Herb Baumeister in the WISH-TV Archive: A Raccoon Story and the Reports of July 1996

Name: Herb Baumeister in the WISH-TV Archive: A Raccoon Story and the Reports of July 1996
Uploaded: 2018-12-10T00:00:00Z
Duration: 4 min 52 s
Description: Two WISH-TV News 8 items: an earlier light story in which Baumeister, as a bystander, describes a road crew painting over a dead raccoon, and July 1996 reports after his death, with former co-workers, unpaid employees and investigators at his estate.

Two WISH-TV News 8 items: an earlier light story in which Baumeister, as a bystander, describes a road crew painting over a dead raccoon, and July 1996 reports after his death, with former co-workers, unpaid employees and investigators at his estate.

Subject: Herb Baumeister
Recorded: about July 1996
Runtime: 4:52

Content warning: Refers to human remains found on a property and to a suicide; no graphic detail.

The Interview

This is not an interview about the case, and Herb Baumeister says nothing in it about any crime. It is a short compilation of two WISH-TV News 8 items from Indianapolis, posted by a local tour operator who says he found them in the station's archive. In the first, an undated light news story by reporter Rick Dawson, Baumeister appears as a bystander "of Carmel" who watched a state road crew paint a yellow line over a dead raccoon and took a Polaroid of it: "They just striped right over its face and neck." He is heard for about 14 seconds, possibly up to about 30. The second item is WISH-TV's reporting from July 1996, after his death, in which he is not heard.

Historical Context

In June 1996 investigators searched Fox Hollow Farm, the Baumeister family's estate in Westfield, Hamilton County, north of Indianapolis, while he was away, and from June 24, 1996, recovered human bone fragments; the remains of at least eleven people were eventually found. Baumeister left Indiana and, on July 3, 1996, shot himself in Pinery Provincial Park, Ontario. He was never charged. Police later named him the prime suspect in the deaths of the men whose remains were found, and he has since been suspected, but not proved, to be responsible for killings along Interstate 70 attributed to the "I-70 Strangler".

Circumstances of the Recording

The July 1996 report was made in the days after his death, when the remains of five people had been reported and the search was continuing. It notes that the police had "not publicly identified Baumeister as a suspect", although officials had told the station privately that he was "under suspicion".

What the Interview Covers

In the raccoon item Baumeister says he told his son the crew was "going to hit that raccoon with a spray gun", and the state transportation department calls it "a regrettable incident". In the 1996 report former Bureau of Motor Vehicles co-workers describe him as a "major prankster" with "nervous tendencies" and say they were shocked. The reporter says his suicide note discussed many things but not the bones. Employees of his closed West Washington Street store say they were never paid and that he was "a very nervous man". A Hamilton County investigator at the property explains that animals and rain may have scattered remains and that families of missing people have been calling.

What Makes the Recording Significant

The video combines footage in which Baumeister is heard in his own voice, on an everyday subject, with local reporting from the week the case broke, when what was known was still limited and police were not yet naming him publicly.

Archival Importance

It preserves early local coverage of a case that remains officially unresolved, including descriptions of Baumeister by people who worked with him, and shows how the scale of the discoveries was understood at the time ("five people", later at least eleven).

Important Caveats

Baumeister was never charged, tried or convicted; he died before any arrest. The connection between him and the remains is the conclusion of investigators, not of a court, and the I-70 killings remain officially unsolved. The raccoon item is undated and unrelated to the case; its humor should not be framed as sinister. The 1996 figure of five people was early reporting. Which lines of the raccoon item are Baumeister's is partly a judgement, and the names of the co-workers and the road worker are spelled as heard.

Indot Spokesman: The Indiana Department of Transportation maintains over 11,000 miles of roadway, and we paint those miles of roadway each year, and this is just an isolated incident that happened.

Rick Dawson: [unclear: "We drive by, striping, or whatever" / "the drive-by striping, whatever"]. Herb Baumeister of Carmel saw it all.

