Jeffrey Dahmer.Photo: EUGENE GARCIA/AFP via Getty
On the front lawn of the Oxford Apartments, I met the family members of a missing 14-year-old boy, Konerak Sinthasomphone, who had immigrated to the U.S. from Laos with his family. They had heard about Dahmer’s arrest on the news and rushed to the scene, frantic for answers. A neighborhood resident stepped forward, saying he had heard rumors about a naked boy running down the alley after midnight with a white man chasing after him. Police had arrived on the scene, the neighbor said, and escorted the man and the boy back to Dahmer’s apartment building. The boy subsequently became one of Dahmer’s victims, his family had learned.
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In that chilling moment, their worst fears about what had happened to Sinthasomphone were confirmed, and the faces of his family members filled with pain and fury that I will never forget. Their story needed to be told.
In the next few days, I also interviewed two men who met Dahmer at bars in Milwaukee and went home with him — both recalled the apartment’s rotten smell and erotic photos on the walls — but escaped with their lives after Dahmer became aggressive.
Like most of his victims, both men were gay and people of color. They described Dahmer as a familiar face in the bars and clubs where people of color and LGBTQ individuals congregated.
If only these voices had been heard earlier, the saga of America’s most depraved serial offender might have been somewhat less tragic. As a reporter covering the case, and today as PEOPLE’s senior editor covering crime, I have learned a lesson: It’s the victims who matter.
source: people.com
