The Plan

Hi, park enthusiasts. I'm your host, Delia D'Ambra, and the case I'm going to share with you today takes place in Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio. In 2025, this recreation space commemorated 50 years of being a designated conservation area for wildlife and plants. According to the National Park Service website, it's situated close to the cities of Akron and Cleveland, Ohio, but it couldn't be more different than the urban environment those cities are composed of. It's home to part of the Cuyahoga River, a scenic railroad, waterfalls, large swaths of farmland, and a variety of trail systems, as well as lots of other outdoor attractions. Back in March 2021, two visitors entered this park, but only one returned. The story of what unfolded during their brief time on a trail together seemed straightforward, but what the investigation into this crime would uncover was anything but a simple narrative. To this day, folks who claim to know those involved in the case, as well as parts of the internet, remain in conflict about perhaps the most important element of this crime, the motive. This is Park Predators. We're here to tell you that Park Predators is safe, safe, safe, safe, safe. We're here to tell you that Park Predators is safe, safe, safe, safe. quote. After that, it doesn't appear that his phone sent any more texts, and the GPS data didn't show it leaving Terra Vista Natural Study Area. On March 15th, so this would have been six days after he was found, that couple who'd been in the park on the morning of the 6th, you know, the ones who heard the gunshot, well, they contacted authorities to report what they knew. According to the FBI's affidavit, that couple said that in addition to hearing gunfire, they also remembered seeing a white smart car with bumper stickers on the back of it parked in the parking lot at the trailhead. They said the car had been there around 10.30am when they'd arrived, and it was still parked by itself, unoccupied, when they left around noontime. Authorities were also able to interview another couple who lived in the area who said that on the 6th, while walking their dog, they'd bumped into a dark-haired young woman who told them she was lost. She claimed she was trying to find a nearby cemetery, but had gotten turned around. The couple who'd interacted with her didn't think she was scary or anything, but they did tell investigators that she was dressed in clothing that didn't seem appropriate for hiking. She was in knee-high black boots, tight black pants, and a hoodie. Which, in my personal experience, is not attire you'd sport while in the woods. Anyway, after walking with the woman for a bit, the couple said they branched off on their own path, and the mystery woman went in the direction of a small cemetery in the woods. Based on what I read in the news coverage and court records for this case, it's clear that law enforcement's investigation into Chelsea as a person of interest for Matthew's murder moved quickly. But at the same time, they also had to use discretion. You see, on March 17th, eight days into the investigation, authorities began surveilling Chelsea and her husband at their apartment in Virginia. Investigators noted that their white smart car was parked outside their place, but some of the unique bumper stickers that had previously been on the car were not. The back of it had been taken off. Almost two weeks later, on March 30th, the FBI formally conducted a search of the car and inside the couple's apartment. Agents ended up seizing three firearms from their residence, all of which were 9mm pistols, and capable of firing the type of ammunition that had been used in Matthew's murder. One of the guns was found inside a black bag that also contained Chelsea's ID. Weeks earlier, when the medical examiner had conducted a search, the officers found a 9mm bullet from Matthew's head. So in early May, the FBI had the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation perform ballistics testing on that round and the Perkins guns to determine whether any of them might be the murder weapon. They also swabbed the firearms for DNA. When the results came in, they revealed Chelsea's DNA was all over the 9mm pistol that had been found in her bag. Ballistics tests also confirmed that the bullet from Matthew's head had been found had likely been fired from that same pistol. Also, while searching the Perkins property on March 30th, investigators had obtained a sample of Chelsea's DNA and gained access to her cell phone records, which were both evidentiary gold for authorities. Forensic experts seeking to find traces of DNA tested swabs from Matthew's fingernails, some of his clothing, samples of his and the plastic water bottle that had been found near his body. They compared Matthew's roommate/former girlfriend's DNA and Chelsea's DNA to profiles extracted from those items. And the results showed that Chelsea's DNA was underneath one of Matthew's fingernails on his right hand. And her DNA was also found on his pubic hair. In addition to that, both Matthew and Chelsea's DNA was on the water bottle, which, in tandem with everything else that authorities had found, is what the FBI's affidavit claimed further implicated her in the crime. Chelsea's cell phone was also found on the water bottle, which, in tandem with everything else that authorities had found, is also a key piece to the puzzle. Pings from her device followed a similar path as Matthew's had on the morning of March 6th. Her phone's GPS indicated it had pinged off a cell tower to the east of Terra Vista Natural Study Area around the same time Matthew's phone had. And then around noontime, it pinged again off a different tower that was located slightly west of the recreation space. Chelsea had also posted a photo on X, formerly Twitter, on either the 5th or 6th, which