Biden tells New Orleans mourners they are not alone as he honors victims of attack

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — President Joe Biden told mourners in New Orleans on Monday that they are not alone as he paid tribute to victims of the deadly New Year’s attack and channeled the pain felt by their loved ones.

Biden made the remarks at St. Louis Cathedral in the city's historic French Quarter. not far from the area where an Army veteran drove a truck into revelers last week, killing 14 and injuring 30 more.

Biden praised “so many that ran toward the chaos, trying to help save others," including first responders. He noted the city's enduring strength and resilience amid tragedy, invoking past devastation like Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

“The city’s people get back up," Biden said. "That’s the spirit of America as well.”

Biden met privately with grieving families, survivors and first responders before the prayer service. He also stopped at a makeshift memorial where the attack had begun to unfold. It is being investigated as an act of terrorism inspired by the Islamic State group.

Biden has made dozens of visits to sites of violence, natural disaster and other calamities during his four years in office. With two weeks left, Monday's visit to New Orleans could be his last such trip.

In his remarks Monday, Biden alluded to the personal loss in his own life and recounted words of collective grief he’s delivered time and again as president. He acknowledged the searing loss the grieving families will feel at holidays and birthdays to come, along with the small details they will miss about their loved ones.

“We know what it’s like to lose a piece of our soul. The anger. The emptiness,” he said.

He told the grieving families that they will eventually reach a day when the memory of their loved ones will make them smile before it makes them cry.

“It will take time, but I promise you, it will come. I promise you," he said.

Before he met privately with the victims’ families, Biden and first lady Jill Biden made their first stop in the city at a memorial that sprung up on Bourbon Street at the spot where the attack started.

Flowers and messages were left at the bases of the crosses erected on the sidewalk. After Jill Biden placed white flowers at the memorial, she and the president stood in silence and bowed their heads.

At the public prayer service at the cathedral, a rendition of “Amazing Grace” was performed with a New Orleans jazz spin. The Bidens placed a candle at the altar. The president then returned to his seat in front pew, shutting his eyes tight in prayer.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One on the way to Louisiana that Biden "believes this is also an important part of the job that he believes he needs to do as president.”

It's a grim task that presidents perform, though not every leader has embraced the role with such intimacy as the 82-year-old Biden, who has experienced a lot of personal tragedy in his own life. His first wife and baby daughter died in a car accident in the early 1970s, and his elder son, Beau, died of cancer in 2015.

“I've been there. There’s nothing you can really say to somebody that’s just had such a tragic loss," Biden told reporters Sunday in a preview of his visit. "My message is going to be personal if I get to get them alone.”

Biden often takes the opportunity at such bleak occasions to speak behind closed doors with the families, offer up his personal phone number in case people want to talk later on and talk about grief in stark, personal terms.

The Democratic president will continue on to California following his stop in New Orleans. With a snowstorm hitting the Washington region on Monday, Biden's trip began with Air Force One starting its takeoff from inside a large hangar instead of on the tarmac as thick snow covered the ground at Joint Base Andrews and snowplows worked to clear the runway.

In New Orleans on Jan. 1, the driver plowed into a crowd on Bourbon Street. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who steered his speeding truck around a barricade and plowed into the crowd, later was fatally shot in a firefight with police.

Jabbar, an American citizen from Texas, had posted five videos on his Facebook account in the hours before the attack in which he proclaimed his support for the Islamic State militant group and previewed the violence that he would soon unleash in the French Quarter.

Biden on Sunday pushed back against conspiracy theories surrounding the attack, and he urged New Orleans residents to ignore them.

“I spent literally 17, 18 hours with the intelligence community from the time this happened to establish exactly what happened, to establish beyond any reasonable doubt that New Orleans was the act of a single man who acted alone,” he said. “All this talk about conspiracies with other people, there’s not evidence of that — zero.”

The youngest victim was 18 years old, and the oldest was 63. Most victims were in their 20s. They came from Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York, New Jersey and Great Britain.

Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican, was asked on “Fox News Sunday” what the city was hoping for from Biden's visit.

“How can we not feel for both the families of those who die but also those who’ve been injured in their families?” he asked.

“The best thing that the city, the state, and the federal government can do is do their best to make sure that this does not happen again. And what we can do as a people is to make sure that we don’t live our lives in fear or in terror — but live our lives bravely and with liberty, and then support those families however they need support.”

Jean-Pierre said Monday that Biden was directing additional resources to help New Orleans with major upcoming events, including Mardi Gras and the Super Bowl, with both events being assigned the highest level of federal support for security measures.

Price reported from New York. Associated Press writers Fatima Hussein in Washington contributed to this report.

