That authorities would accept an adult-lover explanation.
That his apartment could withstand brief police scrutiny.
We cannot know exactly what he thought.
But his behavior afterward shows no meaningful retreat.
He continued killing.
Rapidly.
Matt Turner
June 1991.
Matt Turner was twenty.
Dahmer met him in Chicago.
The geography changed.
Dahmer persuaded Turner to travel with him to Milwaukee.
Crossing state lines later gave investigators reason to examine whether federal kidnapping statutes could apply, one reason the FBI became involved after Dahmer's arrest.
Turner entered Apartment 213.
He was killed.
The FBI later provided forensic and identification assistance rather than taking over the central murder prosecution.
Jeremiah Weinberger
Dahmer returned to Chicago and met Jeremiah Weinberger.
Twenty-three.
Unlike several victims who were quickly incapacitated, Weinberger spent more time with Dahmer.
Friends knew he had left Chicago with another man.
At some point he wanted to return home.
Again the recurring conflict appeared.
The other person wanted to leave.
Dahmer wanted control.
Jeremiah never returned to Chicago.
His friends' knowledge later helped investigators reconstruct his final movements.
The victims did leave traces.
The problem was knowing which traces mattered before police knew there was a serial killer.
Oliver Lacy
July 1991.
Oliver Lacy.
Twenty-three.
Another young man inside Apartment 213.
By now Dahmer had lost his job.
His life was becoming less organized.
He had increasing financial problems.
His apartment contained evidence from multiple killings.
The smell was difficult to manage.
His behavior was escalating while his ability to maintain concealment was deteriorating.
A common myth suggests serial killers become increasingly sophisticated.
Dahmer's final phase shows the opposite.
He was becoming sloppier because the speed of his behavior was overwhelming the disposal system.
Joseph Bradehoft
July 19, 1991.
Joseph Bradehoft.
Twenty-five.
He became the last confirmed murder victim.
Three days later, Tracy Edwards met Dahmer.
That three-day gap is worth remembering.
The crime scene the police entered on July 22 was not some abandoned collection of old evidence.
It was active.
Recent.
Dahmer was still killing.
There is no evidence he intended to stop.
One prosecution psychiatrist later testified that Dahmer would likely have continued killing had he not been caught.
July 22: Tracy Edwards
Dahmer met Tracy Edwards and made an offer similar to those used before.
Money.
Photographs.
Come to the apartment.
Edwards agreed.
Inside Apartment 213, he became uneasy.
The environment felt wrong.
The smell was difficult to ignore.
Dahmer's behavior shifted.
At some point Dahmer placed a handcuff around Edwards' wrist.
Only one side locked successfully.
That mechanical failure mattered enormously.
Edwards still had mobility.
He was also not completely incapacitated.
Dahmer displayed a knife.
Edwards understood that immediate resistance could get him killed.
So he did something psychologically difficult.
He tried to remain calm.
He talked to Dahmer.
He tried to create the impression that he was not about to run.
He waited.
That required reading the person threatening him while pretending not to be terrified.
Dahmer periodically became distracted.
Television was on.
Edwards looked for an opening.
Then he moved.
He struck Dahmer.
He reached the door.
He ran.
The handcuff still hung from his wrist.
The Second Escape
There is a dark symmetry here.
Konerak escaped Apartment 213.
Tracy Edwards escaped Apartment 213.
Both reached public space.
Both encountered people who could summon police.
Both ultimately caused police to enter Dahmer's home.
The difference is what happened next.
Konerak could not coherently explain his situation.
Other people spoke for him.
Dahmer controlled the narrative.
Tracy Edwards could speak.
He could point.
He could describe the knife.
He could show the handcuff.
Police treated him as the complainant rather than Dahmer as the more credible narrator.
That difference ended the murders.
Back to Apartment 213
Officers Robert Rauth and Rolf Mueller accompanied Edwards.
Dahmer opened the door.
Edwards identified him.
Police asked about the handcuff.
Dahmer tried to keep control of the situation.
Mueller went into the bedroom.
The drawer opened.
The photographs appeared.
This was the moment Dahmer could no longer use ordinary explanation.
A smell can be explained.
A drunken person can be explained.
A handcuff can possibly be explained.
A collection of Polaroids documenting bodies inside the same apartment cannot.
Mueller showed his partner.
Dahmer attempted to resist.
The officers arrested him.
Then the apartment began revealing what had been hidden.
What Police Found
News reports initially struggled even to describe the scale.
Human remains.
Skulls.
Preserved material.
Containers containing chemicals.
Evidence associated with multiple victims.
Photographs.
Identification documents.
Tools.
The refrigerator.
The freezer.
Every discovery produced another question.
Which victim?
Which date?
Which missing-person case?
Had the person been reported missing?
Did anyone know he had come here?
The FBI later stated that remains belonging to eleven victims were found in the apartment. The Bureau ran DNA profiles, chemical and biological tests, tool-mark analysis, photographic examination and other forensic work on submitted evidence.
The apartment was not one crime scene.
It was many crime scenes compressed into a few rooms.
The First Hours
Imagine the logistics.
You cannot simply remove everything quickly.
Every item may belong to a different homicide.
Photograph before moving.
Label.
Separate.
Preserve.
Document location.
Determine whether biological material corresponds to one person or several.
Check fingerprints.
Check dental records.
Compare photographs.
Interview Dahmer.
Contact missing-person units.
Contact families.
Contact other jurisdictions.
The case expanded faster than detectives could process it.
News crews gathered outside.
Residents of the Oxford Apartments suddenly discovered that their home had become one of the most notorious addresses in America.
Dahmer Confesses
Once confronted with the physical evidence, Dahmer began talking.
He did not maintain a sustained innocence claim.