Victim Daniel Thomas Halloran. Credit: Othram
Another victim of alleged serial killer Herb Baumeister has been identified as Daniel Thomas Halloran, a man who was not reported missing or previously suspected as a victim.
Halloran’s remains were found at the Baumeister family’s Fox Hollow Farm in 1996, along with 10,000 other bones and bone fragments.
In 2024, amid a renewed investigation to identify the unknown victims at Fox Hollow Farm, Hamilton County (Indiana) Coroner Jeff Jellison sent a DNA sample to Othram. Othram successfully sequenced the DNA, then worked the forensic genetic genealogy angle to develop new investigative leads.
With both parents and a brother already deceased, Halloran’s identification was far from easy. However, his mother died of an overdose in a nearby Indiana county and the coroner still had a DNA sample card on file to help confirm Daniel’s identity.
This is the fourth Fox Hollow Farm victim that has been identified as part of the renewed investigation by Jellison that began in 2022 when the coroner was contacted by the cousin of a possible victim.
The initial investigation
Baumeister is suspected of murdering over a dozen men in the early-to-mid 1990s, most of whom were last seen at gay bars. Baumeister is also suspected to be the “I-70 Strangler,” an unidentified serial killer who murdered at least 11 young boys and adult men in Indiana and Ohio between June 1980 and October 1991, dumping their bodies near Interstate 70.
Police believe the bodies stopped being dumped on I-70 after the Baumeister family purchased Fox Hollow Farm, an 18-acre property in Westfield, Indiana in May 1988.
In August 1995, a man went to police about a “Brian Smart,” who tried to kill him after meeting at a local gay club. The man also suspected that Smart murdered one of his friends. The police identified Smart as Baumeister.
At the time, Baumeister and his wife refused to allow a search of their property. However, by June 1996, an increasingly frightened Julie Baumeister filed for divorce and consented to a property search while Baumeister was out of town.
In addition to 10,000 bones and bone fragments, police found the remains of 11 men, although they said they believed at least 25 people were buried on the sprawling 18-acre farm.
With a warrant out for his arrest, Baumeister fled to Canada where he died by suicide. He left a note but did not admit to any crimes or mention any names of potential victims.
Police identified some of the 11 men rather quickly through dental records. For the rest however, DNA testing was not funded at the time, stalling the investigation and any further identifications.
The reinvestigation
It was the family of a previously unknown presumed victim—Allen Livingston—who inspired Jellison to renew identification efforts for the unknown remains found at Fox Hollow Farms in 1996.
Livingston’s cousin reached out to Jellison hoping to provide Livingston’s ailing mother with some closure before her death. Livingston’s family long thought he was a suspected victim of Baumeister.
Delving into the cold case, Jellison sent 44 individual bones or fragments recovered from the Fox Hollow Farm property to the Indiana State Police Laboratory for analysis. In an incredible moment, Livingston’s remains were the first to be identified—about a year before Livingston’s mother died.
But Jellison couldn’t just walk away from the case after that, not after knowing how many more men are possible victims. Thus, the official reinvestigation was launched with the University of Indianapolis’ forensic archaeology laboratory, Indiana State Police, Othram and other law enforcement agencies.
In addition to Livingston, investigators and scientists have also identified Manuel Resendez (through dental records) and Jeffrey Jones (with the help of Othram and the FBI’s forensic genetic genealogy team). On April 29, 2025, Halloran became the fourth man identified as part of the reinvestigation.
Jellison says Othram is currently processing another unknown DNA sample, and another two DNA profiles are with the Indiana State Police and will be sent to either Othram or the University of North Texas for identification.
The Center for Human Identification (CHI) at the University of North Texas Health Science Center just partnered with Hamilton County earlier this month in an effort to identify more Fox Hollow Farm victims in less time. The remains from at least five victims have been sent to CHI thus far. The work will include investigative genetic genealogy, if necessary.