Herb Baumeister: I said to my son, "They're going to hit that raccoon with a spray gun." And sure enough, they just striped right over its face and neck, you know, didn't even move it, you know, no effort to, you know, get it out of the way. I happened to have a Polaroid with me, so I took a shot of the thing.

Rick Dawson: A raccoon, which met its demise on the yellow line, became one with the paint. The raccoon has since been removed. This is all that's left.

Herb Baumeister: This was just, you know, [unclear: "a painter" / "I, Peter"] should have had a chalk line drawn around his career by state officials. There was no excuse for that. I mean, the poor thing deserved a better fate than that.

Rick Dawson: So just what is the explanation for this? For that, we went to the State Highway Department itself.

Indot Spokesman: The Indiana Department of Transportation feels like this is a regrettable incident that did happen. This is not our standard procedure.

Voice: Well, they should have picked it up or moved it again.

Rick Dawson: Larry Roye says he didn't paint the raccoon, but with a lot of traffic around the painting truck, he understands how it could have happened.

Larry Roye: Sometimes you're going [unclear: "too bad" / "too fast"], and there's too much traffic, and they just don't let up enough before you do stop.

Indot Spokesman: We are taking it seriously, and like I said, we reiterated our policy to our employees so that it won't happen again in the future.

Rick Dawson: And the highway department does deserve credit for clearly missing this unfortunate feline about half a mile away.

Herb Baumeister: What a shame. It would have taken just a second to kick that thing or move it somehow out of the way. It deserved a better fate than that.

Rick Dawson: On the north side, Rick Dawson, WISH-TV News 8. [Item 2: WISH-TV News 8 report, July 1996.]

Wish-Tv Reporter: Herbert Baumeister's friends describe him as a man who had nervous tendencies, a fairly explosive temper and a strange sense of humor.

Randy Hartley: [He was] just a major prankster, and with that in mind, he just, anything for a laugh, he would do. But on the other side, he was still pretty compassionate, too. You didn't want to take him to too far extremes, to hurt anybody.

Wish-Tv Reporter: Randy Hartley worked with Baumeister for several years at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. So did Allen Fishburne.

Allen Fishburne: I was shocked. I was mortally shocked, because in knowing [unclear: "her" (both sources) / "him"] for the past 15, 16 years, I found him, you know, as a spontaneous, do-any-type-of-thing person, within, you know, certain reasons.

Wish-Tv Reporter: Police found the remains of five people on Baumeister's Hamilton County estate [unclear: "last week. Baumeister killed himself" / ". Last week, Baumeister killed himself"] in a park in Ontario, Canada. Investigators have told News 8 he shot himself in the head, leaving a suicide note that discussed many things, but not the discovery of the bones at his estate. Police have not publicly identified Baumeister as a suspect, but privately officials have told News 8 he was under suspicion. Baumeister and his wife operated two Sav-A-Lot stores, but they had had financial troubles. The Baumeisters' West Washington Street store is closed, and there's now a for-sale sign in front of the property. Now employees say they're still waiting to be paid.

Former Sav-A-Lot Employee: He called all of the employees and told us to meet him in the parking lot here at five o'clock on Friday to pick up our checks. And when we all showed up, we waited around till 6 to 6:30, and he never showed up.

Wish-Tv Reporter: Those same employees say Baumeister's behavior at the store was erratic.

Former Sav-A-Lot Employee: He was jumping, he was a nervous man. He was a very nervous man.

Hamilton County Investigator: The wild animals and the rains that we've had could have [unclear: "washed them on down" / "divorced them one down"] even further, so that's why, you know, I think we're finding them. Right now, though, it could be anything from animals carrying parts of the skeleton away and dropping them off here or there. It could be, it's on a hill, so possibly even rain run off, as much water as we've had lately. [04:05: a cut.] People that have missing people, and they've heard that we have found human remains on the property here, and they're just inquiring as to what we have, and letting us know what, who is missing out of their families, or what it might be, what their questions are. [04:25 to 04:44: no speech.] Whether they have males or female missings, the age of those people, if there's going to be possibilities for dental records. ---