showed her standing in front of Matthew's cell phone. Chelsea's cell phone was also found on her cell phone, which showed her standing inside what investigators knew was the Airbnb that she'd rented for her and Matthew. When investigators probed even further into her online activity, they discovered Facebook messages from March 5th and 6th between Chelsea and a tattoo artist she knew near Detroit, Michigan. Those messages discussed her coming there on the afternoon of the 6th to get a new tattoo. According to the criminal affidavit in this case, and additional court records, Chelsea told the artist on Friday evening that she was staying in Cleveland at an Airbnb, but would be checking out the following morning. And she wanted a new tattoo on her forearm of a noose with the words, tighten up, written next to it. And sure enough, toll records from the Ohio Turnpike, as well as highways in Toledo, showed that around 1pm on the 6th, Chelsea's car had traveled toward Michigan. And she'd eventually arrived at the tattoo parlor her car was parked at. In fact, Chelsea had been in the car since March 7th. Her vehicle was captured again at several toll plazas in Michigan, Ohio, and eventually the western part of Pennsylvania. Her E-ZPass records also clocked her passing through even more toll plazas as she made her way back to her home in Virginia. Now, I know it sounds like investigators were getting all this evidence and information super fast, but in reality, it took a little over nine months for authorities to gather all this. But on December 9th, 2021, after months of investigation, the FBI arrested Chelsea for Matthew's murder. At the time, she was living in Pensacola, Florida, and after being detained, she made her first appearance in federal court in Florida before being extradited back to Ohio. After her arrest, one of Matthew's friends told WEAR ABC3 News that it was encouraging to see the case, which hadn't been reported about as much during the months authorities were working on it, was at least moving forward towards prosecution. She said, I mean, it was hard not to love Matt. Everyone that knew him loved him. Everyone that grew up with him, we all know how fun-loving, carefree, kind, pretty much did what he wanted kind of thing, didn't care what anyone thought. I was completely in awe of why somebody, how could somebody want to hurt him of all people? We're happy that he finally got some sort of justice, you know? It's still hard, but she's getting what she deserves." From what I was able to find out about Matthew, he had been in a relationship with her for a long time, and she had been in a relationship for a long time. She had two kids of his own and a pretty big extended family, which included his parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, who all celebrated his life at a memorial service a few weeks after his death. He was originally from Virginia Beach, Virginia, but had moved to Ohio at some point in his life. His obituary states that he loved music, his friends, and playing the guitar. A week or so after Chelsea was arrested for his murder, a grand jury in Ohio formally indicted her on three charges. Using or discharging a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, second-degree murder, and first-degree murder. The murder charges alone carried maximum sentences of life in prison. But the nagging question no one could seem to answer was why. Why had Chelsea and Matthew's lives intersected in this way? Based on the evidence law enforcement had gathered, there was no denying that the two of them had been together. But the question was, for what reason? On January 1st, 2022, less than two months after her arrest, Chelsea appeared via video from jail for a detention hearing. The sole purpose of this proceeding was so the court could consider whether or not to grant her bond while she awaited trial. A key witness who testified was an FBI agent named Greg Craig, who'd been the person in charge of the Fed's investigation. He testified about a lot of the stuff I've already mentioned. How investigators identified Chelsea as a suspect, the location she and Matthew traveled together, their cell phone numbers, and the fact that Chelsea was a suspect. And all the forensic evidence. But he also talked about what he'd learned regarding how Matthew and Chelsea's lives had connected, years before the crime. According to a court transcript, Agent Craig said that social media records revealed the pair knew one another from when Matthew had previously lived in Virginia. In fact, in March 2017, Chelsea, who had not met her husband yet, had filed a complaint against Matthew with the Coast Guard Inspection Service claiming that he'd sexually assaulted her. Virginia Beach Police had also received a similar report from Chelsea at that time. But the agency claimed it couldn't move forward with charges against Matthew because the case wasn't strong enough. So Matthew was never formally arrested or charged in relation to Chelsea's sexual assault allegation. A&E reported that this alleged incident occurred while Matthew and Chelsea were in a relationship. But what isn't clear from the FBI's affidavit and the investigation, is that Chelsea and Matthew were married at the same time. An online blog I found stated that they'd attended high school together from 2005 to 2009. So if that's true, then that explains how they knew one another. But fast forward to early September 2021, months after Matthew's murder, and several months before Chelsea was arrested. And that's when the FBI found an Instagram account Chelsea managed with the username, I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead. Messages between that account and another Instagram user just a few weeks before the crime, discussed Matthew being a messed up person. In some messages, Chelsea wrote things like, quote, I