Michael Petree:1980, Indianapolis, IN

   

   When a society is in decline, the vulnerable suffer first.

   Michael Sean Petree was almost a 4th of July baby.  He was born on the 3rd of July in 1964. He was the youngest of his siblings. He had a paper route off and on in the late 1970’s.  He mowed lawns in his neighborhood as well. 

  On June 7th, 1980, he mysteriously disappeared. He was found on June 16th, 1980 by a farmer and his dog along Cynthianne Road.  Michael was nude and face down in a water filled ditch near Strawtown. 

  Strawtown is a little rural community North of Indianapolis and east of Cicero and the Morse Reservoir. If you’re in Indianapolis you can take Fall Creek/Binford/ IN 37/I-69  straight to Strawtown. 

  His body went unidentified at first. Sadly, several families of missing young men were looking for their children. His body was in a state of decomposition that made things like eye color difficult to determine. Authorities identified the remains as Michael Petree and he was buried. But later they exhumed and examined the body again. Dental records would finally confirm that this was indeed 15 year old Michael Petree. 

   News stories first reported that he had been drinking before his death and insinuated that alcohol had caused his death. However, final autopsy results would find that he had been strangled and sexually assaulted. 

   Who could treat a child like this?  He was 15.  He was a boy. 

   The United States economy was in a slump in the late 1970’s. Anytime unemployment is high and there is a recession; people fall through the cracks. The most vulnerable people fall first. Poor and vulnerable people, even children, can get involved in sex work, drug use, or selling drugs. It’s not pretty but it’s the truth. 

  Michael and his family lived at 315 Sanders Street in the Bates Hendricks Neighborhood southeast of downtown Indianapolis. He could easily walk downtown from there. 

  Downtown Indianapolis was very typical of Midwest cities in the late 1970’s. Shoppers and wealthier residents had fled to the suburbs. There were a lot of vacant buildings and a lot of opportunities for crime to thrive. There were plenty of people trying to get by on nothing. Trafficking and prostitution were some of the more common crimes.

  Michael was like most 15 year olds in the late 1970’s. He wanted to grow up fast like just about every 15 year old. He also wanted to belong somewhere. He was looking for a community. He was exploring his sexuality like just about every 15 year old does. But, if you’re a gay teen in 1980…that’s not something you can be open about at home or school. In the 1990’s your chances of finding a Gay Straight Alliance group or some informal group of gay teens in your high school were a tiny bit better. But this was 1980. There was nothing like that around. He must have felt so lonely and isolated. Gay bars must have seemed like an oasis. Finding people who understood must have been like a revelation. So, in seeking a community, Michael was frequenting gay bars in Indianapolis. 

  No bar should be serving underage kids or even allowing them in. But, it sometimes happened at every bar. This was the late 1970’s and early 1980’s and drugs were prevalent. Violent crime was surging. Serial killers were getting away with multiple murders. I imagine that things like underage teens in bars was low on the law enforcement priority list then. The police were incredibly overwhelmed with violent crime. Remember, things fall through the cracks when public services are underfunded. 

  Also keep in mind that a teen could just hang around outside the bar. He might never have gone inside. We don’t know. 

  Every bar of every type is going to have a nice group of people who frequent it and a dangerous group of people who frequent it. Every bar can also have the occasional good people who turn up and the occasional incredibly dangerous people who show up. Gay bars in Indianapolis in the 1980’s had one particularly dangerous man who came around now and then, Herb Baumeister. Sadly, no one would know for decades just how dangerous he was. 

  Michael was said to be involved in sex work and hanging around Monument Circle with other young teen sex workers. 

   He was 15.  As we know, a child cannot give consent.  Did Michael think he was consenting though? Possibly. Sometimes teens feel more grown up and take chances without realizing the full consequences of their actions. Was he trafficked? Maybe. At some point; someone talked him into this work. It could have been another teen already involved or an adult.  We don’t know the beginning of this but we do know how it ended. 

  No child should ever be abused. No adult should ever abuse a child. No victim should ever be blamed for the crime committed against them. The only one to blame is the murderer. 

  If you’ve ever lived in an area where making a living is extremely difficult; then you know. You know that you realize quickly that social mores, rules and laws don’t always hold things together. Societies and communities make their own rules quite often. And again, the most vulnerable people always suffer first. Especially when the people in power do nothing to help and protect the vulnerable.

  In the late 1970’s in Indianapolis there was a lot of crime; a lot of murder. Much of it was difficult to solve with the technology available then. It’s actually very noteworthy that officials did exhume Michael Petree and do a more thorough second autopsy.  Because they did; investigators now believe that Michael was one of the early victims of Herb Baumeister. 

  Baumeister owned a chain of discount stores. He was a husband and father and was also a serial killer.  He was a closeted gay man and he was able to kill many, many victims before law enforcement caught on. 

  In the early 1980’s young men were being murdered and discarded all over the area surrounding Indianapolis and the surrounding states. Baumeister would pick up a young man in a bar and strangle them and dump their body along a road. 

  Baumeister’s discount stores did very well and in 1991 he bought Fox Hollow Farm north of Indianapolis. After that he brought victims home when his family was out of town and disposed of bodies in the woods behind his house.  His children even stumbled upon some of the remains. His wife asked him about these bones and he said they were an old skeleton that had belonged to his father who had been a doctor.  He said he would take care of it. She believed him at first. Herb then went to greater lengths to dispose of bodies. (Police are still diligently working to identify all the remains found in the woods there. One recent victim’s biological father has been identified but not the actual victim.) 

   One of the biggest breaks in the investigation surrounding Baumeister came when a victim escaped. He described Fox Hollow Farm and Baumeister and his car. He gave details about the indoor pool area. He described being choked with a hose during sex by the indoor pool and realizing that Baumeister was a dangerous man.  He left the house as quickly as he could. He told other people in the gay community and also went to the police. Tony Harris also saw Baumeister in 1995 and followed his car to get a plate number.  He had been friends with Roger Goodlet and knew that Goodlet had gone home with Baumeister before he disappeared.  Both men knew him as “Brian Smart” at the time. 

   Police approached Herb Baumeister’s wife, Julie. She couldn’t believe that her workaholic nerdy husband could be gay let alone be a serial killer. She did relate the story of the kids finding a “medical specimen” skeleton in the woods. 

 

   Police informed Herb Baumeister that he was a suspect in several murders and they asked to search his home. Both he and his wife initially denied police permission to search the property. 

  Julie Baumeister’s suspicion had been raised though. She was alarmed at Herb’s behavior after police had spoken with them. She filed for divorce. Then she contacted the police and allowed them to search the property on the 24th of June of 1996 while Herb Baumeister was “on vacation”. 11 sets of remains were recovered and 8 were identified quickly. An arrest warrant was made out for Herb Baumeister. 

   

   Herb Baumeister had fled to Canada on his “vacation” before police could arrest him. He killed himself with a .357 magnum in his vehicle in a park. He wanted a quick and easy death for himself it seems. He did not want to suffer like his victims had suffered. He was a coward like all killers.

   Michael Petree was only 15. He had just started high school a year before. He did not get to graduate. He didn't get to drive a car, get an apartment, or a work towards a career. He did not get to grow up and find himself and grow old with someone that he loved. He should still be here. 

   Rest In Peace, Michael

   Investigation and identification of the victims of Herb Baumeister is still ongoing. If you have a tip that may help please reach out to investigators in Hamilton County, Indiana at (317) 773-1872.