How did Jeffrey Dahmer's Polaroid photos help with his arrest? | The Sun

JEFFREY Dahmer's horrific killings went under the radar for almost a decade – that was until a number of Polaroid photos were discovered by police.

The chilling mementos taken by Dahmer were a crucial piece of evidence in capturing the killer.

How did Jeffrey Dahmer's Polaroid photos help with his arrest?

Jeffrey Dahmer was able to carry out his sinister crimes unnoticed from the authorities for years.

From 1978 to 1991, Dahmer murdered and dismembered 17 boys and men in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

He would often lure his victims back to his home on the pretence of a beer or to take some photographs – once there, he would carry out his twisted rein of terror.

However, it was when one of his victims, Tracy Edwards, managed to escape that officers visited Dahmer's apartment on July 22, 1991, and discovered the evidence they would need to lead to an arrest.

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When they entered his home and began to investigate, officers discovered a bedside table drawer.

Inside was almost 80 of disturbing Polaroid pictures of his victims and their dismembered bodies.

Reports stated officers found images of victim's decapitated heads, as well as Dahmer engaging in necrophilia with some of the corpses.

In The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, written in 1994, it is stated that Dahmer photographed and engaged in these activities because: "he wanted to keep them as mementos to keep him company".

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When carrying out investigations, officers also uncovered sketches of a plan to construct an altar in his apartment.

Later when questioned, Dahmer confessed to making his victims pose for pictures on a black table that he planned to make part of his altar.

Who arrested Jeffrey Dahmer?

Dahmer was arrested on July 22, 1991.

His arrest came after Tracy Edwards waved down two police officers Rolf Mueller and Robert Rauth who were on patrol in downtown Milwaukee.

Both officers then went to Dahmer's apartment to question him – it was there Mueller discovered the Polaroids in the bedside table.

After making the gruesome discovery, Mueller realised the Polaroids he was holding had been photographed in the same apartment where they were standing.

Showing his partner, Mueller said: ''These are for real.''

Dahmer was quickly apprehended and arrested.

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He was convicted the following year and sentenced to 16 consecutive life terms in prison.

However, while serving his sentence, Dahmer met his own violent demise at the hands of a fellow inmate Christopher Scarver, at Wisconsin's Columbia Correctional Institution in 1994.

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