SUMMER HOLIDAY SLAYER
Julie and Herb Baumeister appeared to be living the American dream. They were married for 25 years, with three children who attended private schools.
They founded a prosperous business, Sav-a-lot thrift stores, and lived on a multi-million-dollar estate in Indiana.
But Julie was alarmed when their 13-year-old son found bones while playing in the woods on the family property, Fox Hollow Farm. Baumeister shrugged it off, saying it was an old medical school skeleton owned by his late father, who was an anaesthetist.
Although he never explained why the skeleton was in their backyard, Julie trusted his explanation and didn’t question him further. She forgot all about it until years later, when police searched the property and found the remains of up to 11 bodies.
It soon emerged her husband had been cruising gay bars for a decade, looking for victims while Julie and the kids were away for summer holidays.
When detectives told Julie about Baumeister’s double life, she had to ask what sexual homicide was, refusing to believe her husband would be guilty of such sick crimes.
“You’re wrong. That can’t be true,” Julie cried.
She described her husband as a dedicated parent, involved in all aspects of their children’s upbringing, from choosing their pre-school to making their sandwiches.
Shortly after the bones were discovered in 1995, the 49-year-old fled to Canada where he wrote a three-page suicide note before shooting himself in the head.
While his death meant he couldn’t be charged, police estimate Baumeister may have been responsible for up to 20 murders.
Julie and her heartbroken children, who idolised their father, left their life at chilling Fox Hollow Farm behind and moved to Indianapolis.
“Our biggest question now is how he could have loved us and done this,” Julie said of Baumeister’s atrocities. “Happiness as we knew it is never going to return.”