Investigators found a bone of some kind Tuesday near the boyhood home of Jeffrey L. Dahmer as they searched for remains of a hitchhiker believed to be the first of his 17 or more mutilation-slaying victims.
Authorities hoped a map drawn by Dahmer would help them find bones or personal effects of Steven Mark Hicks around property once owned by Dahmer's parents in this suburb of Akron.The bone found Tuesday was in a drainage ditch where authorities believe Hicks' body was first placed before being moved later, said sheriff David Troutman said. He said authorities did not know yet if the bone is human. He had no description of the bone.
They started their search Tuesday by raking and clearing debris from an area of about 300 feet by 100 feet.
Police believe Dahmer, in whose Milwaukee apartment 11 mutilated bodies were found on July 22, is responsible for at least 17 killings.
A sister of one of those victims says she received an anonymous call from someone claiming to have killed her brother, and that police have now told her that call came from Dahmer.
In the Ohio case, Dahmer told authorities that Hicks was hitchhiking to a rock concert in 1978 when he accepted a ride to his house. There, Dahmer strangled Hicks with a barbell and dismembered him, Troutman said Sunday.
Dahmer said he buried and dug up Hicks' remains several times, ultimately scraping the flesh off, smashing the bones to bits with a hammer and scattering them in a ravine between his parents' land and two other properties.
The search "could take anywhere from one day, which I doubt, to five days," said Bath police Capt. John Gardner. "It could take that long because the evidence we are looking for is 13 years old."
*****
(Additional information)
Jeffrey Dahmer, the Milwaukee man suspected of killing 17 men in the United States, was discharged from the Army a decade ago because of a drinking problem, Stars and Stripes reported Tuesday. The unofficial U.S. armed forces newspaper quoted a former barracks mate as saying Dahmer was forced out in 1981. "He would get drunk and get into fights and cuss out black people," Michael K. Masters was quoted as saying.