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| Herb Baumeister, image courtesy Google |
Investigators went to his home, called Fox Hollow Farm, and requested to search the home because of his suspected involvement in the disappearances, however he and his wife denied their requests. By the following year, however, Julie Baumeister was so terrified of her husbands erratic behavior and violent outbursts, that she filed for divorce and allowed the police to investigate the property while Herb was out of town. Upon searching the 18 acre property, the remains of 11 men were found.
Baumeister fled to Ontario, where he committed suicide by a shooting himself in the head. He left a note, citing the stress of his failed marriage and business as the reason behind his suicide. He made no confession, nor any acknowledgement, of the bodies found on the property. In addition to the 11 men found at Fox Hollow Farm, Baumeister is suspected of murdering another 9 men, who’s bodies were discovered in rural areas between Colombus, OH and Indianapolis, IN along Interstate 70.
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| Images Courtesy of the Travel Channel |
The crew is taken to the pool room, which is where most of the murders allegedly occured and former tennant Joe LeBlanc has said that he was strangled there by warm, unseen hands. Herb is said to have lured the men to their deaths with the promise of an indoor pool, and he is also believed to have had a fetish with autoerotic asphyxiation. Rob Gray claims to have seen the shadow of a person while in the room. A mere 100 feet away from the home was where Baumeister would burn and bury his victims. The Grays have found unidentified bones on their property numerous times. The crew believes that Rob, the owner of the home, knows more than he is letting on, so they go speak with former tenant Joe.
He tells the guys that he believes Herb is the aggressive spirit on the property. He once saw a young man running for his life from the back bedroom of his apartment, who stopped and was startled by seeing Joe. He thinks that the young man he saw was murdered in the apartment. He also found a human femur near his apartment in the backwoods, in 2010. He then says that he saw the same red shirted male apparition that Vicki had seen. He also claims that it was only the upper half of the body, disappearing at the midsection, but walking into the woods.
A meeting is arranged with Virgil Vandergriff, a private investigator that lead the police to Baumeister. His investigation began in 1994 when 2 separate families hired his company to look into the disappearances of their loved ones. Vandergriff noticed similarities in the cases, both missing people had similar appearances and were also frequent patrons of the same gay night clubs. Vandergriff believes that the current body count at the home is at 19, though it’s believed that there are more. When Baumeister shot himself, it looked as if he had created an altar with dead birds surrounding him and his arms outstretched, in a sort of ritualistic manner. Zak asks him if he believes that Baumeister set up this ritual to try and return to the house after his death, and the man says that it could be entirely possible.
After receiving no responses, they head into the woods. Nick asks if Alan is there with them, and a male voice responds “I’m here” immediately. They ask the spirit which way to walk to find his body and the same male voice says “in the middle.” They stop at a bush, trying to gain their bearings, when the male voice comes through again saying “found it.” After that, the voices disappear and only white noise is heard. The group are all stunned as they believe that they have just encountered the restless spirit of a murdered young man.
They head back into the house to continue the lockdown and Nick says that he can feel a seriously dark and negative energy coming from the second floor. Zak and Aaron head back to nerve center while Nick bravely enters the apartment alone. Earlier, former tenant Joe said that there were knife marks still in the wall despite the owners trying to sand them out. Nick asks the spirit to make a noise to let him know that they are there with him and something taps the brass door knocker against the door. Knowing that the rest of the team can hear him, he tells Aaron and Zak to come back to the house. They inspect the door knocker to make sure that it wasn’t the wind or something else making the sound, but after testing it out, they can’t debunk it. When they interviewed Joe prior to the lockdown, he had stated that the door knocker would knock on its own, in addition to other poltergeist like activity.
Nick believes that there is a negative entity is in the closet of the apartment and tells Zak to go in and check it out. They decide to run another spirit box session, and the air begins to feel thick with static electricity the farther back into the closet they go. They ask why “he” is in there and a mans voice echoes “here.” They then head back a little farther and the same voice comes through and either says “getting close” or “getting cold.”
They wrap up by doing a thermal imaging sweep over the whole property, but only capture a small animal in the woods. While Billy is breaking down the cameras in the apartment, he asks the entity in the apartment to make his flashlight dim. After he asks the spirit to interact with him, a light anomaly is captured near the door and a light bang is heard. With the incredibly dark history surrounding this home, it is no surprise that there is so much negative energy floating around the property. Herb Baumeister committed suicide before he could be convicted and jailed of his crimes, which to this day remain officially unsolved, despite both speculation and physical evidence. Whether it is the restless spirits of his victims, or the man reportedly behind the crimes himself, it is certain that Fox Hollow Farm is home to tragedy and sadness.
Tune in to the Travel Channel next Saturday at 9PM for more "Ghost Adventures: Aftershocks", when the crew revisits Bloody Mary and the USS Hornet.