Coroner, ministry team up to honor Fox hollow Farm victims decades later
It’s been more than two decades, but Patti Barth hasn’t forgotten the song loved ones sang at her cousin’s funeral.
“It was called ‘Mr. Sandman,” Barth said. “We were always close to Jeff. He was like our brother.”
Jeffrey A. Jones and Barth were born three days apart. Before Jones was killed and his remains were found among an estimated 25 other victims in one of Indiana’s most horrific crimes, he liked to send letters to family, sometimes with recipes on the back.
“He'd call us from work, hold up the phone and have all his co-workers yell 'hi' to us,” Barth remembered. “He'd leave funny notes around the house, and you'd find them months later.”
Jones was reported missing from Indianapolis in August 1993, although he lived in Putnam County at the time. A few years later, in June 1996, Hamilton County law enforcement found burnt and crushed human remains at Fox Hollow Farm, an 18-acre property off 156th Street and the Monon Trail in Westfield.
At least 10,000 bones and bone fragments were found at Fox Hollow Farm. Sometime in the late 90s, Jones was identified as one of the victims and some of his remains were returned to his family.
“They came out with the paperwork, and it had my mom's name with the DNA that said it was matched,” said John Jones, Jeffrey Jones’ older brother. “They brought out the boxes of bones and told my mom, ‘Here’s your son.’”
Previous coverage: Fox Hollow Farm killings: 20 people provide new DNA samples hoping to find loved ones
Investigators believe Herbert Baumeister, owner of Fox Hollow Farm and a Westfield businessman, lured Jeffrey Jones and the other victims, who were mostly young, gay men, to his property where he killed them and dismembered their bodies.
Baumeister shot and killed himself shortly after law enforcement began investigating his property.
The process of identifying victims has been slowed by the condition of the remains, but Hamilton County Coroner Jeff Jellison has renewed the efforts in recent years.
The coroner’s office and its partners continue to analyze the bone fragments for DNA and nine men have been identified, including Jeffrey Jones.
From 2019: A serial killer buried bodies on his Westfield property. Now some of the land is for sale.
Debbie Alamo, Jeffrey Jones’ aunt who reported him missing, remembers she read a poem and loved ones released balloons at her nephew’s funeral. Then the remains were buried next to Jeffrey Jones’ mother at the Brick Chapel Cemetery in Putnam County.
Earlier this year, additional remains from Fox Hollow Farm were identified, using DNA technology, as belonging to Jeffrey Jones. The identification brought to the surface a question that has lingered for investigators for years — what happens to the remains of victims when their loved ones have already said goodbye?
Jellison and Linda Znachko, founder of He Knows Your Name ministry, believe they found a solution.
'A place to remember’
Znachko, a local advocate for people whose remains go unclaimed in death, sat in the Hamilton County Coroner’s Office and couldn’t take her eyes off a painting.
“It read 'no longer forgotten,’” Znachko said. “(Jeff Jellison) told me his wife painted it as a tribute to the Fox Hollow victims.”
It hit a nerve for Znachko when she found out that some of the remains of the victims had sat on shelves for years at the coroner’s office, even after they had been identified, and that the victims have not been publicly memorialized.
“They've had a few answers and really no justice,” Znachko said of the victims’ loved ones. “It is time that we as a community shine the light of love where there's been suffering and silence and a deep grief.”
More: Alone in death: Hundreds of bodies unclaimed in Indiana. The stories of those left behind
The coroner’s office and Znachko’s ministry are organizing an event open to the public next week where Jeffrey Jones’ additional remains will be laid to rest in an ossuary and a monument for Fox Hollow Farm victims will be unveiled.
The victim’s names will be on the monument and space will be left for more names for when additional identifications are made.
“I know that this funeral and this monument and this dedication will never undo the horror of this crime, but we can change the narrative,” Znachko said. “Generations of families in this community need to tell a new story. We need honor, recognition and a place to remember.”
The ossuary will be a free burial option, where loved ones can lay to rest the victims from Fox Hollow Farm when they are identified or re-identified, Jellison said. The memorial event for Jeffrey Jones and the other victims will be at 10 a.m. Aug. 29 at the Prairie Waters Event Center in Westfield.
Hamilton County Coroner asks for the public’s help in identifying more Fox Hollow Farm victims
Jellison is encouraging family members of missing individuals to provide his office with a swab that can be used in DNA testing. The coroner’s office is especially interested in getting DNA samples from family of men who went missing in the 80s and 90s.
"We are fortunate today to be able to do what we could not do in the 90s,” he said of new DNA technology. “I hope we will be fortunate to do tomorrow what we can't do today.”
The coroner’s office is close to making additional identifications soon, with four DNA profiles pulled that have not yet been matched to a person, Jellison said. These are the names of the victims who have been identified so far and the ages when they were killed:
Michael F. Keirn, 50
Johnny Bayer, 26
Jeffrey A. Jones, 31
Allen Wayne Broussard, 32
Richard Douglas Hamilton, Jr., 23
Manuel M. Resendez, 31
Roger Alan Goodlet, 33
Steven Spurlin Hale, 28
Allen Lee Livingston, 27
The coroner’s office can be reached at 317-770-4415.
'He wanted to be accepted’
From Jeffrey Jones’ disappearance to the discovery of his remains, it’s been painful for his loved ones. Due to distance, illness and strained relationships stemming from unacceptance of his sexuality, it’s not clear if any family members will be at the ceremony in Westfield when more of his remains are laid to rest.
“I appreciate the coroner's office and the work they are still doing on this,” said Marcia Jones, who is the man’s sister-in-law.
More: Who were the victims at Fox Hollow Farm? Here's what we know about the serial killings
Marcia Jones remembers her brother-in-law as a happy-go-lucky guy, who was loving. She said she may attend the ceremony in Westfield with her husband John Jones, who is Jeffrey Jones’ older brother.
Looking back on his death, some of Jeffrey Jones’ loved ones believe that perhaps his life and the lives of other victims might have been spared if they had been allowed to be their authentic selves more openly.
“That's really what Jeff was looking for,” said Debbie Alamo, the man’s aunt. “He wanted to be accepted.”
Contact Jake Allen at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @Jake_Allen19.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Fox Hollow Farm: Monument to honor Herb Baumeister's suspected victims