Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast · Ben Gibson

Chelsea Perkins - Revenge Murder

·50 min·1 clip

She had been seen near the exact area where Matthew's body would later be found, witnesses placing her within a narrow window of time.

This episode of Wicked and Grim, hosted by Ben and Nicole, details the 2021 murder of Matthew Dunmire and the vigilante violence it later sparked. The case centers on Chelsea Perkins, a former U.S. Coast Guard member and mother from Virginia, who was accused of killing Dunmire in an Ohio national park. Investigators pieced together a timeline showing Perkins drove from Virginia to meet Dunmire on March 5, 2021, and they spent the night at an Airbnb she booked. The following morning, hikers in Cuyahoga Valley National Park heard a gunshot and later encountered a woman dressed in black who said she was lost. Matthew Dunmire's body was found days later with a single execution-style gunshot wound to the back of the head. Digital evidence placed both Perkins and Dunmire in the park at the time of his death, and toll records showed her car traveling back to Virginia hours afterward. A critical piece of evidence was an Aquafina water bottle found near the body, which forensic testing revealed contained both Dunmire's and Perkins's DNA. Investigators uncovered a 2017 police report where Perkins had accused Dunmire of sexual assault, though no charges were filed due to insufficient evidence. A search of Perkins's home recovered a 9mm pistol that ballistics matched to the bullet taken from Dunmire's skull. Perhaps the most damning find was a draft suicide note, written from Matthew's perspective, discovered in the deleted data on Chelsea Perkins's phone. In a tragic parallel, Dunmire's mother, Tommy Lynn Dunmire, embarked on her own misguided quest for justice months later. Convinced she had identified her son's killer, Tommy Lynn, with her husband John as a getaway driver, shot an innocent woman in Washington D.C. while posing as a UPS delivery person. After the shooting, Tommy Lynn took her own life with the same firearm as police closed in, while her husband later pleaded guilty to accessory charges. Despite overwhelming evidence, including the drafted suicide note indicating premeditation, Chelsea Perkins initially rejected a plea deal of 27 to 31 years in prison. Her defense strategy aimed to argue the killing was tied to past trauma rather than being a premeditated first-degree murder. The hosts express shock at the convoluted tragedy, noting how both Perkins and Dunmire's mother took violent matters into their own hands with devastating results. The tone is conversational and investigative, blending narrative storytelling with the hosts' reactive commentary to the case's twists. Listeners who appreciate complex true crime stories exploring motive, trauma, and unintended consequences will be gripped by this episode. Those sensitive to themes of sexual assault, vigilante violence, and familial tragedy may find the content particularly heavy.

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