Overview

• On May 27, 2025, 35-year-old Chelsea Perkins admitted to second-degree murder and firearm charges for the March 6, 2021, slaying of Matthew Dunmire.
• Perkins traveled more than 300 miles from Alexandria, Virginia, to Ohio to meet Dunmire, whom she had accused of raping her in 2017 without charges being filed.
• Prosecutors say she shot Dunmire in the back of the head while hiking off-trail in the Terra Vista area of Cuyahoga Valley National Park, and hikers found his body three days later.
• Investigators from the FBI, National Park Service and state agencies tied Perkins to the crime using GPS data, DNA, phone records, social media and ballistics analysis.
• Her sentencing hearing is set for September 9, 2025, when a federal judge will decide whether to accept a plea deal calling for a 20–25-year prison term.