"Every Drawer We Opened": Detective Michael Dubis Recalls the Night of Jeffrey Dahmer's Arrest, 2023

Name: "Every Drawer We Opened": Detective Michael Dubis Recalls the Night of Jeffrey Dahmer's Arrest, 2023
Uploaded: 2023-09-19T00:00:00Z
Duration: 4 min 48 s
Description: Retired Milwaukee Police Lt. Michael Dubis tells "Fox & Friends" in 2023 what he says he found in Jeffrey Dahmer's apartment on the night of the arrest and how he answered a call from Dahmer's father, with a brief excerpt of Dahmer's prison phone calls.

Retired Milwaukee Police Lt. Michael Dubis tells "Fox & Friends" in 2023 what he says he found in Jeffrey Dahmer's apartment on the night of the arrest and how he answered a call from Dahmer's father, with a brief excerpt of Dahmer's prison phone calls.

Subject: Jeffrey Dahmer
Recorded: September 19, 2023
Runtime: 4:48

Content warning: Refers to human remains found in Dahmer's apartment and to cannibalism; no further graphic detail.

The Interview

This is a "Fox & Friends" segment from September 2023, made to promote the Fox Nation series "My Son Jeffrey: The Dahmer Family Tapes". It opens with a few seconds of recorded telephone calls between Jeffrey Dahmer and his father, Lionel, in which Dahmer is heard briefly. The rest is a live interview with Michael Dubis, a retired Milwaukee Police lieutenant, conducted by a host he addresses as Ainsley.

Historical Context

Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested at the Oxford Apartments in Milwaukee late on July 22, 1991, after Tracy Edwards escaped from apartment 213 and flagged down two patrol officers, Robert Rauth and Rolf Mueller. Remains of several victims were found in the apartment. Dahmer killed 17 males between 1978 and 1991, was convicted of 16 murders, and was killed in prison on November 28, 1994.

Circumstances

Dubis was not one of the arresting officers, despite the YouTube title. In his account, he was sent to the apartment as a homicide detective after the discovery, to meet another detective. He says he served 12 years as a homicide detective and stayed in the homicide division as a lieutenant and later captain. His presence at the scene and his career details are his own statements and have not been independently verified.

What the Recording Covers

In the opening audio, Dahmer says that he "pretty much was doing things in my own little world" and that "all the time that I should have been caught, I never was"; his father asks whether Satan was involved. Dubis says detectives were told there "might be a human head in a box", that they found heads and bones, and that there were body parts in every drawer and cabinet they opened. He says the apartment phone kept ringing until he answered it; it was Lionel Dahmer, and he told him his son was not hurt and was downtown with other detectives. Asked about the father's tone on the tapes, Dubis says Lionel was comforting his son. He describes the smell in the apartment as "a very sweet smell", "chemically" rather than the smell of death, and says it still lingers in the room where Dahmer's property was stored. He says he has had "uneasy nights, not nightmares".

What Makes the Recording Significant

It records the recollections of an investigator who says he was inside apartment 213 on the night of the arrest, including his account of speaking to Lionel Dahmer by phone, and it carries a short sample of the family's recorded calls.

Archival Importance

The segment is promotional and conversational, and its factual content is limited to Dubis's memories.

Important Caveats

The YouTube title calls Dubis the "cop who arrested Jeffrey Dahmer"; the arrest was made by Officers Robert Rauth and Rolf Mueller. Dubis's account of the phone call and the lingering smell has not been confirmed by any source checked. The host says Dahmer "murdered 17 people": he killed 17 but was convicted of 16 murders. The opening telephone audio is undated in the recording. The host's surname is not given on tape (probably Ainsley Earhardt, not verified).

Lionel Dahmer: [Music] [unclear: "What's" / "It's"] really been puzzling me is how come I just didn't know anything about this.

Jeffrey Dahmer: [unclear: "Very" / "I"] pretty much was doing things in my own little world. Amazingly, all the time that I should have been caught, I never was.

