Woman charged with murder of Matthew John Dunmire

According to Pensacola News Journal,

A Pensacola woman has been arrested and charged with the murder of a man found dead in Ohio’s Cuyahoga Valley National Park last March.

Matthew John Dunmire, 31, a Cleveland resident from Smithfield, Virginia, was found dead March 7, 2021, by hikers at a section of the park in Independence, Ohio.

Chelsea Denise Perkins, 31, was arrested Thursday at her home on Breckenridge Road in Pensacola, federal authorities announced. She is being held in the Santa Rosa County Jail without bond.

According to court records, a witness identified Perkins as the woman who picked up Dunmire from his job at the Tiki Underground restaurant and lounge just south of Route 303 on the Hudson border on March 5.

His body was found by hikers March 7 in a cemetery in the Terra Vista Study area of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Valley View. He was found to have died of a single gunshot wound to the back of the head.

Using video surveillance footage from various locations and cellphone data, investigators said they tracked the woman’s car and Dunmire’s location through the area. A license plate reader in Cleveland caught Perkins’ license plate number.

They further connected the two to an Airbnb investigators said Perkins had rented, as well as to the cemetery the next day, where witnesses said they had seen Perkins’ vehicle and heard a gunshot a little before noon. Those witnesses left the area.

Other hikers found Dunmire’s body the next day, and investigators said they found DNA evidence that connected Perkins and Dunmire at the scene.

According to court documents, investigators tracked down Perkins to her former home in Arlington, Virginia, where they found her DNA on a handgun that matched one used in the shooting.

Perkins is charged with murder and was scheduled to have an initial appearance in federal court in Florida on Thursday.

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