Every Town - I-70 Killer - Truly The Darkest True Crime Story You’ll Ever Hear

Episode Date: August 16, 2024

Today we have one of the wildest stories, in my opinion we’ve ever covered. It is so insane that the entire thing sounds made up. So let’s head on over to Indy, and learn all about Herb Baumeister, his Fox Hallow Farm and the i-70 strangler. 👀 Watch This Episode On Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/scarymysteries 🎧 Our Other Podcast Scary Mysteries: https://open.spotify.com/show/3ZooEZMoZ421WdsOVJhVkT 💀 Exclusive Videos, Podcasts & Perks: https://www.patreon.com/scarymysteries  👁 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrew.fitzg 👁 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewfitzgerald 👁 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scarymysteriesofficial 🗣 Business Inquiries, questions and comments hit us up at [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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The story that we have for you today, in its simplest terms, can be described as a man who by day was a respected community member and by night, a psychopathic serial killer. And for years, he preyed upon the city of Indianapolis looking for his next victim, to which there were many. 24, in fact, and those are only the ones the authorities know about.

Herbert Beaummeister was an entrepreneur and family man three children, but in the darkness, he hit a big secret. One that was so insane, we'll probably never see anything like it again. Hey guys, it's Andrew, and thanks for tuning in to this week's episode of Everytown, where today we have one of the wildest stories, in my opinion, we've ever covered. It's so crazy that the entire thing sounds completely made up. So let's get into it. Head on over to Indy and learn all about her Beaumister, is Foxhawley. farm and the I-70 Strangler. It was the night of July 22nd, 1994 in the city of Indianapolis, Indiana, and 33-year-old Roger Goodlitt left his mother's house to head out for a fun night on the town.

He was headed down to 16th Street to a gay bar, and it never crossed anyone's mind and his family, but this would be the last evening they'd ever see him walk out that door again. because Roger never came home that night, or the following morning or any other day after, for that matter. His parents reported a missing, of course, but the police dragged their feet on this one, as they had so many others before. So Goodly it wasn't the first. He was just one of many young men in this very specific area of our beautiful country who disappeared. And going back more than a decade before that, there were many stories of young, often gay men who had made. vanished without a trace.

Authorities were aware of this, suspecting that someone could possibly be taking them out of circulation, as there were some consistent patterns. But at the same time, there seemed to be just enough differences to not allow all the dots to be connected. Some bodies were discovered, others still just missing persons cases,

with no sign of where the individual was or might have gone. They also happened over a long period of time. years would pass and then another missing person's case. Another dead young man found along the side of the road. And on top of all that, the truth was that investigating these cases wasn't the police's top priority. They weren't interested in looking into these disappearances precisely because the victims were gay men. They believed that being in such a conservative city, all of them had likely fled to a more liberal place to live their lives more openly. and it writes back then

were not nearly as respected as they are today. Some people, both in law enforcement and within the community, were quite happy to have them leave, one by one, no matter what the circumstances. But as the cases mounted, the chatter couldn't be ignored. Somebody was hunting down these men

and it wasn't because he hated them, but because he hated himself. Finally, in 1994, something changed in this entire case, a story that simply couldn't be ignored, and it blew the whole thing wide open. In that year, a man named Tony Harris called up the police, said that he had met someone terrifying and called himself Brian Smart, though he didn't think that was his real name. The two had met at the 501 Club in downtown Indianapolis.

Tony was the one who approached him, and they started a pleasant conversation. Brian said he was a landscaper from Ohio, and he was in town preparing a half-empty house on the outskirts of the city for family who would be moving in soon. As the night progressed, he then offered to take Tony to that house for a cocktail and a swim in the pool. I got into the car, and there was a little something in Tony's mind that had him at least aware that what he was doing was a little risky. Ryan made several turns as Tony tried to memorize the route to the house, but after a while he just lost travel. But they arrived to the property, no problem, safe and sound. Tony could see it was an elegant house with a farm out back.

It was sprawling. They parked the car in the garage, at which point Brian told him they needed to go downstairs through the basement to get access to the indoor pool area. It was dark and creepy as they maneuvered through the underbelly of the estate. And then, when they eventually got there, Tony saw several mannequins in various poses around the water. Some of them were sitting in chairs, others laying on towels as of sunbathing. It was weird. And seeing Tony's look of shock, Brian said,

I feel lonely here, and they keep me company. He offered Tony a cocktail, but he refused not wanting to drink anything, aiming to stay sober for whatever might happen that night. So it was a strange situation that Tony found himself in. I wasn't sure if he was overreacting or his gut was giving him the correct information. information to not trust Mr. Smart. Brian wanted to keep the party going, and his guests relaxed. He stepped out to Tony's sight for a moment, and when he returned, he seemed calmer and happier, and Tony was sure he had taken some sort of drug.

