Laotian Family Fails To Escape Horror -- Son Assaulted; Brother Is Slain

MILWAUKEE - A family who fled Laos a decade ago was unable to escape the horror of molestation and murder in two encounters with Jeffrey Dahmer, who is accused of killing and dismembering victims in his apartment.

The first ended with a teenage boy's molestation. The second ended with the mutilation death of a younger brother.

Less than two years after Dahmer apologized for sexually assaulting the teenage boy, the family learned late Thursday that his younger brother, Konerak Sinthasomphone, 14, was found among 11 mutilated bodies in Dahmer's apartment.

"Obviously anyone who has gone through such a tragedy as this would wonder if they've chosen the right path for their lives," the Rev. Peter Burns, a Roman Catholic priest and family friend, said yesterday.

"The family is filled with a lot of different emotion. Anger is certainly one of them," Burns said at a news conference at the family's home. "They hope and pray no one else will ever have to endure such a tragedy again."

Konerak Sinthasomphone had been missing since May 26, when he disappeared on a Sunday afternoon after leaving his family's home on Milwaukee's north side. His body was among those found Monday in Dahmer's apartment.

"We thought it likely that he was in there. The whole thing is crazy. It is terrible. . . . I don't know what to say," Anoukone Sinthasomphone, the 25-year-old brother of the two boys, said yesterday.

Police are investigating reports that two women saw a bleeding, naked Asian boy believed to be Sinthasomphone running down a street near Dahmer's apartment in late May.

Dahmer, 31, a former candy factory worker, has confessed to killing and dismembering the 11 victims found in his apartment, court records said. Police say he may be responsible for at least 17 killings over 10 years.

The two tragedies struck in a family who came to Milwaukee after fleeing Laos in 1980 to escape the repression of communism, members of Milwaukee's Laotian community said.

"It is like you are running and you think you escape but you are coming to a dangerous world in this place," said Shoua Xiong, executive director of the Lao Family Community Inc., which assists Laotians in Milwaukee.

Xiong said many in the Laotian community believe Dahmer stalked Konerak in retaliation for the prior sexual assault conviction.

Police Chief Philip Arreola said there was no immediate indication the younger boy was slain in retaliation for his brother's involvement in the child- abuse conviction.

Jo Kolanda, coordinator of Milwaukee County's victim-witness program, said it is "staggeringly hard" for families to cope with a killing of a relative, let alone have a separate relative previously assaulted by the confessed killer.

"I can't think of anything worse," she said. "I absolutely can't fathom the tragedy of it."

In 1989, Dahmer was convicted of second-degree sexual assault for fondling Sinthasomphone's brother, who was then 13 and now 16. Dahmer offered the boy $50 to pose nude for photos at Dahmer's home in 1989, court records said.

Dahmer was freed after spending 10 months in jail and was placed on five years of probation.

In a December 1989 letter to a judge who granted his early release in March 1990, Dahmer said, "What I did was deplorable. The world has enough misery in it without adding more to it."

He promised to become a productive member of society and to avoid committing any more "deplorable" crimes.