Indiana State Police Recover Two DNA Profiles From Skeleton Found On Property Of Long-Dead Businessman – WOWO 92.3 FM | 1190AM

WESTFIELD, Indiana (AP) — Indiana authorities have recovered two complete human DNA profiles from bones and bone fragments found on a property once owned by a deceased businessman suspected in a string of murders in the 1980s and 1990s.

Hamilton County Coroner Jeff Jellison said an Indiana State Police lab was able to generate two DNA profiles from a set of bones and fragments submitted to state officials this week as part of a renewed effort to further identify the skeletons found on the property of Herbert Baumeister.

Baumeister was 49 years old in July 1996 when investigators were about to question a body found at Fox Hollow Farm, an 18-acre property in Westfield, Hamilton County, a few miles north of Indianapolis, Canada.

Last year, Jellison asked relatives. Baumeister’s office is investigating young people who disappeared in the mid-1980s and mid-1990s and submitted DNA samples to his office, as part of a new effort to further identify some 10,000 charred bones and fragments found on Baumeister’s property.

He said he hopes the two newly developed DNA profiles will put an end to the family of a man who went missing decades ago.

“In fact, the people at the Indiana State Police who are working with us are the aggressive linemen in this investigation,” Jellison said. WXIN-TV. “It is their hard work that we are able to identify them.”

Investigators believe Baumeister, a married father of three who frequented gay bars, lured the men into his home and killed them. By 1999, authorities had linked him to the disappearance of at least 16 men since 1980, including several whose bodies were found dumped in rural central Indiana and a shallow river in western Ohio.

In announcing the new identification effort in November, Mr. Jellison said investigators believed the 10,000 charred bones and fragments found at Mr. Baumeister’s property could be the bodies of at least 25 people. During the initial investigation in the 1990s, 11 human DNA samples were extracted from these bones.

Eight of them, all young men, were identified and matched with DNA samples, but the DNA profiles of the remaining three belonged to unknown individuals, Gellison said last year.

State police investigators will now compare the two new DNA profiles with samples submitted by the relatives of the long-lost men, and also see if they match those of eight men whose bodies were previously found.

“Because we have modern DNA, they are now creating comparison samples and tracking the process quickly,” Jellison said. WTHR-TV.

If no matches are found for these samples, state police efforts will be expanded nationwide using the national DNA database, he said. If that fails, Jellison said his office may partner with a private DNA testing company to conduct a “forensic genetic family tree” test.

Meanwhile, Jellison said state police are working to extract more DNA profiles from the bodies found at Baumeister’s property.

“What I want to say is who these people are. My job is to tell them who they are and speak for them,” Jellison said.