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During the first several years of the 1990s, the citizens in and around Indianapolis, Indiana might have stumbled on a very brief article in the local newspapers about how certain young men were disappearing from the streets of their town never to be seen again. In each case, the episodes mirrored each other; only the names changed. But, the articles grew no larger nor attracted much attention. All the prodigal sons were gay or were suspected of leaning in that sexual direction. Being gay, they were a coming and yet steadily outcast breed of citizens in a very conservative "Bible Belt". Even the officials remained lethargic; common belief was that the "victims" might simply have gone on to other, larger, more glitzy towns like San Francisco or New York where homosexuality was not considered wayward at all. The only victims here, thought the police, were the families these young men abandoned without a goodbye.
 
The killer, the psycho, the demon, whatever you want to call Herb Baumeister, was a man with a surface so normal that, when his deeper psyche was discovered, made those who knew him wince. He was a family man, an entrepreneur who supported local charities. He looked normal and talked normal…until you really got to know him.
 
When the newspapers began splashing the news of bodies unearthed at Fox Hollow Farms, Lindloff remembered the conversations he had had with Vandagriff. Now having a suspect, Lindloff discovered that this Herb Baumeister had made countless business trips to Ohio during the late 1980s. Already cold to the fact that her husband was indeed the maniac who strangled men in her home while she and the children were away, this new accusation did not surprise Julie. She cooperated with Lindloff, providing him with all the information he wanted – credit card receipts, phone call records, even the use of their car that Herb had driven on those business trips.
 
Back at the estate, plenty was happening. County interrogators, led by sheriff’s detective Kenneth Whisman, were beginning to put the pieces of the Baumeister puzzle together. Compost piles yielded heavy degrees of bones where, it appeared, the killer had burned his corpses under piles of leaves and garbage. They interviewed Tony Harris who told them of Herb’s obsession with strangling and "sexual asphyxiation." A big question they had had – "How could Herb have strangled and burned and buried these men without his family’s knowledge?" -- was answered in an interview with Julie herself. She explained that sometimes, for several months at a time, especially summers, she and the children visited Widow Baumeister, leaving Herb alone at home. Balancing the times of the victims’ disappearances with the periods that she and her brood were away, the incidences matched.
 
Meanwhile, the excavations in the back yard went on without pause. The number of diggers had swelled to about 60 volunteers, mostly off-duty policemen and firemen. The first couple days’ search had produced an amazing 5,500 bones, teeth and bone fragments, which, according to Nawrocki, made up about four bodies. After they had combed the entire 18 acres of the Baumeister property, members of the team were soon to learn that their search was far from over.