An Escaped Captive Brought Police Back to Apartment 213

1. An Encounter at the Mall

On July 22, 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer offered Tracy Edwards money to accompany him to his Milwaukee apartment for photographs. Edwards went to the Oxford Apartments on North 25th Street. Once inside, Dahmer put a handcuff on one of his wrists and threatened him. Edwards remained inside for hours before finding an opportunity to get out and seek help.

The pair arrived at Apartment 213 later that evening.

2. Handcuffs and Threats

Edwards noticed an unusual chemical smell inside the apartment. Dahmer placed a handcuff on his wrist and threatened him with a knife, preventing him from simply leaving. Edwards tried to keep the conversation going and persuade Dahmer that he would stay. His later account described moving between rooms while looking for a chance to reach the door.

Edwards remained trapped inside the apartment for several hours.

3. A Momentary Lapse

During the evening, Edwards asked to move to the air-conditioned living room and continue talking there. Dahmer agreed. Edwards kept speaking to him while the handcuff remained on one wrist. When an opening came, Edwards struck Dahmer and ran out through the front door. He reached the street and looked for police officers who could remove the handcuff and help him.

He waited for a clear opening to strike back.

4. The Escape from Apartment 213

As Edwards rose from the couch, he punched Dahmer in the face, knocking him off balance and causing him to stumble backward. Edwards sprinted out the apartment door, leaving behind his shirt and shoes, and ran down the stairs to the street level. At approximately 11:30 p.m., he flagged down two Milwaukee police officers, Robert Rauth and Rolf Mueller, who were patrolling near the corner of North 25th Street.

Officers observed a metal handcuff dangling from his wrist.

5. Return to the Residence

The officers’ keys did not fit the handcuff on Edwards’s wrist. Edwards therefore accompanied Robert Rauth and Rolf Mueller back to the apartment to recover the correct key. Dahmer admitted putting the cuff on him and allowed the officers inside. Mueller went into the bedroom, where the search for a key led him to a drawer containing photographs that changed the officers’ response.

Dahmer opened the door and invited the group inside.

6. Confrontation in the Bedroom

In the bedroom, Mueller found a knife and photographs showing evidence of killings inside the apartment. He took the photographs to his partner. The officers moved to arrest Dahmer, who resisted before they restrained him. What had begun as a complaint about an assault and a locked handcuff had become an investigation requiring detectives and a full search of the property.

The photographs clearly showed the interior of the apartment.

7. Discovery of Photographic Evidence

Mueller walked into the living room and showed the photographs to his partner, stating that the images were real. When Dahmer saw that police were examining his photographs, he lunged at the officers in an attempt to resist arrest. The officers quickly overpowered him, handcuffed his hands behind his back, and called for a second squad car to provide backup at the scene.

Additional patrol units arrived to secure the premises.

8. The Search Expands

Detectives searched the apartment and recovered victims’ remains, photographs and other evidence. They began identifying the victims and checking missing-person reports. Dahmer was taken for questioning. In the interviews that followed, he described killings at different locations over several years, extending the investigation beyond the apartment Edwards had escaped. His accounts still required investigation and comparison with the evidence.

Investigators had to identify victims and verify his accounts.

9. Arrest and Subsequent Trial

Dahmer was taken into custody and charged with multiple counts of murder. During a two-week trial in early 1992, defense attorneys argued that his compulsive killings stemmed from severe mental illness, while prosecutors maintained he was legally sane and fully in control of his actions. On February 15, the jury ruled that Dahmer was sane at the time of the murders.

The court sentenced him to multiple terms of life imprisonment.

10. Imprisonment and Outcome

Dahmer was imprisoned at Columbia Correctional Institution in Wisconsin. On November 28, 1994, another prisoner, Christopher Scarver, attacked him during a work assignment, and Dahmer died from his injuries. His prison death came after the murder convictions and life sentences. Edwards’s escape remained the event that had brought officers back to the apartment and exposed evidence of the killings.

Edwards’s escape had led police to the evidence inside.

Sources

• Original narrative adaptation — CC BY-SA 4.0
• Wikipedia contributors — Jeffrey Dahmer (CC BY-SA 4.0)