by more and increasingly bizarre behavior.
He married in 1971, a union that produced three children.
Investigation
In the early 1990s, investigators with the Marion County Sheriff's Department and the Indianapolis Police Department began investigating the disappearances of gay men in the Indianapolis area. In 1993, investigators were contacted by a man claiming that a gay bar patron calling himself "Ron Rosen" had killed a friend of, and had attempted to kill him. The detectives told him to contact them in case he ever saw the man again. In November 1995, he called them and supplied the man's license plate; after checking the license registry, investigators discovered that "Ron Rosen" was actually Herb Baumeister.
Investigators approached Baumeister, told him he was a suspect in the disappearances and asked to search his house. When Baumeister refused, investigators confronted his wife, Julie, who also forbade police to search the house. By June 1996, however, Julie Baumeister had become sufficiently frightened by her husband's mood swings and erratic behavior that, after filing for divorce, she consented to a search. The search of the 18-acre (73,000 m2) estate named "Fox Hollow Farm" was conducted while Baumeister was on vacation; it turned up the remains of 11 men, only 5 of whom were ever identified.
Baumeister escaped to Ontario, where he committed suicide at Pinery Provincial Park by shooting himself in the head. In his suicide note, he described his failing marriage and business as his reason for killing himself. He did not confess to the murders of the men found in his backyard.
In addition to the murders at his estate, Baumeister is also suspected of killing nine more men, the bodies of whom were found in rural areas along the corridor of Interstate 70 between Columbus, Ohio and Indianapolis, Indiana. Julie Baumeister told authorities that her husband made as many as 100 business trips to Ohio, on what he said was store business
Years passed while the estate and mansion stood empty. It was on the market now, and the incredibly cheap property was sold to Rob and Vicky Graves. The mansion had been gutted after it was vacated, and everything in it was new. The Graves thought everything bad was gone from the mansion. Everything seemed great in their new home except one day when Vicky experienced an unexplained occurrence. She had attempted to vacuum up gravel from around the lush indoor pool. The gravel had been tracked in by her kids. The vacuum kept coming unplugged at the extension cord without any explainable reason for the unpluggings. Vicky was a bit confused when it happened three times. She sensed she was not alone and that they or whatever it was did not want her there. She shrugged the feeling off.
Rob worked at a car dealership, and his colleague Joe Le Blanc had been facing a terrible daily commute to work which left him often times late for work. Joe needed to move closer to the dealership and naturally, Rob offered to let Joe move into the spare apartment on the estate. Joe, unfazed by the history of the house Brought his belongings and his dog Fred and moved into the apartment. He fell asleep once he and Rob were finished moving him in because the move had been an exhausting one. While sleeping he dreamed that he was running for his life. He felt that something bad was chasing him. He awakened in a state of panic and tried to run. He hit the door frame so hard he collapsed onto the floor. He was in terrible pain. Shards of glass were everywhere and they had gotten into his hands. He was unsure what he was running from but he felt the sense he had to get out of there as fast as he could.
Something caught Vickie's eye one day when she came home from work to find Rob painting. He had accomplished a surprising amount of work on his task. She was looking over his work when she noticed it. A man in a red T-Shirt was standing in their yard. As he turned and walked away from her she realized that she couldn't see his legs. Suddenly all of him disappeared. She and Rob walked over to the area where the man had been only to find nothing. Rob installed security cameras on the premises in hopes of catching him on them if the stranger came back.
One night while Joe was washing dishes in his apartment he heard a knock on the door. The knocking became insistent and when Joe opened the door nothing was there. He looked around and finally went back in and locked the door. He could not shake the feeling of discomfort because he felt he was being watched. Fred, Joe's dog started behaving like he saw something but Joe saw nothing.
Another night Joe was walking Fred when he heard something in the woods. Fred had stopped and his ears were standing straight up like he was listening to something. As they headed back toward the apartment Joe and his dog saw a man in a red T-Shirt. The stranger turned and headed toward the woods and disappeared. Fred gave chase after him anyway though. Of course, Joe chased after his dog because he had no way of knowing the intentions of the stranger in the red shirt. While still in a chase to find his dog, Joe came face to face with the stranger. Terrified, Joe turned and ran for his life. Fred was chasing close behind as well. Upon Joe telling Rob and Vicky about the incident, they realized that they had both seen the same man.
One night Joe was awakened by someone once again knocking on his door. He called out to see who it was but received no answer. He felt the panels in his door and they were vibrating from the knocking. Joe pulled the still vibrating door open only to see no one was there. He noticed the doorknocker was raised as if some unseen hand was ready to knock it again. when it came down and completed its knock Joe closed the door. He bolted it shut and felt a bit safer. He went back into his room to find a growling Fred than he heard a sound like the doorknob turning.
The doorknob twisted and vibrated violently from whoever was trying to get in. The sound stopped and seconds later the door burst open and wood chips went flying across the apartment. Unnerved but baffled he stepped out of the apartment and when he turned to come back inside he saw a man inside the apparent. The man was screaming and running for his life. He was trying to get away from some unseen person. Joe now suspected his intruder had been one of Baumeister's unfortunate victims. He, along with Rob and Vicky Graves researched what was known about the events on the property. They were viewing some old news footage including pictures of some of Baumeister's victims when Joe spotted a picture of the ghost which was running for his life in the apartment. Rob couldn't help but worry that Joe might be becoming obsessed with the Baumeister case.
One day Joe was walking through the woods with Fred. Fred took off running and Joe chased after him. When Fred stopped something caught Joe's eye. He dug it out of the leaves and it was a human bone. He took it to Rob and Vicky. She knew instantly that it was human. She thought it was a Femur. He had found it near the same area where they had seen the man in the red shirt.
Rob reported the finding to the lead detective on the case, who agreed to come out and show them where the events had happened. It was believed that Baumeister had strangled his victims near or even in the woods.
Now one of Joe's friends, A man named Jeremy, wanted to come to the house. Jeremy wanted to lay to rest the reports of the house's hauntings. They were in the pool and diving to retrieve dead beetles which had sank to the bottom of the pool. Joe felt someone touch his back. His first thought was that it was one of the boys. He realized they were on the other side of the pool. It couldn't have been them. Joe was pulled under the water as he swam back toward his friends. Invisible, cold fingers gripped his neck and were choking him. Jeremy saw Joe grabbing toward his neck. He had a panicked look like none Jeremy had ever seen before. Joe managed to escape and he hurried out of the pool He was in a state of terror and demanded his friends get out of the pool immediately. He feared it would get one of them as well, and perhaps even succeed in killing them.
Finally, one night Joe was working at his computer. He heard a metallic scraping noise so he investigated. he found a knife laying on the counter and there were cuts in the wood walls. It made him question if someone had been stabbed in the kitchen. He watched a ghost hunter show, and he unplugged everything that could possibly make any noises. He used his cell phone because it had a pretty decent recorder in it. He decided to do an EVP session and see what he caught. He asked if anyone was there and within moments Fred started barking. Joe took the cell to the computer to listen and see if anything was recorded. There as a clear response to his question. The voice said "The married one." All of Baumeister's victims had been single gay men. The only one there who had been single was the Murderer himself. Herbert Baumeister had to be back from his grave and to this day Joe is convinced that He is still around. It is apparent that evil never dies it simply changes form and continues to be a form of evil.
Current residents and visitors to the property have reported unsettling feelings, unexplainable noises, and even seeing apparitions inside the house and round the grounds. A paranormal investigation team, including psychics, a demonologist, EVP and visual specialists, investigated the 18-acre estate over a six-month period.