don't know how people still F with him, and he will get his someday, end quote. Email records from Matthew's Gmail account showed that starting on March 2nd, 2021, Chelsea had sent him a friend request and exchanged messages with him via Facebook. But unfortunately, when investigators got into Matthew's Messenger records, the content of the actual conversations between him and Chelsea were gone. Same goes for when investigators looked through her social media accounts, which indicated that someone deleted their conversations using their respective devices. Evidence that supported Chelsea might have been trying to cover her tracks in this way was the fact that according to court records and testimony, she deliberately removed Matthew from her Facebook friend list on March 6th, the day he was killed, and then completely deactivated her account around the time she began her drive to Michigan to get a new tattoo. Now, something that probably would have helped authorities get to the bottom of why Matthew's messages were gone would have been to find his phone. But despite multiple searches for that device, which included assistance from dogs specially trained to find electronics, investigators never found his cell phone. The FBI also never found any text messages or phone calls from him. So, if you're wondering, what's going on? Well, the FBI has been investigating the case of Matthew's phone calls between his and Chelsea's cell numbers, which caused investigators to suspect that most, if not all, of their communications had been over the internet, and not actually between their respective phone numbers. Something else interesting was that the Facebook account Chelsea had used to communicate with Matthew between March 2nd and 4th, just days before his murder, was under the username Chelsea Savage, not Chelsea Perkins. However, authorities eventually learned that Chelsea Savage and another alias, she went by Sabrina Savage, were stage names she used for making online adult entertainment content. But it wasn't just the message exchange history between Chelsea and Matthew that authorities knew was pivotal to proving motive and premeditation. There was a Facebook post Chelsea had made on March 3rd, which simply stated, quote, dead men tell no tale, end quote. Which, I'm sure, was something that got investigators' hackles up even more. Considering the fact, that it was undisputed Chelsea had met up with Matthew after making that post. A man she'd previously accused of sexual assault. And then, just days later, he turned up murdered. At the detention hearing in February 2022, the government had argued that Chelsea should remain in custody pending trial. Prosecutors said that because she only had loose familial ties to Ohio, it would be difficult to ensure she showed up for subsequent hearings. They also pointed out that she had a criminal record, including, an assault incident from 2017. One of the attorneys for the government said in part, quote, she traveled from her residence in Virginia to the Cleveland area with a loaded gun that she keeps on her, walking deep into the woods with the victim of this case and is the only one that walks out alone. He later continued, she walked out alone, left the area and went to Detroit to get a tattoo of a noose on her arm. The facts of this case, the violence involved here are egregious, a violent crime, and it's not just the violence involved here. It's also the violence involved here. There's a violent offense, and there appears to be efforts by Ms. Perkins to conceal things. End quote. Chelsea's public defense attorney argued, though, that she was not a danger to the public and had relatives in Ohio as well as her husband in Florida who were all willing to make sure she would abide by conditions of a bond if she was granted one. According to a court transcript, she had two kids, ages seven and nine at the time, who were still living with her husband in Pensacola. Her attorneys assured the court that her family would make sure that she was making sure she'd make court appearances and wouldn't have access to the firearms in their home. I couldn't find anything that explains what exactly happened with this argument or if Chelsea ever got a bond, but what I do know is that the case slowed significantly after 2022 because trial dates kept getting pushed and the coronavirus pandemic slowed a lot of courts down. But in this case, that issue wasn't solely to blame for why things got dragged out. You see, something totally unrelated to COVID-19 protocols is the fact that Chelsea never got a bond. She never got a bond played a factor. And at the center of it were two people you'd least expect, Matthew's parents. So we have to jump back a little bit in the timeline of this story because there were quite a few things that happened before Chelsea got arrested that had an impact on this case. Early November 2021, which was about eight months after Matthew's murder, but just a few weeks before authorities would put handcuffs on Chelsea, Matthew's mom and dad, Tommy Dunmire and John McQuillan, had reached a point of frustration with the case that prompted them to do something drastic. In the months after her son's murder, Tommy had started investigating on her own from where she and John lived in Norfolk, Virginia. She'd become obsessed with solving the crime, presumably because she owned a car. She had a car, and she had a car, and she had a car, and she either didn't know what was going on behind the scenes with law enforcement's investigation, or she was understandably just unhappy with how slow things were moving. Whatever the reason was, as a result of the couple's private efforts to avenge Matthew, Tommy and John decided to visit who they believed had killed their son and force her to pay for what they believed she'd done. On November 5th, 2021, they got into