Midwest
'I-70 Strangler' remains mysterious Midwest boogeyman, but private investigator has theory
The “I-70 Strangler” has become a ghost story about a faceless boogeyman who hunted boys and men in the 1980s and 1990s.
At least 12 bodies were found partially nude and strangled and dumped in streams, gullies and trenches along Interstate 70 in Indiana and Ohio.
Over the years, investigators looked at two notorious serial killers – Larry William Eyler and Herb Baumeister – as the “I-70 Strangler,” but the theories never materialized into definitive proof.
Baumeister, whose property was littered with 10,000 “burnt and crushed” skeletal remains of his victims, is more commonly associated with the shadowy Midwest monster since a local retired, highly respected sheriff turned private investigator tied him to the killings.
‘I HAD A BRUSH WITH THE DEVIL’
About 10,000 remains of Herb Baumeister’s victims were dug up throughout his 18-acre Indiana property. (Google Street View/Indianapolis Police Department)
After Virgil Vandagriff retired as the sheriff of Marion County, Indiana, he received a pair of calls in the mid-1990s from families concerned about suspicious disappearances of loved ones.
Seemingly isolated missing persons cases became a hunt for a serial killer.
Both missing men were gay with similar heights, weights and appearances. They vanished on the way to bars, and that’s where he distributed flyers.
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During his investigation, a publisher of a magazine focused on issues concerning the gay population alerted Vandagriff about a rash of missing men in the Indianapolis area that seemed to fit the same profile.
“It became obvious there was a serial killer,” Vandagriff told WTHR in a December 2022 interview. “Just had to figure out who, where and how to bring it to an end.”
The “Interstate 70 Strangler,” whose identity is still unknown, killed at least 12 boys and young men and dumped their bodies along the interstate in Indiana and Ohio. (Google Maps)
Interstate 70 from Indiana to Ohio has many different terrains, including water, gullies and wooded areas, where the bodies were dumped in the 1980s and early 1990s. (Google Street View)
Vandagriff took his findings to the police, but gay victims were considered a low priority for law enforcement at the time.
“It was shocking to me the number of gay people that were missing that no one would pay attention to,” Vandagriff told WTHR during the 2022 interview.
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Instead of waiting, the investigator took the case into his own hands and created a profile of the killer.
During the investigation, an informant who used a fake name said he had met a man named “Brian Smart,” a nickname used by Baumeister when he frequented local watering holes.
Interstate 70 from Indiana to Ohio has various terrain, including water, gullies and wooded areas, where the bodies were dumped in the 1980s and very early 1990s. (Google Street View)
The informant survived a confrontation with Baumeister and saw him again in a bar and reportedly yelled, “This guy’s a serial killer. Somebody get his license plate number,” Vandagriff told WTHR.
Not surprisingly, that license plate came back to Baumeister, which led law enforcement to his secluded, 18-acre property at Fox Hollow Farm in Westfield, Indiana.
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Law enforcement ultimately dug up 10,000 “burnt and crushed” skeletal remains around Baumeister’s home in the 1990s, including those of Vandagriff’s two missing persons.
Before he bought the vast property in 1991, investigators believe Baumeister had dumped his victims along I-70, but he died by suicide after fleeing to Canada as his life spiraled into a tailspin.
His marriage crumbled, his businesses went bankrupt, and there was a warrant for his arrest.
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About 10,000 remains of Indiana serial killer Herb Baumeister were found on the 18-acre Westfield, Indiana, property. (Google Street View)
He shot himself in July 1996 and took all his secrets to the grave.
The Hamilton County Coroner’s Office teamed up with Othram, one of the country’s leading forensic genetic genealogy labs, to identify Baumeister’s victims three decades after his death.
So far, the Hamilton County Coroner’s Office has identified eight victims, and investigators have four more DNA profiles that have not been identified yet, which brings the body count up to 12, according to Hamilton County Coroner Jeff Jellison.
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Jeffrey A. Jones, who was reported missing from Fillmore, Indiana, in 1993, was identified as the latest victim of serial killer Herb Baumeister. (Hamilton County Coroner’s Office)
Manuel Resendez, who was 34 when he seemingly vanished in 1996, was identified as one of Herb Baumeister’s victims in January 2024. (Hamilton County Coroner’s Office)
Investigators have tied Baumeister to at least 25 victims, but he was never definitively named as the “I-70 Strangler,” and neither was the other prime suspect, Eyler, who is believed to have murdered at least 21 victims around the same time.
His victims were also boys and young men in the gay community from the same area. Eyler was sentenced to death by lethal injection.
The “I-70 Strangler” and “I-70 Killer” are two different – but still unknown – serial killers who murdered their victims in the same area.
But the “Strangler’s” killings appeared to be sexually motivated, and the victims were male, while the “I-70 Killer’s” victims didn’t have evidence of sexual assault and were typically young women.
Read the full article from Here
Airbnb is betting on Detroit as a destination — and the numbers back it up. On today’s Daily Detroit, I’m at the Grand Hotel talking with Vince Frillici, Airbnb’s policy lead for the Great Lakes, about how short-term rentals are reshaping travel in the city and across Michigan.
We dig into the data: about 700 Detroiters hosting on any given day and just under 150,000 guests who stayed in Detroit Airbnbs last year, with nearly half of them staying 11–30 nights.
That points to Detroit quietly becoming a long-stay city for remote workers and people here on temporary assignments.
