 In one instance, Dahmer decapitated the carcass of a dog before nailing the body to a tree and impaling the skull on a stake beside a wooden cross in woods near his house.His fascination with dead animals might have begun when, at the age of four, he saw his father removing animal bones from beneath the family home.According to Lionel, Dahmer was "oddly thrilled" by the sound the bones made, and became preoccupied with animal bones.