Hey guys, welcome to episode 227 of the True Crime Couple.

I'm Kay.

And I'm John.

We hope you're all doing well and that you're ready for another episode.

As always, if you're new to joining our Patreon, where you can get ad-free episodes and two bonus episodes a month,

stay tuned at the end of the episode for a shout out and a personal

thank you. If you'd like to help us out and join as well, you can go to patreon.com

slash true crime couple and just sync up that RSS feed to whatever app you use to listen to

podcasts. Okay. Now with that stuff out of the way, John, are you ready to hear something crazy?

Of course.

Two screams pierce the silent, unseasonably warm and windy night of October 13, 1997 in Lawrenceville, Illinois.

The first was that of 10-year-old Joel Kirkpatrick,

as he desperately sought help against the person who had entered his room in the black of night

and had attacked him with a knife. The second scream was that of his mother's, as she ran to

the neighbor's house and pounded on their door, desperately seeking help.

She begged for them to open up.

They've got Joel, she bellowed into the closed door.

They took Joel.

Once the shock of what happened settled, and the years went on, the question that lingered was whether

or not the person that hurt Joel was the least-likeliest of suspects, or the dangerous

stranger that had rolled into town with the warm wind.

Police say the suspect, 31-year-old Jeffrey Dahmer has confessed to the killings of 11

...