Herb Baumeister

The I-70 Strangler is the nickname of an unidentified American serial killer who killed at least eleven young boys and adult men in Indiana and Ohio between June 1980 and October 1991, dumping their bodies near Interstate 70. The killer met his victims in popular gay bars and other similar establishments within a four-block radius in Indianapolis. All of the victims were later found naked or partially clothed near Interstate 70, often dumped in rivers, streams and ditches in the rural countryside. Each had been strangled to death.[9][10] Though officially unsolved, Baumeister was named the prime suspect in the case in April 1999 by law enforcement. According to investigators, bodies related to the I-70 Strangler case stopped being found in 1991 after Baumeister bought the Fox Hollow Farm, which he would use as a burial site for his subsequent victims.[9][10]

• 15-year-old Michael Sean Petree was discovered naked in rural Hamilton County, Indiana on June 16, 1980. Despite his young age, he was a male prostitute who spent most of his time around Indianapolis' gay bars. He was reported missing on June 7, but three days later, he was observed in different parts of the city riding along in a stranger's car. The cause of death was established as strangulation; no traces of drugs or alcohol were found in his blood.[11]
• The topless corpse of Maurice Allen Taylor, 22, was found on July 21, 1982, in the Weasel Creek in rural Hamilton County outside Atlanta.[12] While his cause of death was not sufficiently established, law enforcement suspected that he had been strangled. Taylor was a vagrant who lived in the boiler room of an apartment complex in Indianapolis, and due to his financial difficulties, he offered sexual services around the gay bars.[12][10]
• Delvoyd Lee Baker, 14, was found semi-nude near a river in Hamilton County, Indiana, on October 3, 1982. While investigating his death, authorities located witnesses who stated that Baker was last seen on the evening of October 2, in downtown Indianapolis, boarding a blue van driven by a young white man with a bushy moustache.[13] The boy's parents told police that he had been riding his bike to the city center on the night of his disappearance, from where he called home at 10:30 p.m. to inform them that he was going to be late because he wanted to go to the cinema. It was later established that Baker had been cruising the Indianapolis gay bars for the last three months and had been prostituting himself.[13][14][12][10]
• Michael Andrew "Mick" Riley, 22, disappeared on May 28, 1983, after visiting 'The Vogue Theater', a gay nightclub in Indianapolis. He was last seen with an unidentified man, with whom he later left. In February 1998, an Indianapolis resident contacted police and claimed that Baumeister was the man last seen leaving 'The Vogue Theater' with Riley.[9] Riley's nude body was later found in a ditch in Hancock County, southeast of Greenfield, on June 5. The autopsy determined that he had been strangled, with the perpetrator likely using a towel.[15][16]
• Eric Allen Roettger, 17, vanished on May 7, 1985, with his shirtless body found a few days later near a stream in rural Preble County, Ohio, east of Lewisburg.[3] According to his parents, Roettger was planning to attend interviews for a summer job on the day of his disappearance, but did not attend any of them. His friends and relatives denied that he was gay, but later research indicated that Roettger had many acquaintances who were drug addicts or drug traffickers. Witnesses claimed that they had seen Eric at a bus stop in the early morning of March 7, but instead of waiting for the bus, he accepted a ride from a passing car.[17] When found, he had an apparent burn mark on his left shoulder, and had been strangled with a rope.[12][18]
• The body of 29-year-old Michael Allen "Mike" Glenn, clad only in his underwear, was found in a ditch near Eaton, Ohio on August 15, 1986. He lived separately from his parents in a trailer park located on the outskirts of Indianapolis and worked as a handyman. The exact date of his disappearance was not established. Strangulation marks, possibly from a rope, were found on his neck. He was identified three years after his discovery with the help of fingerprinting.[12]
• James Boyd Robbins Jr., 21, went missing on October 15, 1987, at around 10 p.m., shortly after leaving his mother's home in Indianapolis and walking to the southern part of the city. Two days later on October 17, his naked corpse bearing strangulation marks was found in a ditch in rural Shelby County, near Interstate 70 south of Gwynneville.[12] While investigating his murder, police located two witnesses who gave conflicting information; one claimed that they had seen a red Jeep Wrangler Renegade near the crime scene, while another said that the car was a Chevrolet Blazer.[19]
• The corpse of 26-year-old Steven Lynn Elliott, clad in his underwear, was found on August 12, 1989, in rural Preble County, Ohio, near Interstate 70.[12] He had been strangled, presumably with a rope. Elliot's father told police that when his son came out as gay in 1979, he then left the family household and became involved in prostitution, developing an alcohol addiction.[12][17]
• Clay Russell Boatman, 32, a licensed practical nurse, disappeared on August 14, 1990, after leaving his Richmond, Indiana apartment to visit 'Our Place', a local gay bar. His body, showing signs of strangulation, was found in a ditch by a group of children near Eaton, Ohio.[10] When interviewed, Boatman's family denied that he was homosexual.[12][20]
• Thomas Ray Clevenger Jr., 18, vanished without a trace on September 6, 1990, and his semi-nude corpse was later found at an abandoned railroad track near Greenville, Ohio.[10] Clevenger grew up in a poor neighborhood of Indianapolis, and shortly before his death, he engaged in prostitution near gay bars to earn money, a fact denied by his mother and sister.[17]
• The body of 42-year-old Otto Gary Becker was found in a ditch next to a gravel road in rural Henry County, Indiana on August 6, 1991. While investigating his murder, police identified several witnesses who claimed to have seen Becker in a car with another male driving north on Interstate 70 near Indianapolis. The witnesses were taken to the police station and shown photographs of various criminals convicted of kidnapping and murder charges in the state, but none of them was matched to the alleged abductor.[21]

