Jeff Jellison

So she had sat for 30 years waiting on that phone to ring. And obviously that in and of itself is not healthy. And she did pass just the other day. So we were able to locate her son and bring a little bit of that closure back and return her son's remains to her before she did pass. So, you know, to me, we just won the game right there.

This investigation was very personal for me because I've sat with the family members and we've held hands, we've cried, we've laughed, we prayed. My goal was to get these remains off of the shelf at the University of Indianapolis to a final resting spot. We can't leave these people there for eternity. Some of the families have chosen to receive those remains back to their care.

Some have said, no, we do not want the remains returned to us. And that was another challenge. So what do we do with these remains?

Yeah, I... I do. I mean, you know, part of the reason goes back to the initial investigation in the 90s. I don't feel like law enforcement and the coroner at that time did the greatest job with this case in a couple areas. When they identified these eight individuals, I mean, it was suspects dead.

These are eight gay men from Indianapolis found in very conservative Hamilton County in the 90s, where this lifestyle certainly was not very well accepted. So it was game over. Abruptly, the investigation ends. And people came forward and said, hey, you've got more remains yet to be identified. And family members came forward and they said, we believe that our loved one is a part of these remains.

And at that time, Hamilton County made the decision not to fund the investigation any longer as far as identifying these remains. And to put that burden on family members. So a family member that came forward that said, hey, I'm willing to give you whatever you need to see if my loved one was recovered in these remains. The county said, great, you pay for it.

Now, where in this country does law enforcement and the coroner say to victims' families in a homicide case that we're going to make you pay to find out if your loved one was a victim? You don't do that. The DNA is expensive now and was very expensive back then. These people didn't have the money to do that. So, conservative Hamilton County, we're done.

If anybody wants any more, then you can pay for it. That's not right.

They were brought into a room and they were handed a paper grocery sack with a raw remain inside of it and said, here's your loved one. I mean, yeah, but we can do better. For 28 years, nobody did anything. These people, these families were forgotten. And I don't know if you can see over the top of my shoulder, but there's a piece of artwork back there that says, no longer forgotten.

And as long as I'm cornered in this county, these folks won't be forgotten again.

So I called the lady back and I said, would you please come into my office and talk to me? And she did. And I explained to her what we had done. And after a very, very long conversation, she agreed to take the remains back. That was in November of 22. December of that year, I got a Christmas card here at my office and it was from this lady. And I opened it up and it simply said,

Thank you for the closure I didn't know I needed.

If you're the biological relative of a missing person, please come forward. If it's unrelated to Fox Hollow Farm, we'll get you pointed towards the right agency or we'll get a swab ourselves from you and we'll get that entered into CODIS because that is the most efficient way in identifying remains like this.

We had a suspicion that this type of thing would happen, that we would get matches to remains recovered around the state, around the nation, and good. you know, good for it, because not only are we working very hard to provide closure for the families of the Fox Hollow victims, this investigation will provide closure for families completely unrelated.

I mean, we're receiving swabs from second cousins. You know, I mean, certainly The closer in order in lineage, the better. But with DNA technology today and the very talented people that work for the Indiana State Police, these people are amazing. They do amazing work. So I'll just say this. If you're a biological relative, call me.

He's as prolific as a lot that we have in this country. Probably as prolific as Dahmer, Gacy, some of these other folks. They just didn't have a bad guy to walk into that courtroom in this case. So it didn't get the attention.

It's an open investigation now from my standpoint, but Is the potential there for law enforcement to reopen this investigation? You know, we know that there's at least 12 people that were killed on that property. And they suspect that many of these people are, they suspect all of them were killed inside the home in an indoor pool area. Well, Herb was not a big man.

I think he was six foot something and about 180 pounds. And I think that's probably really being generous from the photos I've seen. How does, and I do this for a living, how does someone takes a dead person and transport them 200 yards outside the house into a woods. That's not an easy job. We do know that there were handcuffs recovered in the woods.

We do know that there were shotgun shells recovered in the woods. And there is a statement in the case folder from an individual that says he watched another man hold an individual while her baumeister shot him. I mean, if you don't think that whoever committed these crimes had help, then I think you need to look at the case a little bit deeper.

Because I suspect that whoever committed these crimes, whoever killed these people, because Baumeister was never convicted, so I can't say that he did, but somebody probably had some help along the way.

One of my deputies just walked into my office and said that Eric Baumeister had contacted him wanting to speak to me.

Many times. In the middle 90s, it was, I believe, an 18-acre estate complex. Beautiful home, horse farm type of state. Very sparsely populated area at that time.

Today, a portion of that property has been sold off for lots, still beautiful homes, still horse farm kind of environment, more densely populated, you know, with homes nearby. Also a very popular walking trail in this area kind of runs along the complete east side of the property.

which is interesting for some folks because they're walking by the home and the site of one of the most prolific serial killers in this country.

The Fox Hollow incident really occurred right at the end of my law enforcement career. So I was somewhat familiar with it. I was not involved with it at the time.

My entire law enforcement career was spent working on the street. I was a canine handler. I was never a detective. I just, I worked the street every day protecting the community that I worked for.

My business was successful, and going from owning a private successful business to working for county government, you know, I had to give some real thought to that. But I sold my business, went to work as a deputy here in the office, worked here for 10 years as a deputy, and then I made the decision to run for coroner.

Some of the things we see, hear, and smell, you can't unsee. There's no day that is the same. You could start your morning out with a traffic fatality, have a suicide midday, and finish up with a child death in the evening.

Our duties are to determine cause, manner, and identification in death investigations.

I received a phone call from Eric Pranger.

The next thing I did is kind of vetted his phone call and everything that Eric was indicating certainly checked out. And then I started looking at the Fox Hollow case and had no idea what we had at that time. I knew that the remains were being stored at the University of Indianapolis in their anthropology and archaeology department.

She informed me that we had 10,000 bone and bone fragments that were unidentified. You know, that's obviously a huge number.

It's a challenge that coroners prior to me had apparently chosen not to do. And the interesting part of that is, by statute, the coroner is responsible to identify the deceased in his county.

This case is 30 years old. Suspect is dead. So we have to assume our position on the priority totem pole because law enforcement, state police, lab are trying to put bad guys in jail for crimes that are being committed today. And we understand that and we support that.

Cost is certainly probably one of the biggest hurdles. Probably another hurdle is getting people to come forward, biological relatives of missing people. Again, there's been 30 years go by since these people became missing. Some of their parents are deceased. Maybe some of their brothers, sisters, cousins have moved from the Indianapolis area.

I mean, we're chasing family members from Alaska to Louisiana. Probably the biggest hurdle in this case is time.

I think the last total I got was about 160.

When you stop and think, the family that initiated the phone call with me, out of 10,000 remains, The first person identified was their loved one. That's a God thing right there, you know?

That lady was struggling for 30 years. When I sat down and talked to her, I noticed on her table next to her couch that she still had a landline phone. And I said to her, I said, Sharon, I don't often see that anymore in people's homes, a landline phone. And she looked at me and she said, that's the only number that my son has to call me at.