Konerak Sinthasomphone: what happened to Jeffrey Dahmer’s 14 year old victim - who was his brother Somsack?

Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer murdered 17 men and boys, most of whom were Black and Latino, between 1978 and 1991, and committed sex acts with the corpses of his victims. His disturbing crimes have been dramatised in the controversial Netflix series Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.

The series also highlighted another sick twist in Dahmer’s crimes - two of his intended victims were brothers. Dahmer sexually assaulted Somsack Sinthasomphone in 1989 and then killed his brother Konerack two years later. The Netflix true crime drama series shone a light on the failings of the police that enabled Dahmer to get away with his crimes whilst on probation.

Who was Konerak Sinthasomphone?

Konerak Sinthasomphone was the 13th person that Dahmer killed - after police returned him to his deathtrap apartment. Konerak was lured to Jeffrey’s apartment on the promise of being paid for posing for photographs. When at Dahmer’s property, where Dahmer drugged and attempted to lobotomise him.

Dahmer then left his apartment, returning later to find Konerak outside with three women around him who told Dahmer they had called the police.

When the police arrived, Dahmer told them that Konerak was his 19 year old lover - despite the protests of the women who were with Konerak, the police sent the child back to Dahmer’s apartment and allegedly made homophobic comments as they did so.

After the police sent Konerak back into his clutches, Dahmer killed him, dismembered his body and kept his skull. Another grim twist in this tale was that Dahmer killed Konerak whilst on parole for an attack on an attack on his brother.

Who is Somsack Sinthasomphone?

Somsack Sinthasomphone is the brother of Konerak, and was lured to Dahmer’s apartment three years before his brother’s death.

In 1988 Dahmer promised Somsack money if he came back to his apartment, he then drugged and molested him. Dahmer was arrested for the attack and pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual assault and luring a minor for immoral purposes.

He served one year in prison for the assault and was released on a probationary period of five years. It was during this period of probation that Dahmer killed 12 men and boys, including Somsack’s brother Sinthasomphone.

Were the police officers involved in Konerak Sinthasomphone’s death fired?

John Balcerzak and Joseph T .Gabrish were the officers who responded to the call and were later joined by Richard Porubcan - the three men sent Konerak back to Dahmer’s apartment. Konerak was naked, bruised and bleeding and visibly under the influence of drugs when the officers arrived at the scene.

They recorded the incident as a domestic squabble between homosexuals and left Konerack with Dahmer. He was killed an hour after the officers left. If the officers had verified Dahmer’s identity they would have learned that he was a sex offender - additionally, if they had searched his apartment, which they noted had a strange smell, they would have found the body of Tony Hughes, who Dahmer had killed three days earlier.

The officers were suspended when their unwitting role in the killing was revealed (Balcerzak and Gabrish were fired) but all three were later reinstated. Balcerzak and Gabrish were awarded $55,000 each in back pay. Balcerzak was elected president of Milwaukee Police Association in 2005 and stayed in the position until 2009. He retired from the police force in 2017 and now owns a tavern in Milwaukee. Gabrish also retired from the force in the 2010s.