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With an eye toward helping the legal system better serve the LGBTQ+ community, the Indianapolis Bar Association’s new Lambda Committee will host a continuing legal education class, or CLE, on the Fox Hollow Farm murders.
The event at noon Oct. 31 at IndyBar headquarters will examine why it took so long for the murders of up to 25 gay men in the 1990s to be solved and for some victims to be identified.
In 1996, police suspected the farm’s owner, Herb Baumeister of Westfield, had a role in the dismembering and murder of the victims. But Baumeister fled to Canada and shot and killed himself before authorities had an opportunity to interview him.
Some of the victims are still being identified today through bone fragments that were found scattered across the farm site. In May, the Hamilton County coroner said human remains found at the site were identified as Jeffrey A. Jones of Fillmore. He had been reported as missing since 1993.
“The (gay) population could, at times, be so vulnerable just because of some of the ostracization, that a lot of times it meant that these folks didn’t feel comfortable reaching out to either police or people in authority for fears of being outed or being associated with the clubs where Herb Baumeister would frequent as part of his killings,” said attorney Jon Ferguson.
Ferguson, chair of the Lamda Committee, said it’s those kinds of cultural insights that he hopes the class will bring to attendees.
“When serving LGBTQ clients, there are going to be very insular issues or things to know about handling those clients so that you can better represent them,” said Ferguson, who helped form the Lambda Committee to help build community for LGBTQ+ lawyers, judges, paralegals, and law students
As part of the class, attendees will watch a documentary on the murders reported by WRTV News Anchor Marc Mullins and called “Forgotten at Fox Hollow, the Victims of an Indiana Serial Killer.”
“What we were trying to do (with the documentary) is to let people know about this dark era in Indianapolis history, how it affected the LGBTQ community, the police and investigator missteps and triumphs in it and what needs to happen now,” Mullins said.
Another thing the documentary looks at is what needs to happen to help bring closure for the families of victims.
“For these families, they never received judicial closure because Herb Baumeister committed suicide as investigators closed in on him, and so for these families, no one was ever really held accountable,” Mullins said.
Mullins will be among those addressing the class as will Ferguson, Hamilton County Coroner Jeff Jellison, Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears and Alex Van Gorp with Strada Education Foundation.
Register for the class at this link.
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