They continued on with their conversation, which put Tony at ease. Eventually the two started skinny dipping, when things took a dark turn and everything changed. Brian said he had learned a new trick and wanted to do it. to try it out with him. I mentioned experimenting with auto-erotic asphyxiation. And we found it to be unbelievably satisfied and that Tony should try it out with him. The asphyxiation would be done with a hose

while he pleasureed himself. Brian lay naked on a fold-out couch in the next room and he called Tony to his side. Tony went over and began to cut off his air supply as instructed while Brian touched himself. When he was done, now was Tony's turn. And Tony laid down while Brian squeezed his neck, only he took it too far.

And Tony fairly quickly couldn't breathe anymore, started to black out. Cleverly, he decided a fake passing out, closing his eyes and relaxing his entire body. The trick worked, and Ryan let gullible. Then whispered Tony's name and Tony impulsively opened his eyes. Brian tried to act natural and pretend to be surprised, saying that sometimes accidents happen with these things, and that he was sorry. Using all the persuasion he could, Tony would go on to convince him to take him back to the city. He managed to escape that night.

The near-death experience left Harris traumatized and convinced that Brian was a deadly predator. He finished by telling police that he believed that his good friend, Roger Goodlet, who had gone missing earlier in the summer. summer. May have had a similar encounter with Brian, only he wasn't so lucky to get away. With this crucial lead, the investigators intensified their efforts. They now had a name, at least, and a witness who knew him up close. Nothing in their database pulled up the name Brian Smart, so it wasn't that easy. Am Harris, more than six months later, would finally see Brian Smart again in August of 95, followed his car, noticed the license plate number. A small act allowed the police to finally find a real name.

Brian Smart's identity was revealed as 48-year-old Herbert Richard Beaumeister. But Tony's story didn't align with who Herb was, not in the slightest. Beaumister wasn't just a respected businessman in the community, the owner of two successful Save-A-Lot thrift stores in the area. He also wasn't gay. He'd been happily married to his wife Julie since 1919. and together a couple had three lovely children.

As you know, though, looks can be deceiving, sometimes very deceiving, and as it turns out, Herb wasn't just a good old-fashioned family man like he had everyone believe in, and he was living a double life. Amp was such a psychopathic killer, and he may have killed upwards of 25 men. Born in Indianapolis on April 7th of 1947 into a well-off family where his father was a successful anesthesiologist. Herb's childhood seemed uneventful at first glance. Nothing probably would have even been noted about it if he had just been a regular guy, but of course, this man was far from that. He showed some disturbing antisocial behaviors from a young age. For example, he had a strange obsession with bodily fluids and enjoyed thinking about tasting human urine. He acted these

desires out on a few occasions. We'll go on to get in trouble in school for urinating. on his teacher's desks more than once. Also, like so many other serial killers in this world, Bo Meister demonstrated cruelty towards animals, finding pleasure and playing with dead creatures, imposing them in various unnatural positions, just like his mannequins backed by that pool. His behavior, or his father,

who secretly had him undergo mental evaluations as he grew up, with the diagnosis being fairly alarming. Paranoid schizophrenia, an antisocial personality disorder, were a part of who he was. Despite this, though, Beaummeister never received proper psychiatric treatment to address his growing deviations. And he just shoved them down, pretended to be something he wasn't, hence why he was so good at living this double life he had created. My hindsight is 2020. Back then, no one could have imagined what this teenager would eventually go on to do as an adult. adult. And socially his odd behavior made him an outsider. At North Central High School,

where sports were big, Bowmeister, didn't fit in with the popular crowd. And he kept to himself spending long hours alone without making friends. These behaviors and social rejection shaped his troubled mind. Bowmeister became a misfit who gradually developed a dangerous, disconnected personality from reality. After a failed attempt at college, Herb's struggles through various jobs without finding stability. His inappropriate behavior often got in a way of work. Once, while working at the DMV, he did something that showed everyone

whose truly disturbed nature. Beaumeister once again urinated, this time on a letter addressed to the state governor himself. This messed up act not only solved the mystery as to who had vandalized his supervisor's desks weeks earlier, but also cost him his job. After that unpleasant episode, Beaumister found a job at a local, humble, second-hand store. Trying to turn his life around, he stayed there for three years until he finally decided to strike out on his own,

and open his own business in the same field. Thus, the first of the Save-A-Lot chain of stores was born, and things began to improve for him as he had learned to hide his dark side very well from the outside world. Their sales were good, and encouraged by the initial, profits, Beaumister and his wife Julie decided to expand operations by opening a second branch. With that money, the family also bought an impressive dream property, Fox Hollow Farms, in May of 1988. At first glance, the mansion was a real estate gem. Built in 1978 and situated on over 18 acres of wooded rolling grounds with a private pond. The opulent estate featured four bedrooms,

