Where Is David Dahmer Today? Jeffrey Dahmer's Younger Brother Changed His Name

The new Netflix series about Jeffrey Dahmer quickly ascended to No. 1 on the streamer’s most-watched TV shows list upon its Sept. 21 premiere — and according to Forbes, it’s the biggest Netflix show since Stranger Things Season 4 dropped this summer. If you’re one of the many viewers who tuned in, you might be feeling unsettled by the latest dramatization of the serial killer’s life and crimes. You likely also have some questions, too — like what happened to Glenda Cleveland, the neighbor who tried to turn in Dahmer? Or Dahmer’s brother, who was still a child when his brother committed his first murder?

If you’re wondering where David Dahmer is today, you’re not alone. As you can see early in the Netflix series, David and the boys’ mother, Joyce Dahmer, moved away when the titular killer was still in high school. According to Esquire, David went on to attend the University of Cincinnati and graduated in 1991. However, we don’t know too much about where David is these days — and that’s by design.

“We’ve promised to keep him completely secret,” Lionel Dahmer, Jeffrey and David’s dad, told Larry King in 2004. He also confirmed that David had changed his name at some point while shedding light on his sons’ relationship growing up. “They enjoyed themselves as brothers, but there was always that seven-year difference in interests,” he said. “So they weren’t as close as someone, maybe, that was one or two years different.”

While Lionel and his second wife, Shari Dahmer, declined to share specifics about the younger Dahmer son’s whereabouts today, they did suggest he was leading a successful, private life. “He has a career, and a family,” Shari said. “He’s very happy. We’re expecting a second grandchild. Everything is going well.”

As for why the pair didn’t change their names, too? “I’m proud of the name Dahmer,” Lionel explained. “My father was a schoolteacher, a barber. He brought himself up by the bootstraps ... [but] when we go out sometimes, we’ll give a different name at a restaurant for example, so that we don’t cause a lot of people to move their heads around.”

Since you probably shouldn’t expect to see or hear from the man formerly known as David Dahmer anytime soon, his family’s assurance that he’s OK is all viewers can go on, for now. Lionel did give another rare interview in 2020, as part of Jeffrey Dahmer: Mind of a Monster, but he didn’t discuss his younger son’s current status at the time.