Anthony Tony Hughes was 31 and living in Madison when he returned to Milwaukee in May 1991 to visit family and friends. Deaf since early childhood, he communicated by sign language, lip-reading and written notes. On the night of May 24 he went to Club 219 on South Second Street and was last seen there leaving with Jeffrey Dahmer.

According to the criminal complaint, Dahmer said he met Hughes near the club and, after writing to communicate, offered $50 to come to his apartment at 924 North 25th Street to pose for photographs and watch videos. The complaint alleges Dahmer gave Hughes a drink containing a sleeping substance, and after Hughes became incapacitated Dahmer killed him, dismembered the body and retained the skull. Investigators later recovered a skull and vertebrae identified by dental records as Hughes. He was reported missing to Madison police on May 31.

The truth about Hughes’s fate emerged after Dahmer’s July 22 arrest. Prosecutors charged Dahmer with first-degree intentional homicide in Hughes’s death as Count 7 of the Wisconsin complaint. Dahmer later pleaded guilty but insane to 15 Wisconsin murders; a Milwaukee County jury found him legally sane and he received consecutive life sentences. Does anyone who knew Tony or saw him in Milwaukee that week have information that could add detail about his last hours?