INFAMOUS serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer’s step-mom Shari has passed away at the age of 81, The U.S. Sun can reveal.
Shari died on Friday evening at a nursing home near her and husband Lionel Dahmer’s home in the village of Seville, Ohio, a source close to the family said.
She is understood to have passed away due to complications related to health problems she had suffered in recent years.
Shari was thrown into the limelight after her step-son’s horrendous crimes emerged following his arrest in 1991.
She stood by the Milwaukee Cannibal’s father as he struggled to come to terms with what his infamous son had done.
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Shari appeared alongside Lionel, 86, when he was interviewed on CNN’s Larry King Live in 2004.
And she was played by actress Molly Ringwald in the controversial hit Netflix drama series Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story last year.
Along with docuseries Conversations With A Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes, the show created renewed public interest in Dahmer’s murder spree, which in some cases involved cannibalism, necrophilia, and the preservation of victims’ body parts.
A source told The U.S. Sun: “Shari passed away on the evening of January 13 so things have been kind of rough.
“Her health had been going downhill for the past couple of years.
“Shari has been living in a nursing home and had made some attempts to try to get better but she just never recovered from any of the health issues she was suffering.
“From what I’ve been told she died from complications due to her illnesses.
“Lionel hasn’t really been able to go see Shari much in recent times, I believe the last time he saw her was in October.
“There is not going to be a funeral, per Shari’s will she didn’t want a service or anything like that.
“She just wanted to be cremated and left instructions in her will on what she wanted done with the ashes.
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“I don’t know if Lionel has come to terms with Shari dying yet but he had probably already faced the fact that he wasn’t going to be able to live with his wife again.”
Shari married Lionel in 1978 after he had divorced Jeffrey’s late mother, Joyce.
She had no kids of her own but described Dahmer as "vulnerable" and said she immediately wanted to mother him when she came into his and his younger brother David’s life.
Shari claimed the killer was "embarrassed and ashamed" of his parents' divorce but was "very good at disguising his feelings."
Despite his gruesome killings, Lionel and Shari stood by him and regularly visited him in prison before his death.
Dahmer killed at least 17 men and boys in Milwaukee and Ohio between 1978 and 1991 before he was murdered behind bars by a fellow inmate in 1994.
The U.S. Sun’s source said: “Shari was a good woman and Lionel wouldn’t be the man he is today without her.
“She was there with him through everything that happened with Jeff, she was Lionel’s rock through it all.
“She also did try to connect with Jeff as his stepmother. She was a good stepmom.
“When the series and documentary came out last year, Shari just wished they would leave it the hell alone, but she used stronger language than that.”
The U.S. Sun reported in October that Lionel was seeking legal advice on whether to sue Netflix over its two new shows about his son.
Lionel was also said to be “still p***ed” over his son’s brutal murder in November 1994.
Dahmer was beaten to death with a metal bar by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver at the Colombia Correctional Institution in Portage, Wisconsin.
The U.S. Sun also reported that sick Dahmer fans had shown up at Lionel’s home following the release of the Netflix series and that Lionel believes his son has been over-sexualized by TV shows and movies about him.