Michael Petree

In the early summer of 1980, the life of fifteen-year-old Michael Petree was tragically cut short, his death becoming the first in a series of grim discoveries that would haunt central Indiana for years. Michael, a white male from Noblesville, was reported missing by his family on June 7, 1980. In the days that followed, there were sightings of him in Indianapolis, reportedly in the company of a stranger. Known to frequent the city's gay bars, Michael was navigating a world that left him exceptionally vulnerable.

On June 16, nine days after he vanished, Michael's unclothed body was found in a ditch in a rural part of Hamilton County. An autopsy determined that the cause of death was strangulation. A toxicology report found no drugs or alcohol in his system. The discovery marked the beginning of a complex and frightening investigation as law enforcement began to connect Michael's murder to a disturbing pattern. Over the next several years, the bodies of other young men and boys were found in similar circumstances—partially or fully unclothed, strangled, and left in rural areas, often near waterways along the Interstate 70 corridor.

This series of homicides led investigators to believe they were hunting a serial killer, who became known as the "I-70 Strangler." The victims were typically young men, many of whom, like Michael, were associated with the gay community in Indianapolis. The investigation spanned multiple jurisdictions in Indiana and Ohio, but for years, the cases grew cold and no arrests were made. The fear and mistrust between the gay community and law enforcement at the time further complicated efforts to gather information and solve the crimes.

For more than a decade, the cases remained officially unsolved. Then, in the mid-1990s, a new and horrifying chapter unfolded that would cast a new light on the I-70 Strangler murders. Investigators began looking into Herb Baumeister, a successful Indianapolis businessman and married father of three who owned a sprawling 18-acre estate in Westfield called Fox Hollow Farm. The investigation into Baumeister began when a man claimed Baumeister had killed a friend of his at a hotel and had tried to kill him during an erotic asphyxiation session.

As the net closed in, Baumeister’s wife, Julie, initially barred police from searching the property. However, after filing for divorce, she consented to a search in June 1996 while Herb was away. What investigators found was a charnel house. The wooded grounds of Fox Hollow Farm were littered with the skeletal remains of thousands of human bones and bone fragments. As the search of his property began, Herb Baumeister fled to Ontario, Canada. There, on July 3, 1996, he died by suicide, shooting himself in the head. He left a note but did not confess to any of the murders.

In the aftermath, authorities worked to identify the remains found at Fox Hollow Farm, eventually linking them to at least eleven men who had disappeared from the Indianapolis area in the 1990s. Investigators also named Baumeister as the primary suspect in the unsolved I-70 Strangler cases from the 1980s, including the murder of Michael Petree. The timeline of the earlier murders coincided with the period before Baumeister purchased Fox Hollow Farm, leading to the theory that he changed his methods of disposing of bodies after acquiring the secluded property. Although he was never charged due to his death, authorities consider the case of Michael Petree to be solved.