Who was Jeffrey Dahmer’s stepmother, Shari?
NOTORIOUS serial killer, sex offender, and cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer left a trail of tragedy in his wake.
After slaughtering and dismembering 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991, the Dahmer family name was eternally sullied by his crimes.
Who was Shari Dahmer?
Shari Jordan became the stepmother of one of the world's most prolific serial killers after marrying Lionel Dahmer in 1978.
He had just divorced Jeffrey's mother, Joyce after their marriage broke down.
Shari quickly became integrated into the Dahmer family, spending a large amount of time with Lionel's two teen son's Jeffrey and David.
She first met Jeffrey at his mother's home in Columbus, Wisconsin, where he was living alone after Joyce moved away.
In a two-part Oxygen documentary titled Dahmer On Dahmer, Shari described him as "vulnerable" and said she immediately wanted to "mother" him.
She claimed the killer was "embarrassed and ashamed" of his parent's divorce, but was "very good at disguising his feelings".
Shari explained: "What I wanted to do, and what most people wanted to do, was mother him.
"He was just vulnerable. Even if I wasn’t his stepmother all his life, as a mother you sense those things.
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"When his mother left, and he wanted to stay behind, he became very lonely, and that's when the first murder occurred.''
The stepmom said she soon realized Jeffrey had a drinking problem, recalling how she found him passed out in a drunken slumber.
She claimed he would raid the liquor cabinet and replace the empty bottles with water.
She dubbed him a "closet alcoholic" but insisted there were no other warning signs regarding his sick obsessions.
Shari and Lionel would regularly visit Jeffrey at his home, which she said was always "perfectly clean" and "spotless".
When did Shari Dahmer die?
Despite discovering Jeffrey's sickening murder spree, both Shari and Lionel stood by him throughout the trial and regularly visited the killer in prison.
However, the couple did not defend his heinous crimes - instead opting for a life of privacy after the Dahmer name became internationally known.
Lionel later penned a book titled A Father’s Story - detailing the early life of The Milwaukee Cannibal.
Shari resided in Seville, Ohio, with her husband until her death on January 13, 2023.
It's understood she passed away due to complications related to health problems she had suffered in recent years.
Lionel died in hospice care at 87 on December 5, 2023.
What did Shari Dahmer say about Jeffrey?
In an explosive interview on Larry King Live in 2004, Shari and Lionel had discussed their emotions toward Jeffrey.
They both kept in touch with him during his time behind bars and believed he was mentally ill, adding that "a part of his soul died years ago".
Discussing her motivation to appear on TV, Shari said she wanted to do "anything that we could do to circumvent or prevent another Jeff".
She explained: "We must look into what he has done and why he has done it.
"So, again, if we understand more about Jeff and empathize only in what created this monster, then perhaps we can in fact help prevent the monsters in others.''
Unlike her younger stepson David, Shari did not want to distance herself from the family name, saying she was "proud" of it.
She continued: "I used it in the business world. I use it still. I have no reason to deny who I am. We didn’t do anything wrong."
Lionel later elaborated on these thoughts in November 2022, during an interview with Dr Phil.
“At first, I couldn't fathom how he turned out to be this far down the continuum. I mean, we're all on a continuum, we all do bad things, we all sin,” he said, via .
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“He was at the extreme of the continuum. i couldn't at first understand how he could have done those things.”
Dahmer was bludgeoned to death by Christopher Scarver, a fellow inmate at the Columbia Correctional Institution in Wisconsin, on November 28, 1994.