Vince also lays out how Airbnb is leaning into that demand, from curated Detroit “Experiences” and food tours to bringing independent hotels like Trumbull & Porter and the Siren onto the platform, plus new partnerships for Eastern Market groceries in your fridge and airport curbside pickup.
Then we zoom out to Lansing and talk about Michigan’s pre‑internet tourism tax laws, why Airbnb is backing bills to modernize them, and what a fairer system could mean for local communities that host all this new visitor activity.
Follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever podcasts are found!
Feedback as always – dailydetroit – at – gmail – dot -com or 313-789-3211.
The City of Milwaukee announced June 10 that police and the District Attorney’s Office achieved an 84% conviction rate actively litigated first-offense reckless driving charges in 2025, up from 15% in 2023.
Milwaukee City Attorney Evan Goyke said the city’s coordinated reckless driving enforcement policies announced in October 2024 have drastically improved prosecution outcomes for first-offense reckless driving cases in Milwaukee Municipal Court.
In addition, the rate at which reckless driving charges were reduced or amended dropped from 65% in 2023 to zero in 2025.
Goyke said he made a commitment when he took office in April 2024 to make the City Attorney’s Office a more effective prosecutor of reckless driving.
“These numbers are the proof,” Goyke said in the news release. “We stopped plea bargaining reckless driving charges. We are taking cases to trial. We are achieving convictions, and now repeat reckless drivers in Milwaukee know that a second offense can mean criminal prosecution. That is a real consequence, and it is working.”
The city pointed to a decline in traffic fatalities, which fell from 74 in 2023 to 55 in 2025.
Before the new policy was put in place, 65% of actively litigated reckless driving cases in Milwaukee Municipal Court ended in a reduced or amended charge in 2023. Only 15% resulted in a conviction on the original reckless driving charge.
Repeat offenders faced limited consequences because penalty enhancements required prior convictions rather than citations. In 2023, the Wisconsin Legislature amended state statutes to create criminal penalties for second and subsequent reckless driving violations. These penalties include fines of up to $1,000 and up to one year in county jail.
In October 2024, the City Attorney’s Office formalized a coordinated enforcement agreement with the Milwaukee Police Department and the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office. Under the agreement, MPD issues citations for all provable reckless driving behavior, the City Attorney’s Office does not reduce or dismiss charges in provable cases, and the District Attorney’s Office takes on second and subsequent offenses as criminal matters under the amended statute.
The City Attorney’s Office also invested in training and worked with MPD officers on the evidentiary standards required to make reckless driving cases provable in court. According to Goyke, the approach ensures every reckless driving case receives enhanced review before prosecution.
Goyke said the progress would not be possible without the partnership of prosecutors, police officers and staff working in Milwaukee Municipal Court every day to hold those cited for reckless driving violations accountable.
“Reckless driving is a complex problem. Road design matters. Education matters. Community investment matters. But enforcement and prosecution are the piece of this puzzle that belongs to us, and we are committed to doing that piece at the highest level.”
Adrienne Davis is a south suburban reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Got any tips or stories to share? Contact Adrienne at amdavis@gannett.com. Follow her on X at @AdriReportss.
Minneapolis, MN
Minneapolis man indicted in $4 million pandemic fraud case turns himself in, officials say
A Minneapolis man accused of stealing $4 million from the Federal Child Nutrition Program during the Covid-19 pandemic surrendered to the FBI on Thursday, federal officials announced.
Said Abdullahi Ereg was indicted on June 24, 2024, on charges including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and money laundering.
Ereg is accused of obtaining, misappropriating and laundering millions of dollars meant to feed children in need, officials said in a statement.
“Today’s arrest is historic,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a different statement.
It was not immediately clear whether Ereg has a lawyer.
Ereg was added to the Justice Department’s “Most Wanted Fraudster” list last week and is the first person to be arrested, Patel said.
Federal officials established the list to “bring to justice the alleged worst of the worst who took advantage of American taxpayers and stole public funds, and let them know that the days of Washington, D.C. turning a blind eye to fraud are over,” Patel said in the statement.
Officials said Ereg ran a grocery store and deli in Minneapolis that was sponsored by the nonprofit organization Feeding Our Future. The organization, founded in Minnesota in 2016, has recently been at the center of a federal investigation into what federal officials have called “the single largest COVID-19 fraud scheme in the country.”
Aimee Block, former leader of Feeding Our Future, was convicted last month in a $250 million fraud case that helped ignite an immigration crackdown by the Trump administration.
The group was part of a large fraud network that included partner organizations, fake distribution sites, kickbacks and false lists of children supposedly being fed, prosecutors said in Block’s indictment.
Ereg is alleged to have participated in the scheme during a one-year period starting in 2020. He is accused of submitting false reimbursement claims and receiving more than $4.2 million in federal funds.
A federal arrest warrant was issued after Ereg was charged, but he was living overseas, and his whereabouts were not known.
He surrendered to FBI agents at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
“This case sends a clear message: being outside the United States does not place you beyond the reach of HSI and our law enforcement partners,” said Michael McCarthy, the Homeland Security Investigations special agent in charge in Minneapolis. “Our commitment is unwavering: those who exploit programs intended to support children and families will be identified, investigated, and brought to justice here in Minnesota.”
Ereg’s wife, who worked with him, pleaded guilty last year to one count of money laundering. She is scheduled to be sentenced next week.
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