After a time of ill health, the notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer’s stepmother passed away last week, according to a report.
According to the US Sun, Shari Dahmer, 81, passed away on January 13 at a care home in Seville, Ohio.
“Her health had been going downhill for the past couple of years,” a source told the outlet.
“Shari has been living in a nursing home and had made some attempts to try to get better but she just never recovered from any of the health issues she was suffering.”
When Dahmer and his younger brother, David, were just teenagers, Shari, who didn’t have any of her own, wed Lionel.
When Dahmer was revealed as a serial killer who tortured, killed, and cannibalised individuals he lured to his Milwaukee apartment, the family was subsequently thrown into the public eye. This happened in 1991.
Between 1978 and 1991, he is now thought to have murdered at least 17 men and boys.
Shari then stood with Lionel during the media circus surrounding Dahmer’s trial and after he was murdered in a jail in 1994 by inmates. In 2004, she was mentioned in her husband’s CNN interview.
Joyce, Dahmer’s mother at birth, passed away in 2000. Although he had apparently not seen his wife in the months prior to her passing, 86-year-old Lionel still resides in Ohio.
“Lionel hasn’t really been able to go see Shari much in recent times, I believe the last time he saw her was in October,” the Sun’s source said, noting that burial arrangements will be kept simple.
“There is not going to be a funeral, per Shari’s will she didn’t want a service or anything like that,” they explained.
“She just wanted to be cremated and left instructions in her will on what she wanted done with the ashes.”
Shari, who was portrayed by Molly Ringwald in the series, was reportedly upset by the streaming giant’s decision to rehash her stepson’s crimes.
“When the series and documentary [“Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes”] came out last year, Shari just wished they would leave it the hell alone, but she used stronger language than that,” the source said.
“There was zero care whatsoever about Lionel’s wellbeing,” his caretaker said at the time.