President Joe Biden arrives for a interfaith prayer service for the victims of the deadly New Years truck attack, at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden place a candle at the alter as they participate in an interfaith prayer service for the victims of the deadly New Years truck attack, at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

President Joe Biden speaks during in an interfaith prayer service for the victims of the deadly New Years truck attack, at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

President Joe Biden speaks during an interfaith prayer service for the victims of the deadly New Years truck attack, at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

President Joe Biden walks after speaking during an interfaith prayer service for the victims of the deadly New Years truck attack, at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

President Joe Biden speaks during in an interfaith prayer service for the victims of the deadly New Years truck attack, at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

President Joe Biden walks to the podium to speak during an interfaith prayer service for the victims of the deadly New Years truck attack, at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

President Joe Biden speaks during an interfaith prayer service for the victims of the deadly New Years truck attack, at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden stop at the site of the deadly New Years truck attack, in New Orleans, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, left, greets choir member Renee Dolliole before an interfaith prayer service for the victims of the deadly New Years truck attack, at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden participate in an interfaith prayer service for the victims of the deadly New Years truck attack, at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrive to participate in an interfaith prayer service for the victims of the deadly New Years truck attack, at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, left, greets city council member Lesli Harris before an interfaith prayer service for the victims of the deadly New Years truck attack, at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden stop at the site of the deadly New Years truck attack, in New Orleans, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

President Joe Biden is greeted by New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, Rep. Cleo Fields and Rep. Troy Carter and wife Andree Carter, as he arrives Air Force One at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in New Orleans, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden stop at the site of the deadly New Years truck attack, in New Orleans, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

President Joe Biden speaks with reporters after signing the Social Security Fairness Act in the East Room of the White House, Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

WESTFIELD, Ind. (AP) — Decades after investigators unearthed thousands of human bones and bone fragments on a suspected Indiana serial killer’s property, a renewed quest is playing out in laboratories to solve a long-running mystery: Who were they?

A new team working to identify the unknown dead says the key to their success will be getting relatives of men who vanished between the mid-1980s and the mid-1990s to provide samples of their own DNA.

Those samples can then be screened against DNA profiles scientists are extracting from the remains, which were found starting in 1996 on Herbert Baumeister’s sprawling suburban Indianapolis property.

The original investigators believed that at least 25 people were buried at Baumeister’s 18-acre (7.3-hectare) Fox Hollow Farm estate in Westfield, based on evidence that included 10,000 bones and bone fragments, as well as handcuffs and shotgun shells.

Baumeister, a 49-year-old thrift store owner and married father of three, killed himself in Canada in July 1996 before police could question him, taking with him many secrets, including the names of his presumed victims.

Investigators believed that while his family was away on trips, Baumeister, who frequented gay bars in Indianapolis, lured men to his home, where he killed and buried them.

By the late 1990s, authorities had identified eight men using dental records and available DNA technologies. But then those efforts stopped, although the remains of at least 17 people may have still been unidentified.

Hamilton County Coroner Jeff Jellison said the renewed identification effort revealed that county officials at the time decided not to fund additional DNA testing, which “essentially halted further efforts to identify the victims and placed the cost of a homicide investigation on family members of missing people.”

“I can’t speak for those investigators, but it was just game over,” Jellison said.

As decades slipped by, the bones and fragments sat in boxes at the University of Indianapolis' Human Identification Center, whose staff helped excavate the remains.

That changed after Eric Pranger sent Jellison a Facebook message in late 2022. The Indianapolis man's family had long believed his older cousin, Allen Livingston, was among Baumeister’s victims.

Livingston was 27 when he vanished in August 1993 after getting into someone else’s car in downtown Indianapolis. After hearing about Baumeister three years later, his mother, Sharon Livingston, and other relatives began suspecting that Allen, who was bisexual, was among the dead.

Jellison was about to take office when Pranger asked if he could help get some answers for his aunt, who had serious health problems.

“How do you say to no to that? That’s our job as coroners by statute, to identify the deceased,” Jellison said.

In late 2022, police took DNA samples from Sharon Livingston and one of her daughters. Jellison began working with a team that includes the Indiana State Police, the FBI, the Human Identification Center, local law enforcement and a private company that specializes in forensic genetic genealogy.

Staff at the Human Identification Center, where the remains are stored in a temperature- and humidity-controlled space, selected some of the most promising bones for DNA analysis.

At the Indiana State Police Laboratory, scientists cut out sections of bone, froze them with liquid nitrogen and pulverized them into a fine powder. They then used heat and chemicals to break open bone cells in the first step toward extracting a full DNA profile.

Nearly a year after hearing from Pranger, Jellison announced in October 2023 that a ninth Baumeister victim had been identified: Allen Livingston.

Sharon Livingston finally received some form of closure. She died in November 2024.

“It made me happy to be able to do this for my aunt," Pranger, 34, said. “I’m the one who got the ball rolling to bring her son home after 30 years and I felt privileged."

“After Allen was identified I was so excited and then after the fact I asked myself, `Now what? I got answers, but what about all the other families?’” Pranger added.

Jellison said about 40 DNA samples have been submitted by people who believe a missing male relative may have been killed by Baumeister. He said those are entered into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, but are used solely for identifying missing people.

The coroner and his partners hope to get more DNA samples from relatives of men from across the U.S. who vanished between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s. They noted the men may have been traveling and stopped in Indianapolis to visit friends or sample its nightlife.

To date, scientists have extracted eight unique DNA profiles — all male — from more than 70 of the 100 bones that were sent to the Indiana State Police Laboratory by Dr. Krista Latham, the Human Identification Center's director.

