The Disappearance of Steven Tuomi

Steven Walter Tuomi can be seen smiling in the picture above.

On September 15th, 1987, a 24 year old by the name of Steven Tuomi went missing after leaving his job at a restaurant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was never seen again.

Steven was a pretty normal guy. He had grown up in Ontonagon, Michigan, where he graduated from Ontonagon Area High School in 1981. So why the sudden disappearance? Tuomi left all his clothes behind, as well as multiple paychecks from his job.

Steven’s family tried searching for him on their own, but when that proved futile, they filed an official missing persons report with the police in December — three months since Tuomi was last seen.

It wasn’t until 1991, however, that they were given any answers about where he had gone. See, in 1991, infamous serial killer, Jeffrey Dahmer — or, the Milwaukee Cannibal — was finally apprehended by police.

Dahmer claimed that Steven Tuomi was one of his victims. Though Dahmer originally said he couldn’t remember the details of Steven Tuomi’s death, he later recalled that he had murdered Tuomi in a rented room at Ambassador Hotel in Milwaukee. While he couldn’t remember the details of that particular murder, he claimed he met Steven that September evening, and stated that he must have “battered” Tuomi to death in the hotel room while in a drunken stupor.

Dahmer attested he brought the body back to his grandmother’s house, where he dismembered it in the basement and then discarded it in the trash.

Later in 1991, Dahmer was charged with the rape, murder, dismemberment, and cannibalism of up to 17 young men and sentenced to life in prison.

Regretfully, the “Milwaukee Cannibal” was not charged with Tuomi’s death because the remains were never located. Tuomi may never be put to rest properly, but there is a small bright side to this story. In a shocking turn of events, Jeffrey Dahmer was killed while incarcerated in 1994 by a fellow inmate.

Steven Walter Tuomi may have died too soon, but I believe karma had a hand to play in this when a man named Christopher J. Scarver committed his fatal assault against Jeffrey Dahmer at the Colombia Correctional Institution. What do you think?

If you have any cases you’d like to see me cover on my blog next, email me at historyofmurderblog@gmail.com