Allen Lee Livingston, a 27-year-old White male from Indianapolis, Indiana, vanished on August 6, 1993, leaving his family desperate for answers that would not come for over three decades. Known to his loved ones as an outgoing and flamboyant young man who frequented the downtown Indianapolis area, he was last seen on a summer night before disappearing without a trace.
His mother, Sharon Livingston, immediately suspected foul play and reported him missing, but she felt that her concerns were dismissed by law enforcement at the time due to her son's lifestyle and sexual orientation. For years, she maintained a vigil, keeping the same landline number in the hope that Allen might one day call home, while rumors circulated about a predator targeting gay men in the community.
In June 1996, the investigation into the missing men took a grim turn when authorities descended upon Fox Hollow Farm, an expansive estate in Westfield, Indiana, owned by local businessman Herbert 'Herb' Baumeister. A search of the eighteen-acre property uncovered thousands of charred and crushed bone fragments buried in the woods behind the main residence. While investigators were able to identify eight victims during the initial inquiry, the vast majority of the remains were too damaged or fragmented to yield immediate results with the forensic technology available at the time. Allen's fate remained a mystery, though his family long believed he was among the victims buried on the grounds.
Decades later, in 2022, Hamilton County Coroner Jeff Jellison reopened the investigation into the unidentified remains recovered from the farm, urging relatives of missing men to submit DNA samples. Allen’s mother, then battling cancer, provided a swab in a final effort to find her son before she passed away. In October 2023, forensic scientists successfully matched the DNA to a bone fragment found on the property, officially confirming Allen as the ninth identified victim of the Fox Hollow Farm murders. The identification brought a bittersweet resolution to his family, validating their long-held suspicions just a year before his mother’s death.
The primary suspect, Herbert Baumeister, never faced justice in a court of law. As police closed in on him following the discovery of the remains in 1996, he fled to Ontario, Canada. On July 3, 1996, days after the initial search of his property, Baumeister committed suicide in Pinery Provincial Park. He left behind a note citing failings in his business and marriage but made no mention of the murders or the victims found at his estate. Consequently, no arrests were made, and no trials were held for the killings, leaving the full extent of his crimes and the total number of victims permanently resolved only by forensic genealogy rather than criminal prosecution.
