Juliana “Julie” Saiter is the former wife of suspected Indiana serial killer Herbert Baumeister, and she lived with him and their three children at Fox Hollow Farm in Westfield, Indiana, throughout the years authorities believe he murdered as many as 25 men on the property. She was never publicly identified as a suspect. Her role in the case became public in 1996, when she gave police permission to search the estate and later spoke about a marriage she said she had believed was happy.
Her Marriage to Herbert Baumeister
Saiter met Baumeister while both were students at Indiana University, and case records describe them as drawn together by shared conservative values.1Radford University. Herbert Baumeister Serial Killer Profile They married at a United Methodist Church in Indiana in November 1971.2IndyEncyclopedia. Herbert Baumeister
In a 1996 interview with the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office, Saiter told investigators the couple did not have sex on their wedding night and that intimacy was extraordinarily rare across their 25-year marriage. “I have never seen him nude,” she said. “If he has a birthmark, I don’t know it.”3WCPO. Herb Baumeister’s Killing Field By her own account, the marriage was consummated only six times.1Radford University. Herbert Baumeister Serial Killer Profile
Six months after the wedding, in 1972, Baumeister’s father had him committed to a psychiatric hospital for two months of treatment for severe depression.2IndyEncyclopedia. Herbert Baumeister
Life at Fox Hollow Farm
The couple had three children: Marie, born in 1979; Erich, born in 1981; and Emily, born in 1984.4ThoughtCo. Herbert Richard Baumeister In 1991, income from Baumeister’s Sav-A-Lot thrift store funded the family’s purchase of the 18-acre Fox Hollow Farm estate in Westfield.2IndyEncyclopedia. Herbert Baumeister
Saiter’s public and private descriptions of the home did not match. In a December 1996 essay for Indianapolis Monthly, she wrote: “Our relationship wasn’t perfect, but I knew we were a happy family,” describing a routine in which “Herb always came home for dinner, and we did everything together, whether it was yard work, building a play center in the backyard or spending time with the children.” In her interview with the sheriff’s office that same year, she described her husband as “a very mean man who can do very mean things to people,” and said her world was “pretty much controlled by Herb.”3WCPO. Herb Baumeister’s Killing Field
Investigators believe Baumeister timed the killings for periods when Saiter and the children were away from the property, and that he lured victims from LGBTQ bars in Indianapolis back to the estate, where he strangled them in the pool area.2IndyEncyclopedia. Herbert Baumeister5People. Who Was Herb Baumeister The available reporting does not suggest Saiter knew of these activities during the marriage.
The Skull Her Son Found in 1994
In the fall of 1994, the couple’s 13-year-old son Erich found a human skull while playing in a wooded area behind the family home.6Indianapolis Monthly. Unburying the Truth When Saiter confronted Herb, he told her the skull was a medical school skeleton that had belonged to his late father, an anesthesiologist.4ThoughtCo. Herbert Richard Baumeister
Her accounts of whether she accepted that explanation differ. She told People magazine in 1996 that she had “took her husband at his word.”6Indianapolis Monthly. Unburying the Truth To investigators, she was more ambivalent: “Herb brushed it off. He told me that it was his father’s. I didn’t really believe it, but I didn’t know what to do.”3WCPO. Herb Baumeister’s Killing Field
Refusing, Then Allowing, the Police Search
By 1995, Indianapolis police were investigating a pattern of disappearances of gay men and had traced a license plate used by a man calling himself “Brian Smart” to Baumeister.2IndyEncyclopedia. Herbert Baumeister In November 1995, detectives asked to search Fox Hollow Farm. Both Herb and Julie Baumeister refused.6Indianapolis Monthly. Unburying the Truth
Saiter changed her position months later. On June 24, 1996, she told police they could enter the property.6Indianapolis Monthly. Unburying the Truth Investigators found human remains that same day. Authorities initially estimated the bones belonged to at least 11 men; later estimates placed the potential victim count at 25.5People. Who Was Herb Baumeister
An arrest warrant was issued, but Baumeister had already fled the country. He was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on July 3, 1996, at Pinery Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada, at age 49. His three-page suicide note apologized for his failing marriage and businesses but made no reference to the missing men or the remains on his property.7WRTV. What We Know About Notorious Indiana Serial Killer Herbert Baumeister Because he died before arrest, he was never charged with or tried for any of the killings.5People. Who Was Herb Baumeister
After Baumeister’s Death
Saiter filed for divorce and sought custody of Erich. Baumeister turned their son over to her when she served him with custody papers before he fled.4ThoughtCo. Herbert Richard Baumeister
In her Indianapolis Monthly essay later that year, she reflected on what she said she had missed: “Until about a year ago, we were the perfect family. But about that time, I began to feel that maybe things weren’t so perfect. In retrospect, maybe there were things that were never as perfect as I thought they were.”3WCPO. Herb Baumeister’s Killing Field
Saiter has largely withdrawn from public life since those 1996 statements. She was never publicly identified as a suspect or person of interest in the killings, and the available reporting does not indicate that authorities treated her as one. The Fox Hollow Farm property was sold to new owners in 2009,8Current in Carmel. Paranormal Activity and the investigation into the identities of Baumeister’s victims remains open.