Almost a year after being killed in prison, the body of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was cremated, while his brain was held back as his parents feud over whether to donate it for research.
His father, Lionel Dahmer, of Akron, Ohio, claimed his half of the ashes Sunday, while arrangements were being made for his mother, Joyce Flint, of Fresno, Calif., to receive the rest.Flint wants her son's brain examined to determine whether biological factors influenced his actions. Her ex-husband objected, saying he wishes to put his son's actions behind him.
Nothing could be done with Dahmer's body until Christopher J. Scarver was sentenced in May for beating Dahmer to death in a Wisconsin prison on Nov. 28, 1994. The brain has been preserved in formaldehyde since the autopsy.
After police found body parts in Dahmer's Milwaukee apartment in 1991, he admitted killing 17 young men and boys, mutilating and sometimes cannibalizing his victims. He was serving 15 life terms in prison.