By the time Dahmer moved in with Lionel’s mother, Catherine, he had only killed one person. The summer he graduated from high school, Dahmer picked up a young hitchhiker named Stephen Hicks and bludgeoned him to death, later scattering his remains in the backyard. But when Dahmer was forced to move out of his grandmother’s house in 1990, he added four more victims to a body count that would eventually grow to 17.
Dahmer took his second life in 1987 when he beat Steven Tuomi to death in a hotel room. He packed Tuomi’s body in luggage and returned to his grandmother’s house, where he dismembered it and put it out for the trash. Then he lured 14-year-old James Edward Doxtator and 22-year-old Richard Guerrero back to Grandma Dahmer’s house in 1988; both of whom he murdered. Dahmer dismembered their bodies and put them out for the trash like Tuomi’s.
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In 1989, Dahmer murdered 24-year-old Anthony Sears; the last victim killed at his grandmother’s house (per Biography). Sears was the first victim whom Dahmer kept anatomical pieces, which were recovered after he was arrested in 1991. Dahmer would sometimes keep the bodies of his victims around for days after he killed them before dismembering and disposing of them. While her eyes were averted from her grandson’s murderous actions, Catherine’s nose caught on to some clues that something wasn’t right.