10 luxurious bathrooms and an overwhelming 11,572 square feet of living space. The details spoke of true wealth, an indoor swimming pool, fully equipped bar, and luxury features unmatched in their class. Additionally, the residents boasted a detached five-car garage with a second-floor terrace, perfect for social events. It was so opulent on the one hand, but herb saw it as something else. With so much space to work with, well, his wife and kids could be in one part of the home, completely unaware of what was going on in another section, so it was perfect.

Unfortunately, this period of prosperity was short-lived, and soon mismanagement caused the business to crack. Financial difficulties created increasing tension in the Beaumister marriage. Julie began spending weekends at her mother-in-law's apartment to escape the situation, while her husband stayed behind, claiming he needed a tend to the stores. What she didn't know was that during this free time, Herb wasn't going to work or staying home trying to figure out the next move to right the ship.

Instead, he went to a whole bunch of gay bars in the city. And there he met and enjoyed himself with gentlemen, dancing to the booming base under neon lights where he could finally be who he wanted to be. Whenever he could, he would choose one of them. typically they were between the ages of 20 to 35, being a successful and more experienced man, he would seduce them with tricks and promises, convincing them to come back to his luxurious home with a pool to continue the party in a more intimate venue. Few refused his invitations.

Once the victim entered the grounds, their fate was completely and inevitably sealed. Upon arrival, he would invite them to relax and offer them a drink. While preparing it, he secretly spiked their drinks with drugs without their knowledge. As they took effect, his unsuspecting victims became defenseless, Beaumister showed his true and sinister intentions. Using a hose most often, though sometimes his hands as the deadly weapon, he ruthlessly strangled them. That's how he liked to do it, and in their lives in the cruelest of ways.

After that, especially when his wife and kids were away, He'd then burn the bodies to erase any evidence, then buried the charred remains all across the vast grounds of his property, where his children used to play in the afternoons, and they were undoubtedly walking all across these young men. And this was Er Bowemeister's M.O., which he had been refining for years. He wasn't always this clean about it, but that's because he didn't always have Fox Hollow Farms. But by now, he was to the point where he felt like he was untouching. and impossible to catch, which may actually be why he let Tony Harris go that night in 1994 and drove him back to the city. Ultimately, it was that decision that would lead to his end

in more ways than one. By mid-1996, the House of Cards herb had built up was all but collapsing. Following Tony's lead, and after verifying the license plate registration, the police arrived at Fox Hollow Farms to find out just what exactly it was going on there. And Julie answered the door, where they requested permission to conduct a thorough search of the Beaumister property. They wanted to see the pool area, those mannequins, perhaps the hose over the couple adamantly refused. Since the police didn't have any solid evidence, that meant they also didn't have a warrant, and so they left. not before warning Julie about the possibility of her husband being a serial killer. Initially, Julie dismissed such an accusation entirely.

She couldn't believe that the man she had built a family with could be capable of such a thing. However, the idea then began to take hold on her mind. She thought about how just a couple of years ago it was a disturbing memory, when where her young son came home after playing in the woods with a human skull in his hand. Faced with a horrifying discovery, Beaumister, and tried to calm the family down with an unusual explanation. He claimed that the skeleton was part of an anatomical display belonging to his father, the respected doctor, when he used for dissection to better understand the human body. Julie accepted this explanation reluctantly at the time, but now doubts about her husband's true nature started to bother her. And she had also grown accustomed to something at this point.

However, now it seemed really strange. And in over 25 years of being together with her husband, she could literally count on both hands how many times they'd been intimate with one another. Back at the police station, as detectives looked into herbs past, their suspicions grew stronger and stronger. They found out about his mental disorders, the urination, a brief stint in a facility shortly after getting married. But they still lacked the evidence they needed to get the search warrant.

Tense weeks passed until finally in June. An unexpected turn of events occurred when Julie abruptly filed for divorce and then called the police to search their home. Herb wasn't there at the time. He'd gone on vacation to clear his mind and Julie wanted to know the truth. When June 24th of 96, investigators conducted a thorough search of Fox Hollow Farm, and there they uncovered a gruesome killing field. Eventually, fragments of human bones belonging to at least 11 individuals were unearthed.

