Matthew John Dunmire was a 31-year-old aspiring musician and father of two who lived in Cleveland, Ohio. A former resident of Smithfield, Virginia, Matthew was remembered by friends and family as a free spirit who loved playing his guitar. His best friend described him as a giving, supportive, and selfless person who always put others first, while an uncle recalled that he "couldn't even think this kid could harm a flea."
He was a White man.
On March 5, 2021, Dunmire told coworkers at the Tiki Underground restaurant that he was planning to meet a woman from out of town for the weekend. Later that day, colleagues saw him leave with a brown-haired woman in a white Smart car. It was the last time he was seen alive. On March 7, hikers discovered Dunmire's body in a wooded area of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Valley View, near the Terra Vista Cemetery. An autopsy determined he had died from a single gunshot wound to the back of his head, and his death was ruled a homicide.
The investigation was a joint effort by the Valley View Police Department, the National Park Service Investigative Service Branch, and the FBI's Violent Crime Task Force. Using surveillance footage and license plate readers, investigators tracked the white Smart car to a U.S. Coast Guardsman who lived in northern Virginia with his wife, Chelsea Denise Perkins. GPS data from Dunmire's phone showed he had been at an Airbnb in Cleveland that Perkins had rented.
Witnesses in the park told investigators they had seen a woman matching Perkins's description on the day of the murder, noting she seemed out of place in all-black clothing and knee-high boots rather than hiking attire. Another couple reported hearing a gunshot around noon before seeing a car that matched the Smart car leaving the area. Investigators found that on the same day, Perkins drove to Michigan to get a tattoo. Her DNA matched samples taken from Dunmire's body, and a handgun found at her former home in Virginia was identified as the murder weapon.
In December 2021, Chelsea Perkins, then 31, was arrested at her home in Pensacola, Florida. A federal grand jury indicted her on two counts of murder and a firearms charge. Perkins, a veteran, had previously accused Dunmire of rape in 2017, but he was never prosecuted. Her attorneys initially planned to argue self-defense.
The case faced numerous delays. In March 2024, Perkins rejected a plea deal that would have resulted in a sentence of 27 to 31 years. However, less than a week before her trial was scheduled to begin, she changed her mind. In May 2025, Chelsea Perkins, then 35, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and using a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.
