DNA lab details how they made identification of victim from alleged serial killer’s farm

THE WOODLANDS, TX (AZFamily) — A suspected serial killer Herb Baumeister’s Indiana farm with more than 10,000 human remains found in the 1990s is back in the spotlight

Some of the remains are finally being identified.

The DNA company helping with the recent identifications, in that case, is the same one that made the high-profile Arizona case identification of “Little Miss Nobody” and is solving other cases here as well.

“Next thing we knew we were getting an email from the coroner’s office saying, ‘Hey, I think we have it sorted out who our guy is,’” said Michael Vogen, director of case management at Othram.

Othram is a Texas-based DNA lab that can build advanced DNA profiles with very little or degraded DNA.

Their lab made national headlines in 2022 when they identified Arizona’s “Little Miss Nobody,” a homicide victim from 1960, who turned out to be a 4-year-old girl named Sharon Lee Gallegos.

She was kidnapped from her New Mexico yard, and her body was found later found in a shallow grave in northern Arizona.

They continue to solve cases around the country and are now at the forefront of a law enforcement team working to identify some of the remains found on the businessman’s farm in 1996.

Police believe Baumeister targeted gay men, lured them from bars to his home in the 1980s and ‘90s, and then disposed of their bodies on his 18-acre property called the Fox Hollow Farm.

“A lot of these remains being in very bad shape. Charred, burned, I think there’s some discussion some were chemically treated at some point,” said Vogen.

That makes it difficult to extract DNA, and that’s where Othram comes in.

The lab is working on several cases from the farm to try and build profiles and recently making the identity of victim Jeffrey Jones.

“The profile we built actually came across very clean. It was a great profile,” said Vogen.

Authorities learned Jones went missing in Indiana in 1993 and is now the third victim to be identified in this new team effort, bringing the total number of victims to 12.

But more remains still await identification.

“These victims aren’t going to be just local folks to the area, so it’s going to take a big team effort to get everyone identified,” said Vogen.

“These people were on a shelf for 26 years. They were forgotten. They’re no longer forgotten,” said Hamilton County coroner Jeff Jellison.

Baumeister fled to Canada and took his own life in 1996 before police could question him.

The Hamilton County coroner said there are still four additional DNA profiles that haven’t been identified yet.

Othram said they’ve returned some of those profiles and others are processing, so they expect more identification announcements in the coming weeks.

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