A resident of the Indianapolis suburb of Westfield, Indiana, Baumeister came under investigation for murdering over a dozen men in the early 1990s, most of whom were last seen at gay bars.

[7] The I-70 Strangler is the nickname of an unidentified American serial killer who killed at least eleven young boys and adult men in Indiana and Ohio between June 1980 and October 1991, dumping their bodies near Interstate 70.

According to investigators, bodies related to the I-70 Strangler case stopped being found in 1991 after Baumeister bought the Fox Hollow Farm, which he would use as a burial site for his subsequent victims.

[9][10] In May 1988, the Baumeisters purchased and moved to Fox Hollow Farm, an 18-acre property built in 1978 off 156th Street and the Monon Trail in Westfield, Indiana.

In 1994, Baumeister's son had been playing in the family's wooded backyard when he found a complete, partially buried human skeleton.

On June 24, 1996, investigators recovered human bone fragments of at least eleven people buried in the woods at Fox Hollow.

Hamilton County Coroner's office have appealed to the public requesting anyone with missing family members from the mid-1980s to mid-1990s in the Indianapolis area to complete a DNA test in an effort to help identify the victims' remains.

[23][24] As of January 2024, forensic experts continue working in an effort to identify nearly 10,000 portions of human remains recovered from an unknown number of victims at Fox Hollow Farm.

In 1994, they were contacted by a man named Tony Harris claiming that a gay bar patron calling himself "Brian Smart" had likely killed a friend of his, Roger Goodlet, based on his suspicious interest in Goodlet's missing persons case and had attempted to kill him with a pool hose during an erotic asphyxiation session in his mansion after he had met him at the 501 Club, a local Indianapolis gay bar.

[1][2] With a warrant out for his arrest, Baumeister fled to Ontario, where he committed suicide at Pinery Provincial Park on Lake Huron by shooting himself in the head with a .357 Magnum handgun.

He regretted messing up the park, he wrote, and felt badly about his broken marriage and failing business, but he did not mention the remains of his victims or admit to any crime.

[31] The A&E television series Investigative Reports aired an episode about Baumeister titled The Secret Life of a Serial Killer in 1997.