The Oxford Apartments in Milwaukee were a 49-unit residential building at 924 North 25th Street where serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer murdered at least eleven people between 1990 and 1991. Police discovered human remains throughout his second-floor unit, Apartment 213, on July 22, 1991. The building was demolished in November 1992 at the request of victims’ families, and the site has remained a vacant grassy lot ever since.1UPI. Dahmer’s Apartment Building to Be Razed
What Happened Inside Apartment 213
Dahmer lived in the Avenues West neighborhood near Marquette University. Between May 1990 and July 1991, he lured twelve people to Apartment 213, drugged them, killed them, and dismembered them inside the unit. Remains of eleven of those victims were later recovered from the apartment.2FBI. Serial Killers Part 7: Jeffrey Dahmer Most were young men of color from Milwaukee and Chicago.3Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Jeffrey Dahmer’s 17 Victims and What We Knew About Them
Dahmer’s killings were not confined to the Oxford Apartments. In total he was charged with seventeen murders spanning from 1978 to 1991, across Wisconsin and Ohio, with victims ranging in age from fourteen to thirty-three.4CBS News. Serial Killer Jeffrey Dahmer Sentenced3Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Jeffrey Dahmer’s 17 Victims and What We Knew About Them But the pace accelerated sharply once he settled at 924 North 25th Street. He was convicted in Milwaukee of fifteen murders and sentenced to fifteen consecutive life terms on February 17, 1992, then convicted of an additional murder in Ohio. He was killed by a fellow inmate at Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, Wisconsin, on November 28, 1994.5CNN. Jeffrey Dahmer Killer Explanation
The Night Police Were Called and Sent a Victim Back
On May 27, 1991, fourteen-year-old Konerak Sinthasomphone escaped from Apartment 213. Naked, drugged, and bleeding, he was found on the street outside the building by Sandra Smith and her daughter Nicole Childress, who called 911.6People. Glenda Cleveland, Jeffrey Dahmer Neighbor Who Called Police Multiple Times Milwaukee police officers John Balcerzak, Joseph Gabrish, and Richard Porubcan responded. Despite the witnesses’ insistence that Sinthasomphone was a child trying to flee, the officers accepted Dahmer’s claim that the boy was a nineteen-year-old adult involved in a domestic dispute, and they walked Sinthasomphone back into Apartment 213.7UMKC School of Law. Estate of Sinthasomphone v. City of Milwaukee
Glenda Cleveland, who lived in the building next door, placed multiple follow-up calls to police after learning what had happened, and later called again when she saw Sinthasomphone’s photo in a missing-persons notice. Her calls were not returned.8Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Glenda Cleveland, Key Figure in Dahmer Case9Today. Glenda Cleveland Now: Jeffrey Dahmer Neighbor10Los Angeles Times. Milwaukee Officers Fired in Dahmer Case11FindLaw. Balcerzak and Gabrish Reinstatement
The July 1991 Arrest and What Police Found
The killings at the Oxford Apartments ended on the night of July 22, 1991. At around 11:30 p.m., Milwaukee police encountered Tracy Edwards stumbling down the road near the building, partially clothed and with a handcuff dangling from one wrist. Edwards told officers he had been threatened with a knife inside Dahmer’s apartment.2FBI. Serial Killers Part 7: Jeffrey Dahmer
Inside Apartment 213, officers found a preserved human head, additional skulls and dismembered body parts stored in a refrigerator and other containers, a large sealed drum, containers believed to hold acid, and photographs of dead bodies. A video camera was mounted on the wall. A hazardous materials team was dispatched to assist with the scene.12WISN. Dahmer Archives: The Night Jeffrey Dahmer Was Arrested Dahmer was arrested on the spot. The remains of eleven victims were ultimately identified from the apartment.2FBI. Serial Killers Part 7: Jeffrey Dahmer
Why the Building Was Torn Down
The Oxford Apartments were demolished in November 1992, about fifteen months after Dahmer’s arrest. The push to raze the building came from victims’ families. Campus Circle, a nonprofit redevelopment initiative organized by Marquette University, purchased the property in August 1992, oversaw the demolition, and helped the building’s last remaining tenants find new housing. The group said at the time that it intended to turn the site into a park.1UPI. Dahmer’s Apartment Building to Be Razed
Campus Circle went on to demolish roughly thirty other dilapidated buildings in the surrounding area by April 1994 as part of a wider effort to stabilize the neighborhood around Marquette’s campus.13Marquette Wire. Dahmer: A Closer Look
The Empty Lot Today
More than three decades after the demolition, the former site of the Oxford Apartments is still an empty, grassy lot. In 1995, the Campus Circle Project purchased it for $325,000.14Esquire. Jeffrey Dahmer’s Apartment Now By 2011, ownership had passed to Ogden Homes, which bought the parcel for $500 under an agreement with the city that the site must remain green space, with no new building construction permitted.13Marquette Wire. Dahmer: A Closer Look
No memorial, marker, or formal tribute to Dahmer’s victims has ever been built there. A children’s playground was discussed in the 1990s, and calls for a memorial grew louder after the 2022 Netflix series Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story renewed public attention, but nothing has moved forward.15Media Milwaukee. Dahmer Victim Memorial Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson has said a physical memorial could “attract people who have a morbid fascination with the killer.”16Fox 6 Now. Milwaukee Memorialize Dahmer Victims A city spokesperson noted that before the Netflix series, the mayor’s office had received no inquiries about a memorial, and afterward the inquiries came from members of the public rather than from victims’ families. Allyson Smith, a cousin of Glenda Cleveland, said that if any memorial were created it should be “nowhere near where the murders happened” and should focus on honoring the victims and uplifting their families.
Neighbors have reported increased foot traffic and people photographing the vacant lot since the Netflix series aired, echoing a pattern from the early 1990s when visitors took “souvenirs” like bricks and dirt from the site.17The Independent. Jeffrey Dahmer Netflix Series Exploitative One neighbor placed a sign at the site in memory of the victims; it was removed within two days.16Fox 6 Now. Milwaukee Memorialize Dahmer Victims Crime reporter Anne E. Schwartz has said that the city of Milwaukee is “absolutely done with hearing about the case,” viewing it as a “horrible blemish.”
For now, 924 North 25th Street is simply grass. No building, no plaque, no path. The deed restriction ensures it will stay that way.