Curtis Durrell Straughter was a 17-year-old Black male who disappeared from Milwaukee on February 18, 1991. His grandmother, Katherine Straughter, reported last seeing him that day. According to Jeffrey Dahmer’s statement to police, Dahmer approached Curtis near a bus stop by Marquette University, offered him money to accompany him to an apartment at 924 North 25th Street, Apartment 213, then gave him a drugged drink. Dahmer said Curtis was sexually assaulted, strangled with a strap, dismembered, photographed, and that Dahmer retained the skull.

Months passed while Curtis’s disappearance remained unresolved until Dahmer’s arrest on July 22, 1991, after Tracy Edwards escaped and police searched the apartment. Investigators recovered photographs and human remains; an unpainted skull was compared to Curtis’s dental records and identified by Dr. I. T. Johnson as his. Milwaukee County charged Dahmer with first-degree intentional homicide for Curtis’s killing (listed as Count 05, alleging death on or about February 18, 1991). Dahmer pleaded guilty but insane to 15 Milwaukee County killings including Curtis’s; a jury found him legally sane on February 15, 1992, and on February 17, 1992 he was sentenced to 15 consecutive life terms. Curtis’s mother, Dorothy Straughter, addressed the court during sentencing.

Does anyone have memories of Curtis or information about his life in Milwaukee that could add to the record?