On June 24, 1996, investigators recovered human bone fragments of at least eleven people buried in the woods at Fox Hollow Farm, an 18-acre property owned by Baumeister off 156th Street and the Monon Trail in Westfield, Indiana. A new search on December 4, 2022, found one bone and identified twenty additional locations that might have more remains buried under the ground.[22] Only eight people have been identified since the initial discovery. The additional three remains are still unidentified although they are all believed to be male and to have been victims of homicide. Hamilton County Coroner's office have appealed to the public requesting anyone with missing family members from the mid-1980s to mid-1990s in the Indianapolis area to complete a DNA test in an effort to help identify the victims' remains.[23][24]

• John Lee "Johnny" Bayer, 20, went missing on May 28, 1993, in Indianapolis.
• Jeffrey Allen "Jeff" Jones, 31, went missing on July 6, 1993, in Indianapolis.
• Richard Douglas Hamilton Jr., 20, went missing on July 31, 1993, in Indianapolis.
• Manuel Resendez, 31, was a homosexual Hispanic male and children's counsellor from Lafayette, Indiana, who was last seen at a gay bar in downtown Indianapolis, on August 6, 1993.
• Allen Lee Livingston, 27, also went missing on August 6, 1993 in Indianapolis.[25] His remains were recovered in the initial search of the farm in 1996, but remained unidentified until October 2023.[26]
• Steven Spurlin Hale, 28, went missing on April 1, 1994, in Indianapolis.
• Allen Wayne Broussard, 28, went missing on June 6, 1994, in Indianapolis.
• Roger Allen Goodlet, 33, went missing on July 22, 1994. Last seen after he left his mother's residence, where he lived, to visit a gay bar on 16th Street in Indianapolis. Two weeks before his disappearance, Goodlet was sighted in the company of Baumeister in several Indianapolis homosexual establishments.
• Michael Frederick "Mike" Keirn, 45, was a homosexual man last seen on March 31, 1995, at a gay bar in downtown Indianapolis. A jacket belonging to Keirn was found in Baumeister's residence.

Authorities have publicly and posthumously linked the unsolved disappearance of Jerry Williams-Comer, 34, to Baumeister. Williams-Comer was last seen in Indianapolis on August 8, 1995. After his disappearance, his vehicle was found at Castleton Square Mall.[27][28] As a young gay man, Williams-Comer fit the profile of Baumeister's victims, despite the fact that he was never recovered from his residence.