Where is Jeff Jellison now? All about the coroner behind The Fox Hollow Murders: Playground of a Serial Killer

The four-part docuseries The Fox Hollow Murders: Playground of a Serial Killer arrived on Hulu on February 18. The series follows Hamilton County Coroner Jeff Jellison as he opens a new investigation decades after thousands of bones were discovered in the woods behind Fox Hollow Farms, on Herbert Baumeister's palatial house.

Jeff Jellison and his colleagues used modern DNA testing to identify the human remains, bringing victims' families much-needed closure. Jeff Jellison is now serving as the Hamilton County Coroner in Indiana. He is currently involved in locating victims and addressing community concerns.

---

Herbert Baumeister: The alleged serial killer with a double life

According to ABC News, Herbert Baumeister, a businessman from Indiana, is said to have led a double life: businessman by day, and serial killer by night. Police suspect he is responsible for the deaths of multiple victims, who were predominantly homosexual males after more than 10,000 bone fragments and bones were discovered spread around his Fox Hollow farm.

The serial killer's murder rampage came to a stop in 1994 when his 13-year-old son discovered a human skull and a heap of bones in the woods near Fox Hollow Farm.

In 1996, when questioned by the police, Baumeister said the bones originated from a skeleton collected in medical school by his late father, an anesthesiologist. However, thousands of human bones and bone pieces were discovered on the estate in 1998.

The next day after the harrowing discovery was made, Baumeister vanished and eight days later he committed suicide by shooting himself in a park in Canada.

---

Coroner Jeff Jellison's investigation to identify Baumeister's alleged victims

According to ABC News, in 1993, multiple gay men went missing after visiting local gay bars. Families of these missing gay men in Indianapolis hired a private investigator after complaining that police had failed to locate their bodies. By the late 1990s, officials had identified eight men using dental records and DNA breakthroughs, but at least 17 people's bodies remained unidentified.

The case lay dormant for decades until 2022 when Hamilton County Coroner Jeff Jellison initiated an inquiry into the infamous serial killer case to identify all of Baumeister's probable victims and discover how many people he may have killed.

During an interview with the press, Jeff Jellison said that the 10,000 human bones and fragments that the police found at Baumeister’s property could be compromised of the remains of 25 victims.

Jeff Jellison and his team used DNA technologies, including genetic genealogy, to collect DNA samples from relatives of missing people between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s. They have received around 40 samples so far.

According to NBC 5 Chicago, Baumeister was accused of killing at least 12 men in the early 1990s and hiding their bodies on his property. He had also been accused of murdering at least 11 boys who were previously thought to be victims of the I-70 Strangler, a serial killer whose identity is still unknown.

Dr. Krista Latham, director of the Human Identification Center, retrieved eight separate male DNA profiles from more than 70 out of 100 bones and transferred them to the Indiana State Police Laboratory. Jeffrey Jones, Manuel Resendez, Johnny Bayer, and Richard Hamilton were four of the eight men first identified in the 1990s.

Allen Livingston, one of Baumeister's alleged victims, was identified in October 2023. The remaining three DNA profiles are yet to be discovered, and two are still being investigated. These three have increased Baumeister's possible victims to twelve.

Jellison and his associates indicated that their identification endeavor might take years to complete as most of the bones were crushed and burned, reducing their ability to generate viable DNA.

---

To learn more about this case, stream The Fox Hollow Murders: Playground of a Serial Killer on Hulu.