Fox Hollow serial killer victim's family seeks help to ID 10,000 pieces of remains: 'Second only to 9/11'
Nine identified victims of Indiana's notorious 1990s Fox Hollow Farm serial killings and an unknown number of unidentified others were publicly honored for the first time Thursday.
The Westminster, Indiana, community publicly honored the nine identified victims of Indiana's notorious 1990s Fox Hollow Farm serial killings in Westminster and an unknown number of unidentified others for the first time Thursday.
The Hamilton County Sheriff's Office and Coroner's Office have successfully named the nine known victims and are in the process of identifying four others. There were a total of 10,000 pieces of human remains located on the 18-acre estate where serial killer Herb Baumeister, owner of the Sav-A-Lot shopping chain, once lived.
"The complexity and the amount of remains they have, which is over 10,000 stored, is second only to 9/11," said Linda Znachko, founder of He Knows Your Name, an Indiana-based ministry for the unidentified deceased. "And the intricacy and the amount of manpower that this investigation is continuing to need and require, plus money to do pathology and all the DNA work, is just huge."
Znachko told Fox News Digital she connected with Hamilton County Coroner Jeffrey Jellison because they had a shared interest of honoring the forgotten and unidentified dead. On Thursday, they dedicated a memorial to the Fox Hollow Farm victims, which included a plaque with the named victims and a space designated for the unidentified victims to be remembered.
"My organization purchased an outdoor sculpture from an artist in Canada [David Perrett], and we placed it today with the [victims'] names listed with an opportunity for more names to go on that list if more are there and also place an ossuary there so that any future remains or any family member that would like to use that ossuary and have their loved one buried right there at that memorial site, and free of charge," she explained.
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She added that Jellison inherited the Fox Hollow case when he was elected coroner and has made it his mission ever since to identify the unknown remains.
The nine victims who have been identified so far are Jeffrey Allen "Jeff" Jones, Allen Lee Livingston, Manuel Resendez, John Lee "Johnny" Bayer, Richard Douglas Hamilton Jr., Steven Spurlin Hale, Allen Wayne Broussard, Roger Allen Goodlet and Michael Frederick "Mike" Keirn.
"While this is an ongoing investigation, we feel now is the time to properly and publicly remember these members of our community," Jellison said during a press conference for the event. "We are proud to partner with He Knows Your Name to further their mission to provide dignity and a final resting place, regardless of their circumstance."
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Livingston's cousin, Matthew Pranger, attended the memorial event Thursday to honor him.
"The memorial service yesterday, I believe, did give justice to those who either have been identified or have yet to be identified," Pranger told Fox News Digital.
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He added that part of the reason he agreed to act as a spokesperson for his family is so other families who have lost loved ones may come forward so that the unidentified victims can be named.
"We would like to have as many people come forward that may have any connection whatsoever to this case to try to identify other potential victims," he explained. He added that part of the reason his family got involved and vocal about the Fox Hollow Farm killings and memorial is so "anybody … whose family member has been identified will have the opportunity then to have services available and a place of rest for the victims."
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The ninth identified victim was named just last year. The other eight were identified in the 1990s.
Authorities are hoping to bring that number to at least 12 in the near future using DNA technology that has advanced significantly in recent years.
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Baumeister is believed to have killed dozens of men between the 1980s and 1990s. He fled to Canada and died by suicide in 1996 when authorities began looking at him as a suspect in the serial killings.
Thirty years have passed since officials began recovering remains on Fox Hollow Farms, but Thursday's service was the first time the community formally remembered the victims in a public dedication.
