Cannibal killer Jeffrey Dahmer should have been locked up back in May 1991 says a woman who desperately tried to warn police after witnessing one of his horrific crimes.
But authorities refused to listen to Nicole Childress and let Dahmer go moments before he chopped up his 14-year-old victim and put his head in a freezer.
The grim crimes are portrayed in the new Netflix show Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.
Nicole was just 17 at the time and staying with her cousin Sandra Smith, 18, and aunt Glenda Cleveland when she came face-to-face with the killer.
Her aunt was living near Dahmer's infamous Oxford Apartments in Milwaukee, US, at the time.
On May 27, 1991, Nicole was out with her cousin when she saw Dahmer dragging his youngest victim, 14-year-old Konerak Sinthasomphone, back into a building as he attempted to escape the killer's torture.
She said: "I'm 17 at the time, I was looking out the window. I saw someone that appeared to look naked. It was a young boy.
“They were kind of just staggering. And falling and staying down for a little bit and get up fall back down.”
Nicole ran to the boy's aid as he tried to flee, and recounted the harrowing moment he held onto her before she called the police.
"He was holding on to me with a really, really strong grip, and he was trembling. He was shaking."
In a 911 call, Nicole told police that the young boy was beaten, bruised, and desperately needed some help.
She said: "And as I was speaking to the operator, there was a man who appeared a tall, white, nice looking male [Dahmer].
“He was coming toward the boy, and he ends up grabbing them by his arm taking them behind his back and yanking him up and force him, and the boy is you know, kind of just trying to get away, but he can't because he [was] really weak."
Dahmer began yanking the young boy up, which is when Nicole noticed "blood in [the boy's] rectum".
"At this point, I really get physical," she said.
Nicole urged Dahmer to let the boy go and insisted she wouldn’t let Dahmer take him as they continued to struggle in the street before police arrived.
But when police arrived, Dahmer was able to convince them that the boy was his 'friend' and that he had drunkenly wandered off.
The authorities allowed Dahmer to take the boy back to his apartment, but if they had taken Nicole’s pleas seriously that day, another four murders would have been prevented.
Tapes of the police call to dispatchers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin reveals an officer saying: “The intoxicated Asian naked male [laughter in background] was returned to his sober boyfriend.”
Within hours, Dahmer murdered the 14-year-old schoolboy.
If police had searched the apartment on North 25th Street, they would have found numerous skulls, heads and other body parts in Dahmer’s fridge and freezer.
In the weeks that followed, Dahmer carried out four more murders - Matt Turner, 20, Oliver Lacy, 23, Jeremiah Weinberger, 23, and Joseph Bradehoft, 25.
Then, another victim Tracy Edwards, then 32, managed to escape the apartment and alert the authorities, leading to Dahmer’s arrest.
In the apartment, police found a freshly severed head in the fridge.
As Dahmer was pinned on the floor, he said: “For what I did, I should be dead.”
