*Trigger alert*: self-harm, suicide, violence.

Netflix'south true crime series, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story , has consistently been at the top of the streaming service's most-viewed list since its release last month. And not long after, a doctor covering the notorious serial killer, Jeffrey Dahmer'south, confession tapes dropped, as well, and then it'southward no wonder everyone has a lot of questions nearly the human.

In example you're not familiar with the proper name, Jeffrey Dahmer went on a killing spree from 1978 to 1991, ofttimes targeting gay men of color, per Biography. He regularly took photos of the men while dismembering their dead bodies, had sex with their corpses, and kept gruesome souvenirs, including decapitated heads and genitalia. He even reportedly ate some of their bodies subsequently their death.

The limited serial and docuseries give everyone a little glimpse into the lives of the real people who were affected by Dahmer's crimes, including his victims, neighbors like Glenda Cleveland, his father Lionel, his stepmother Shari, his brother David, and grandmother.

Dahmer, who was murdered in prison in 1994, was raised past Lionel and Joyce Dahmer. While Lionel has spoken out about his son'southward crimes several times, even writing a book most information technology, Joyce tended to stay much quieter on the subject.

And so, who is Joyce Dahmer and what happened to her? Here's what yous need to know.

Who is Joyce Dahmer?

Joyce Dahmer is the biological female parent of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Her ex-husband (and Jeffrey'due south father) Lionel Dahmer said in his 1994 book, A Father's Story, that Joyce had difficult pregnancies with Jeffrey and his trivial brother David. During those pregnancies, she had muscle stiffness (along with other symptoms) and was prescribed phenobarbital and morphine, he said.

She went past "Rocky."

Joyce is called "Rocky" in a Milwaukee Journal Spotter article, also equally in other news pieces, but in that location's no clear explanation equally to why this was her nickname.

Joyce after used the surname "Flint" instead of "Dahmer."

She struggled with mental illness.

In the limited series, Joyce's mental health struggles were depicted in intense and cluttered scenes. While information technology's unclear how much of the depiction was based in fact, Lionel did country in his book that Joyce suffered from postpartum psychosis after giving birth to David. In example you're non familiar with it, postpartum psychosis is a rare condition that tin happen after someone gives nascence.

In 2018, the condition affected about betwixt one and two of 1000 women and often requires medical treatment, according to a study in The National Library of Medicine.

According to the Mayo Clinic, symptoms can include:

  • Defoliation and disorientation
  • Obsessive thoughts about your infant
  • Hallucinations and delusions
  • Sleep disturbances
  • Excessive energy and agitation
  • Paranoia
  • Attempts to impairment yourself or your baby

The Milwaukee Periodical Lookout noted that "psychiatrists had said that Rocky was not responsible for what her son became, merely she always wondered."

Joyce too continued to struggle with her mental health later on her son'southward crimes came to light, and she tried to take her own life in 1994, per the United Press International. The outlet noted that Joyce turned on her gas oven and left its door open up. She was found lying confront-downwards in her home with a will and alphabetic character and was taken to a hospital where she recovered.

Although Jeffrey was still alive when Joyce made her suicide effort, she had planned to exit all her holding in her will to her younger son David, per the United Press International.

She and Lionel divorced in the 70s.

Joyce and Lionel divorced in 1978 when Jeffrey graduated loftier schoolhouse, according to HITC. Joyce won custody of David, who was 12 at the time, and Jeffrey stayed with his dad since he was close to graduating from loftier schoolhouse. Around this time, Jeffrey killed his first victim.

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Joyce believed her son was a 'victim of a compulsion'

In a 1993 interview, Joyce said Jeffrey was a "victim of a compulsion, an obsession," she told Hard Copy.

"Intellectually I know that I had washed a proficient job as a parent. I knew this had to come from something outside of Jeff ... we withal do blame mothers," she said.

Joyce besides believed Jeffrey should have had access to treatment. "He's not a monster. He'southward a human being being. And I think he deserves some help," she said, per TODAY.

She spoke to Jeffrey when he was in prison.

Earlier his death in 1994, Joyce was talking to her imprisoned son at least once a week, per the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

"I said to him, I asked him, `Do you nonetheless have these urges?' " she said at ane point. "He said, `Yes, Mom, I'm and then glad I'm locked upwardly. I'd be agape what I'd practice if I weren't locked up.'"

She really wanted his brain studied.

Joyce believed that there were biological reasons for Jeffrey's crimes, and she told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Jeffrey "ever said that, if he could be of any help, he wanted to practice whatever he could." So, Joyce wanted to donate his brain to be studied after his death.

His brain was preserved in formaldehyde after he was killed by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver, but Lionel wanted Jeffrey's brain to exist cremated with the rest of his trunk, according to the Los Angeles Times. In December 1995, his brain was cremated.

At one indicate, she planned to live with her son David.

Joyce was planning to move in with David (he was going by a different name at this fourth dimension), who was living in another city in the Midwest, she told the Milwaukee Periodical Sentinel, per TODAY. She had hit difficult times with her finances, and her job didn't bring in much money. Her Fresno dwelling house had also gone into foreclosure in 1996.

Where is she now?

Joyce died of breast cancer in 2000, co-ordinate to Deseret News. At the time of her decease, Joyce was a example director at the Central Valley AIDS Team and founder of "The Living Room," an HIV community center that opened in Fresno, California, in 1996.

"Everybody loved her. She would do anything for her clients and for anybody actually. She was just this wonderful person," Julio Mastro, the Living Room's executive director, told the newspaper at the time.