The remains, which included charred bones, fragments, and body parts were a macab discovery that horrified the locals. To date, 12 victims have been officially identified, each with a personal story violently cut short. Among them was Jeffrey Jones, 31-year-old who was reported missing in August of 93. Jones was identified through advances in forensic genetic genealogy, bringing closure to his long search for his family. Other identified victims included Alan Livingston, who was 27. Emmanuel Resendez, who was 34, both missing in 93 in the Indianapolis area. and 20-year-old Johnny Bayer and Richard Hamilton Jr. 28-year-old Stephen Hale and 28-year-old Alan Broussard.

Roger Goodlett was also discovered. 45-year-old Michael Kern, and 34-year-old Jerry Williams Comer. All these men shared similar physical characteristics and lifestyles that ultimately made them targets of this serial predator. But as it turns out, unfortunately, These men were just a small part of Bowmeister's potential victims, because Herb had a whole other life before he purchased the farm at the age of 41. As the investigation into the disappearances and murders of young men in the Indianapolis area progressed,

police started to find unsettling connections with other crimes that had occurred nearby years earlier. And this wasn't just a random accusation. The patterns and methods used by the so-called I-70 Strangler, seemed to match the crimes now being uncovered related to Earth. For over a decade, this unidentified predator had stalked in the shadows of the city, carefully choosing his victims from among the young and vulnerable men who frequenting gay bars. His crimes were brutal. He lured his victims, presumably in a similar way of promising drinks or drugs,

taking advantage of their needs, only to subject them to a ruthless death by strangulation. The mutilated bodies were then discarded in rural areas along Interstate 70, earning the killer as chilling nickname of the I-70 Strangler. The first victim was Michael Petrie, a 15-year-old boy whose naked body was found in remote Hamilton County in June of 1980. Then Maurice Taylor, a 23-year-old homeless man, discovered lifeless at Weasel Creek in July of 82. Soon Moore followed, and 22-year-old Mick Riley's body. body was located in a ditch, after he was last seen leaving a gay nightclub with a mysterious companion. In total, at least nine more young men found in the area, having been killed in the same

type of way, brings the I-70 stranglers total to at least a dozen confirmed victims. Authorities have been searching for clues about the identity of this ruthless killer, so when they found the bodies at Fox Hollow, the similarities were too much to ignore. A key witness was once shown Erbs' photo, claimed to have seen Beaummeister with victim Michael Riley just before his disappearance in 83. And furthermore, the murders attributed to the I-70 Strangler seemed to have ceased around 1991. Same year, Beaumister established Fox Hollow Farm, as if he had simply changed the location to dispose of the bodies. Though, as of right now, the case of the I-70 Strangler is still open, but no clear proof that Bowmeister was the one behind these awful crimes.

When Herb found out what the police had found on his land, well, he knew he'd finally been caught. He faced with arrest and the chance of being charged for his awful crimes, but Beaumister decided to run to Ontario, Canada in July of 96. From there, that beautiful Penry Provincial Park on Lake Huron, while he pulled out his 357 magnum pistol. and took care of the root of the problem. In his three-page note, written on a yellow legal pad,

Bell Meister expressed regret for ruining the park and failing at his marriage. He went on to describe mundane details of his journey, like his last meal, a peanut butter sandwich, also finding the right place to end this story. However, he never admitted to his crimes, not once, or mentioned any of his victims. He avoided that altogether, as he had done in his life, out ever having to admit to the evil side that lay within him.

Even though Erb has gone for good, efforts to bring closure to the victim's families continue even to this day, because after all, his property was sprawling. So who really knows what lay underneath its grounds? Today, it remains an active investigation site. Recently on May 21st of 2024, the Hamilton County Coroner's Office announced a major breakthrough

in identifying some more victims who have been unknown until then. It was actually through this effort that Jeffrey Jones was finally identified as one of the victims, and there are also four more DNA profiles that haven't been identified yet, making the total presumed victims 12 at the farm.

What's worse, authorities have found over 20 spots in the property that might have more human remains adding to the 10,000 bones and fragments they already have. So how many more men fell victim to herbs' twisted axe? Maybe time will tell, but maybe not. There is a good chance that out there no one will ever find a thing, no matter how long they look.

It's a truly tragic tale of what this man did, but it should serve as a cautionary story to all of us. But he was a true monster who hid behind. that respectability, showing us that appearances can be deceiving, and that real demons, very much so walk among us every single day. And they could be your co-worker, your neighbor, friend, even your spouse. Don't let it get you down. Just be aware that the next time your instincts tell you something, or you should probably listen.

So that's it for this week's episode of Everytown. Hope you all enjoyed it. If you want more content, check out our Scary Mysteries podcast. YouTube channel and Patreon, where we have all sorts of other crazy stories for you guys to check out. Thanks for tuning in today. Remember to come back next week for another episode

filled with scary, strange, and mysterious stories. As you never know, maybe your town will be next.