Netflix's hit true crime series Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is full of shocking moments.
The show dramatizes the life of cannibalistic serial killer Dahmer (played by Evan Peters) who murdered, dismembered, and ate 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991.
While Dahmer's calculated and gruesome crimes provide many of the series' twists and turns, one of the most surprising moments comes from the police who failed to turn him in.
The second episode of the show portrays a time that three police officers - John Balcerzak, Richard Porubcan, and Joseph Gabrish - were called to Dahmer's house mere hours before he murdered his youngest victim, 14-year-old Konerak Sinthasomphone.
Officers were first notified that something suspicious was happening in Dahmer's apartment by three women: Sandra Smith, Tina Spivey, and Nicole Childress.
According to a report by The Chicago Tribune, on May 27, 1991, the three witnesses found Sinthasomphone naked, drugged, and disorientated outside Dahmer's home, which he had managed to escape.
They immediately called 911, summoning officers to the scene. However, by the time Balcerzak and Gabrish had arrived, Dahmer had caught up with his soon-to-be victim and was holding him up.
Officers questioned Dahmer, who convinced them that Sinthasomphone was his 19-year-old house guest named John Mung, and that the reason he was acting so strangely was that he was drunk.
The serial killer even handed over his personal details to Balcerzak and allowed the officers into his home, where they reportedly saw no sign of a struggle.
After another officer, Porubcan, arrived for backup, they carried Sinthasomphone into Dahmer's apartment and left them to it. Just 30 minutes later, the 14-year-old was killed.
When Dahmer was finally arrested two months later in July 1991, he admitted that he had strangled Sinthasomphone immediately after the officers left.
He also confessed that - had the police searched his apartment - they would have found another victim's body in the bedroom. Meanwhile, if the police had properly validated Dahmer's identity, they would have found that he was a registered sex offender who molested Sinthasomphone's older brother in 1988.
Despite failing to prevent Sinthasomphone's death and allowing Dahmer to go free to kill four more men before his arrest, the cops received relatively light punishments.
Balcerzak and Gabrish were fired, and Porubcan was briefly suspended. However, both Gabrish and Balcerzak were reinstated just a few years later and received back pay.
Balcerzak even went on to become the president of the Milwaukee Police Union, before both and Gabrish retired in the late 2010s.
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