Although it's been over 30 years since the Milwaukee Monster's reign of terror came to an end, Jeffrey Dahmer's horrific crimes have gained renewed interest with Netflix's limited series Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.
The spotlight on the prolific serial killer comes at the price of rubbing salt in the wounds of those personally affected by the atrocities he committed. One of those impacted was Cola Styles, who encountered Dahmer when she found one of his victims wandering naked outside, beaten and bloody.
Though she called 911 to help the nearly unresponsive boy, 14-year-old Konerak Sinthasomphone, police believed Dahmer's claims that Sinthasomphone was his 19-year-old lover. Despite Styles and her aunt Glenda Cleveland's pleas for the police to realize Sinthasomphone was in grave danger, they released the boy into the killer's care.
Dahmer would later tell investigators that he had killed and dismembered Sinthasomphone soon after authorities left his apartment that night; he would go on to commit four other murders between that night and his apprehension two months later.
Sitting down with Milwaukee's Spectrum News 1 following the Netflix series' release, Styles says she hasn't been able to make herself watch the numerous films, shows, specials, and documentaries that have arisen from Dahmer's case.
In fact, she says that she wishes she could wipe the experience from her memory.
"I was wondering if I could get hypnotized so I could block that part of my life out. I really did not want to think about it," Styles, who has gone by an alias since the early 90s to distance herself from the case, said.
Styles Details Encounter with Dahmer: I Saw a 'Streak of Evil'
Styles was only 17 years old when she came across the dazed Sinthasomphone outside her aunt's apartment in Milwaukee. Unbeknownst to her, Sinthasomphone had been drugged by Dahmer and had hydrochloric acid injected into his skull.
Styles called 911 and was comforting the boy when she was approached by Dahmer. The killer first tried joking with Styles and her cousin to get them to release Sinthasomphone to him, then got aggressive when they didn't buy his act.
"When I told him we dialed 911, he joked that 'Jim' had wandered off from being drunk. But then the name kept changing from Jim. And when he saw I wasn't buying it, I did see a streak of evil in him. And then he was handling the boy in a rough way, trying to take him away. There was a lot of yanking and twisting his arm, just being really aggressive," Styles recounted to Fox News in 2020.
"I just couldn't understand why he was giving me such a hard time knowing help was on the way. I just didn't have a good feeling," she added.
Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is now streaming on Netflix.