 On this occasion, rather than immediately acidifying the skeleton or repeating previous processes of bleaching (which had rendered previous victims' skulls brittle), Dahmer placed Smith's skeleton in his freezer for several months in the hope it would not retain moisture.Freezing the skeleton did not remove moisture, and the skeleton of this victim would be acidified several months later.Dahmer accidentally destroyed the skull when he placed it in the oven to dry—a process that caused the skull to explode.