One matched DNA samples provided by Livingston’s mother and sister. Four matched four of the eight men first identified in the 1990s: Jeffrey Jones, Manuel Resendez, Johnny Bayer and Richard Hamilton.

The three other DNA profiles remain unidentified and two are still undergoing testing. Those three have boosted Baumeister’s presumed victims to 12.

Jellison and his partners say their identification effort could take several more years to complete.

Most of the bones were crushed and burned, reducing their potential to yield usable DNA. Latham, a professor of biology and anthropology, said bone fragments deemed in poor shape are being held back from the destructive testing process in hope that future DNA technologies can unlock their secrets.

She noted some of the men may have been estranged from relatives or ostracized because of their sexuality. No one may have noticed when they vanished.

“These are individuals who were marginalized in life. And we just need to make sure that that’s not continuing in death as well,” Latham said.

For the ongoing work, Jellison has obtained DNA reference samples from relatives of seven of the eight men originally identified in the 1990s. The eighth man, Steven Hale, was adopted and efforts to locate biological relatives have thus far failed, the coroner said.

Relatives of missing men who want to provide family DNA reference samples for the effort to identify remains can contact the Indiana State Police missing persons hotline at 833-466-2653 or the Hamilton County Coroner’s Office at 317-770-4415.

As remains are identified, piece by piece, families can opt to have them cremated and interred at a memorial dedicated in August in Westfield. It includes a plaque with the names of the nine identified victims, with room for more names.

Linda Znachko, whose nonprofit Indianapolis-based ministry He Knows Your Name, paid for the monument, said at the memorial's dedication that the identification campaign "will bring honor to those who lost their lives at the Fox Hollow tragedy.” Remains belonging to Livingston and Jeffrey Jones were added to the memorial's ossuary and white doves were released during the dedication.

Livingston’s younger sister, Shannon Doughty, attended with several relatives, including Pranger. She said it was a relief finally knowing what happened to her brother, despite his tragic end.

“At least you know,” said Doughty, 46. “The fear of the unknown is the worst right? So just knowing, it’s a multitude of emotions. You wanted to know but you didn’t want to know. But you needed to know.”

Shannon Doughty stands in front of her husband, Matt, while holding a wooden box on Aug. 29, 2024, in Westfield, Indiana, that had contained some of the cremated remains of her late brother Allen Livingston, who was identified in October 2023 as the ninth known victim of suspected serial killer Herbert Baumeister. (AP Photo/Rick Callahan)

Hamilton County Coroner Jeff Jellison and Linda Znachko, founder of the nonprofit Indianapolis-based ministry He Knows Your Name, look at a marker on August 29, 2024, in Westfield, Indiana, that lists the names of the nine known victims of suspected serial killer Herbert Baumeister. (AP Photo/Rick Callahan)

Dr. Krista Latham, the director of the Human Identification Center at the University of Indianapolis, sits at a table in front of the center's cabinets containing replicas of fossil finds of ancient humans , Aug. 1, 2024, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Rick Callahan)

Shannon Doughty holds a wooden box on Aug. 29, 2024, in Westfield, Indiana, that had contained some of the cremated remains of her late brother, Allen Livingston, who was identified in October 2023 as the ninth known victim of suspected serial killer Herbert Baumeister. (AP Photo/Rick Callahan)

Hamilton County Coroner Jeff Jellison stands on August 29, 2024, in Westfield, Indiana, during the dedication of a memorial honoring suspected serial killer Herbert Baumeister's nine known victims. (AP Photo/Rick Callahan)

The name of Allen Livingston is seen on a memorial, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024, in Westfield, Ind. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

White doves are released on Aug. 29, 2024, in Westfield, Indiana, during the dedication of a memorial to the nine known victims of suspected serial killer Herbert Baumeister. (AP Photo/Rick Callahan)

Eric Pranger and Shannon Doughty talk by a memorial, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, in Westfield, Ind. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Shannon Doughty and her cousin, Eric Pranger, embrace on Aug. 29, 2024, in Westfield, Indiana, during the dedication of a memorial to the known victims of suspected serial killer Herbert Baumeister, including Doughty's brother, Allen Livingston. (AP Photo/Rick Callahan)

Shannon Doughty holds a photo of her late brother Allen Livingston, who was identified in October 2023 as the ninth known victim of suspected serial killer Herbert Baumeister, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, in Westfield, Ind. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Hamilton County Coroner Jeff Jellison stands in his office in Noblesville, Indiana, July 11, 2024, in front of a painting reading "No Longer Forgotten" that his wife created as reminder of his ongoing work to identify some 10,000 human bones and bone fragments unearthed on Herbert Baumeister's suburban Indianapolis property starting in 1996. (AP Photo/Rick Callahan)

White doves are released on Aug. 29, 2024, in Westfield, Indiana, during the dedication of a memorial to the nine known victims of suspected serial killer Herbert Baumeister. (AP Photo/Rick Callahan)

Eric Pranger holds an Urn that contains the ashes of Allen Livingston, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, in Westfield, Ind. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)