Herb Baumeister

Herbert Richard Baumeister (April 7, 1947 – July 3, 1996) was an American businessman and suspected serial killer. A resident of the Indianapolis suburb of Westfield, Indiana, Baumeister was under investigation for murdering over a dozen men in the early 1990s, most of whom were last seen at gay bars. Police found the remains of eleven men, eight identified, on Baumeister's property. Baumeister committed suicide after a warrant was issued for his arrest. He was later linked to a series of murders of at least eleven men along Interstate 70, which occurred in the early-1980s to the early-1990s. Herb Baumeister was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on April 7, 1947, the oldest of four children born to anesthesiologist Dr. Herbert Eugene Baumeister and Elizabeth Baumeister née Schmidt. His childhood was reportedly normal but he began exhibiting antisocial behavior by the onset of adolescence. Friends later recalled Baumeister's urophilia and how he used to "ponder what it would be like to taste human urine". Baumeister also enjoyed playing with dead animals and urinating on teachers' desks. In his teens, Baumeister's behavior caught the attention of his father, who secreted him off to mental examinations. Baumeister was subsequently diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and antisocial personality disorder but did not receive further psychiatric treatment. Because his school, North Central High School, focused on sports activities, Baumeister could not become part of the "in" crowd and "just didn't blend in." He withdrew to himself and spent many hours alone and did not date. In 1965, Baumeister attended Indiana University for a semester before dropping out, but returned in 1967. In 1972, he attended a semester at Butler University. As an adult, Baumeister drifted through a series of jobs, marked by a strong work ethic but also by increasingly bizarre behavior. Baumeister married Juliana "Julie" Saiter in November 1971, a union that produced three children.