The body of a man who’s been missing for nearly 17 months was found last week in an Indiana self-storage unit rented by his son. Roger Farmer, 58, was reported missing on Dec. 27, 2019, when he didn’t return from a supposed hunting trip. His 37-year-old son, Jeremy, was arrested and charged with the murder this past February, though the body hadn’t been found. Investigators searched the unit at Ameri-Stor Self Storage in Brownsburg, Ind., which was rented in November 2019, only after someone at the facility became suspicious of the name on the lease and alerted police, according to the source.
“We are extremely relieved that our father has been found and identified,” the family said in a released statement. “This is just the beginning of a new chapter, as we try to move forward and process these developing discoveries.”
The Marion County, Ind., coroner determined Farmer died of a gunshot wound to the head and ruled his death a homicide, the source reported.
Investigators believe the father and son had a strained relationship, and that Jeremy Farmer allegedly had a history of stealing from his dad. Court records indicate family members continued to receive text messages from Roger Farmer’s phone after his disappearance, but the texts were suspicious because they included punctuation and emojis. The elder Farmer was known to use the “talk-to-text” feature, which usually sent his texts as long, run-on sentences, the source reported. Cell-phone records later indicated that Roger Farmer’s phone never left his family’s home in the Wayne Township area of Indianapolis.
A “large amount of activity” was also discovered in Roger Farmer’s bank accounts after he went missing, including at least one that showed a negative balance, according to the source. Investigators believe video of a connected transaction at a hardware store shows Jeremy Farmer buying several cleaning items including heavy-duty wipes, germicidal bleach, drop cloths and a 96-gallon trash can with wheels.
A former roommate of the elder Farmer as well as a stepson told police in January that Jeremy bragged to both of them that he’d shot his father twice in the head and hid the body in a household freezer. The son told police he last saw his father on Nov. 8, 2019, a couple of weeks before his hunting trip. The suspect showed investigators text messages supposedly from his dad after his disappearance indicating his pickup truck was stuck in the mud and that he’d return from his trip soon, the source reported.
Jeremy Farmer has been held in Marion County, Ind., Jail since Feb. 10.
Ameri-Stor offers climate-controlled units, 24-hour keypad access, perimeter fencing and on-site management six days per week. It also has a self-serve kiosk to process payments and move-ins.
Source:
IndyStar, Remains of Man Missing Since 2019 Found in Brownsburg Storage Unit