Lionel Dahmer: You think that maybe Satan was involved?

Fox & Friends Host: Chilling, never-before-heard prison phone calls between the infamous serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and his father are now seeing the light of day, thanks to a new Fox Nation series which explores the life and crimes of one of the most notorious killers in American history. Retired Milwaukee Police Lieutenant Michael Dubis worked on this case extensively and was on the scene at Dahmer's apartment the night of his arrest, and he joins us now. Good morning to you.

Michael Dubis: Good morning, Ainsley.

Fox & Friends Host: Good morning. So Michael, what was that night like? What did you see?

Michael Dubis: Well, we, we got sent up to the apartment there to meet another detective, and we were told that there were some pictures in the apartment, and we were told that there might be a human head in a box. Um, that's pretty way out there, as far as even a homicide detective, and when we arrived, that's exactly what we had. Um, we started looking around a little bit and make sure there were no other, uh, no other victims or anybody else in the apartment, and there were human heads and bones and, and things all over. Every drawer we opened, every cabinet we opened, uh, there was, uh, um, body parts.

Fox & Friends Host: Wow. And then the phone rang when you're in his apartment, right? It was his dad.

Michael Dubis: Right. Um, I did watch the series, uh, last night, the first episode anyways, and that's pretty much the way it went down. The phone kept ringing and ringing and ringing and ringing, and finally I just picked it up and answered it, and, uh, it was his dad, Lionel, and we spoke for a few minutes. I told him that Jeffrey was okay, that we were investigating a homicide, but that, um, he was downtown, he was talking to some other detectives, he wasn't hurt. And, uh, that was pretty much the end of that conversation.

Fox & Friends Host: Michael, when you hear the dad, and we've, I haven't seen the Fox Nation special because it just dropped this week, when you hear those clips, which we just played, his dad's voice sounds so normal. Like, uh, "How did I not know about this?" instead of like, "What were you thinking?" I mean, for even a dad to call, I know a father's love is unconditional for their child, but when your son has murdered 17 people and it's done in such a gruesome way, I'm not sure a father's voice... It just seemed so abnormal to me. What were your thoughts?

Michael Dubis: Well, I think that, um, as you say, I have three boys of my own, and, uh, um, Lionel was, was comforting Jeffrey, uh, trying to get him to understand where he's at. Um, and I, I don't know what Lionel's, uh, ideas were about recording all of it, but it really gives us an insight into what was going on and what the family, uh, motives were there.

Fox & Friends Host: Michael, if you, if you watch some of the, the documentaries that have been made about this, there was the lady next door that lived next door to him, and she kept complaining, but she didn't want to lose her housing. And so she was walking a fine line, but there were machines he was using, saws he was using. She had the odors, and some of the clips, you see him, you know, doing the unthinkable. He was a cannibal. He would kill them, and then, and then, I don't want to say it on morning television because kids are watching and eating their cereal, but you know the rest of the story. How accurate are these documentaries?

Michael Dubis: They're very close. Um, I know that the smell in his apartment was not that of death. I've, again, I've been, I was a homicide detective for 12 years, and then I, when I made lieutenant and eventually captain, I stayed in the homicide division. Um, it was a very sweet smell. It was a very chemically smell. Uh, ironically enough, the smell is still in the room where all of his, uh, property went that morning.

Fox & Friends Host: Wow.

Michael Dubis: Um, I walk in there and it's, uh, it's still, I go walk back into it.

Fox & Friends Host: Wow. Do you ever have nightmares about what you saw?

Michael Dubis: Uneasy nights. Not nightmares.

Fox & Friends Host: Especially being a father yourself and having three sons. All of his victims were men. Michael, thank you so much. Thanks for participating in the Fox News special, because that is all accurate. That is not fabricated at all. It's an exclusive series called "My Son Jeffrey: The Dahmer Family Tapes." It's available now on foxnation.com. Michael, again, thank you, and thank you for your service. [04:48: clip ends.] ---