Eric Hansen was an 18-year-old White male from St. Francis whose last known movements place him in downtown Milwaukee shortly after bars closed in the early morning of September 27, 1983. A witness later reported seeing him about 2:30 a.m. near a South Water Street bus stop outside the building housing the Paradise Adult Book Store. Four days earlier his father had last seen him; family members said Eric had been moving between friends and had told his mother he planned to move to Indiana. Contemporary accounts also noted he had become involved in sex work and was known in Milwaukee’s gay community.

On October 4, 1983, Eric’s torso was found in a plastic trash bag in woods near Petrifying Springs Park in Somers Township, Kenosha County. His head, arms and legs were removed and were never recovered.

Investigators have examined possible links to several known killers, including Larry Eyler, Joachim Dressler and Jeffrey Dahmer, but none of those avenues produced a charge in Eric’s case. In 2026 a criminologist began an independent, victim-centered review focused on reconstructing Eric’s relationships and final movements because usable DNA evidence is lacking. Does anyone who knew Eric or who frequented Milwaukee’s Third Ward and Walker’s Point nightlife in the early 1980s have information that could help?