MILWAUKEE -- Jeffrey L. Dahmer has admitted to butchering 11 people in his apartment and killing a boyhood acquaintance in Ohio, but he was not involved in other unsolved slayings in Florida, California and Germany, his attorney said.
Authorities in Ohio, meanwhile, said Sunday they expect to find the remains of a man believed to be Dahmer's first victim when they dig up the backyard of Dahmer's boyhood home this week in Bath Township.
Police uncovered Dahmer's killing spree last week when they found the dismembered bodies of 11 men and boys in his fly-infested Milwaukee apartment. The gruesome discovery prompted police around the country and in Germany to re-examine unsolved slayings to see if they fit Dahmer's method of operation.
Milwaukee Police Chief Philip Arreola has said police have information linking Dahmer to six homicides outside Wisconsin, going as far back as 10 years.
Authorities in Hollywood, Fla; Fresno, Calif.; and Baumholder, Germany, have said they were looking into possible connections between Dahmer and unsolved homicides in their areas.
In a statement Dahmer issued Saturday through his attorney, Gerald Boyle, Dahmer denied any involvement in slayings other than the 12 to which he has admitted.
Boyle said he was authorized by Dahmer to release this statement:
'I have told the police everything I have done relative to these (12) homicides. I have not committed any such crimes anywhere in the world other than this state, except I have admitted an incident in Ohio. I have not committed any homicide in any foreign country or in any other state. I have been totally cooperative and would have admitted other crimes if I did them. I did not. Hopefully this will serve to put rumors to rest.'
Dahmer has been charged with four counts of first-degree intentional homicide, based on his confessions to police and the physical evidence of bodies and body parts found in his apartment. Charges are pending in the other seven Milwaukee slayings.
On Friday, Dahmer, 31, confessed to killing a 19-year-old man in 1978 in Bath Township. Dahmer was 18 years old at the time, living with his father and stepmother
Police in the northern Ohio town said they will dig up the backyard of Dahmer's childhood home on Tuesday to look for the body of Steven M. Hicks, who disappeared June 18, 1978.
'There's a high level of probability that the remains are likely to be those of Steven Hicks,' Summit County Sheriff David Troutman said Sunday at a news conference.
Several years ago the current homeowner found a bone in his yard while landscaping and assumed it was an animal bone. However, it's now suspected the bone was human, Troutman said.
Troutman said Dahmer was able to provide Summit County detective John Karabatsos with details about Hicks.
'Dahmer was extremely cooperative,' said Karabatsos. 'He recognized Hicks' name and provided the kind of details that indicated he had known him.'
A search warrant has been obtained to dig up and search the yard. The current homeowner has temporarily moved out of the house to permit full access to authorities, Troutman said.
In Hollywood, about 25 miles north of Miami, police were investigating the possibility Dahmer was connected with the disappearance and killing of 6-year-old Adam Walsh. The boy was abducted from a Hollywood shopping center 10 years ago and his head was found several months later in central Florida.
Fresno Police are still looking into a connection between Dahmer and a human foot found in a Fresno field four months ago. The foot may have belonged to Patrick Lawrence VanZant, 31, who failed to return home on May 4, 1990.
Dahmer's mother, Joyce A. Flint, reportedly lives in Fresno and authorities believed Dahmer may have gone there to visit her.
German police continue to investigate whether Dahmer may have been involved in the death of a young woman while Dahmer served in the Army in Baumholder, West Germany. Erika Hansthuh, 22, was found stabbed and strangled on Nov. 30, 1980, a few days after hitchhiking from Heidelberg. Her body was found frozen in snow about 50 miles from Baumholder.
