The Case of Steven Walter Tuomi

Steven Walter Tuomi, 25, was murdered by Jeffrey Dahmer after the two met at a bar in Milwaukee in November 1987. Dahmer later said he awoke in a hotel room beside Tuomi and discovered he had beaten him to death, although investigators found no physical evidence confirming Dahmer's account. Tuomi's remains were never recovered.

Steven Walter Tuomi was 25 years old and lived in Milwaukee at the time of his disappearance. On the night of November 22, 1987, Tuomi met Dahmer at the La Macumba bar in Milwaukee. Dahmer persuaded him to accompany him to the Ambassador Hotel, where they rented a room. Dahmer later claimed that he had no conscious memory of killing Tuomi. According to his account, he awoke the following morning to find Tuomi lying dead beside him with severe injuries. Dahmer stated that he had been drinking heavily and believed he must have beaten Tuomi during the night.

The murder allegedly occurred in a room at the Ambassador Hotel in Milwaukee. Dahmer told investigators that he awoke with Tuomi's body beside him and blood on the bed. He said he had no recollection of the attack itself. Rather than reporting the death, Dahmer wrapped Tuomi's body in a blanket, carried him from the hotel and transported him to his grandmother's home in West Allis. Dahmer later dismembered the body and disposed of the remains. No remains belonging to Tuomi have ever been recovered.

Steven Tuomi's disappearance was not immediately connected to Dahmer. After Dahmer's arrest in July 1991, he confessed to killing Tuomi and described the circumstances surrounding his death. Investigators were unable to independently establish exactly how Tuomi died because his body had been completely disposed of and no physical evidence from the hotel room remained available. Dahmer's account was therefore the principal evidence linking him to Tuomi's murder.

Jeffrey Dahmer was never separately tried or convicted for Steven Tuomi's murder. Tuomi was nevertheless included among the 17 murders Dahmer confessed to committing, and authorities recognised him as one of Dahmer's victims. His remains have never been recovered.

Steven Tuomi's case is unusual within Dahmer's chronology because it was the second known murder, occurring almost nine years after his first known victim, Steven Hicks. It also marked the beginning of the much more concentrated period of killings that followed in Milwaukee.