Ohio Murders Linked to Same Killer
Unsolved Cases: Investigators Believe Hamilton County Man Is Responsible
by Arundi Venkayya
Police investigators in Indiana said Monday that the late Herbert R. Baumeister was responsible for the deaths. Baumeister, who killed himself in 1996, also was responsible for the death of a man whose body was found in Darke County, police said. Baumeister is believed to be responsible for the deaths of at least 16 men, most of whom had ties to the gay community in Indianapolis. has been a man plagued by the discovery of the bodies of Eric Allen Roettger, 17; Michael Alan Glenn, 29; Steven L. Elliott, 26; and Clay Russell Boatman, 32. Baumeister was a businessman who was married and had three children. The owner of two thrift stores in Indianapolis, he was familiar with Preble County and the Dayton are, police said. He made frequent trips to Dayton to buy items for his stores.
Lindloff said the four Preble County cases will be declared inactive but that anyone with information about the killings or Baumeister should contact his office or the Preble County Sheriff’s Office. But Major Larry Swihart of the Preble County Sheriff’s Department is not convinced that Baumeister was the killer. Swihart was a detective when the bodies started appearing throughout the county, though he hasn’t been actively investigating the case, he said he has not seen or heard any physical evidence that convinced him. “I guess I’m a very hard per For years, David Lindloff has been asking questions about four bodies that were dumped in rural parts of Preble County.
Today, the investigator for the county coroner believes he can give some answers to the Victims Darke County Thomas R. Clevenger Jr., 19, was found Sept. 12, 1990, in an abandoned railroad bed near Greenville. Clevenger was last seen by his mother Sept. 5 when he left their Indianapolis apartment to attend his girlfriend’s birthday party.
Preble County Eric Allen Roettger, 17, was found May 9, 1985, in a found in Darke, Preble creek bed near Roscoe Road. Roettger was the youngest of four children who grew up in the Broad Ripple section of Indianapolis. Michael Alan Glenn, 29, was found Aug. 17, 1986, in a creek bed near CrawfordsvilleCampbellstown Road. Glenn was identified through fingerprints Oct.
16, 1989. counties Steven L. Elliott, 26, was found Aug. 12, 1989, in a stream bed near Cox Road between New Westville and the Indiana state line. = Clay Russell Boatman, 32, was found Aug.
14, 1990, in Sugar Run Creek, an offshoot of Paint Creek. Boatman was the only victim with ties to Richmond. He moved from Richmond to Indianapolis the year before he died..