their car and drove to an apartment in the northeast part of Washington, D.C., where they believed she lived. They had a plan and a loaded firearm. According to the coverage on this case and a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office in D.C., around 9.30 at night, Tommy dressed in a brown vest and brown ball cap and pretended to be a UPS delivery driver. While carrying a cardboard box that had a silver revolver hidden inside of it, she went up to a unit that she believed Matthew's killer was living in. She knocked on the door, and when a woman in her thirties answered, Tommy shot her twice and then fled with her partner John, who was acting as a getaway driver. After that, the couple changed the license plate on their car, but a short time later, D.C. Metro Police stopped them. Sadly, during that interaction with law enforcement, Tommy chose to die by suicide. John was taken into custody for his role in the shooting, and miraculously, the woman they'd attacked survived. The whole thing was a bizarre and tragic case of mistaken identity. Tommy and John had shot someone who was totally unconnected to Matthew's murder. Meanwhile, his real killer, Chelsea Perkins, was hundreds of miles away in Pensacola, Florida. In March 2022, a few months after the shooting, John was formally charged with the crime and a month later pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact to assault with intent to kill. He was eventually sentenced to three and a half years in federal prison with three years supervised release. Chelsea was released from custody in late March of 2025. While John had been serving his time behind bars, Chelsea's case kept slogging its way through the criminal justice system. In March 2024, federal prosecutors approached her and her attorneys with a plea deal that promised between 27 and 31 years in prison, instead of a potential sentence of life in prison if she chose to take her chances at trial. Chelsea rejected that offer, but eventually changed her mind more than a year later in late May 2025. According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Chelsea admitted to traveling to Ohio and luring Matthew to the National Park to kill him. In exchange for pleading guilty to second-degree murder and using a firearm in a crime of violence on federal property, the government recommended she be sentenced to 20 to 25 years in federal prison. A few months later, on September 9, 2025, a judge gave her a 22 and a half years behind bars, with a couple years shaved off for time she'd already served. She was also ordered to pay nearly $2,000 in restitution to a funeral home in Virginia, and more than $595,000 to Matthew's family and estate. In the aftermath of everything, Matthew's uncle, Dan Dunmire, told Cleveland 19 News, quote, Yeah, it was a shock, as you can imagine, especially as the details started to come out. I mean, if you have ever met him, I mean, you couldn't even think this kid could harm a flea. Nonetheless, you know, harm anyone else. It was like a movie. It was so surreal. You know, losing Matthew and then his mother. What, six months later? I mean, it's been rough. It's been a rough couple of years. End quote. The tab reported that at her sentencing, Chelsea apologized for what she'd done to Matthew and his family. In court, her attorney explained that she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder as a and from serving in the U.S. Coast Guard. Her attorney said she'd reported all of those alleged incidents to authority figures over the years, but nothing ever happened and no one was ever held criminally responsible. When it came to what occurred with Matthew, the defense claimed Chelsea had reached a breaking point and been driven to commit murder due to the trauma from her past, which she alleged was a prior assault by Matthew. However, in the following months, she and her defense attorneys also filed motions, court to avoid paying Matthew's family the court-ordered restitution, a comment that prosecutors had previously made stating essentially that they thought Chelsea lacked remorse, seemed to be reflected in her unwillingness to pay the restitution. As it stands today, she remains incarcerated at a women's federal prison. Her scheduled release date, as of this recording, is February 2041. As a part of my reporting, I wrote to her in prison and asked for an interview regarding her claims about Matthew assaulting her in 2017 and her side of the story as a whole. But to date, I haven't gotten a response back. Since she pleaded guilty, a group of her friends and supporters have remained active online asking for people to join them and supporting her financially. At one point, as of last year, there was an active GoFundMe campaign with a goal of $5,500, which stated donations would go toward her prison commissary account. However, I recently checked on that fundraiser and the link is no longer active. There was another one, though, that has popped up on a different website, and that was active, as of this recording. A particularly disturbing detail I read in this case had to do with something investigators found on Chelsea's phone when they did a data retrieval for its activity. There was a remnant of something that was once there, but had been deleted. They saw that at one point, a few days after Matthew's murder, she'd drafted a note on her cell phone that was written as if it had come from Matthew. It stated, quote, If you are reading this, it is too late. I'm sorry I beat you and I raped a couple of chicks years ago. I am a shitty person and paid for my sins with blood. I've decided to leave this cruel world. Sorry I didn't warn you first. End quote. Directly beneath that note, the same exact words had been typed out, so basically a copy and paste situation. That note was something authorities suspected Chelsea planned to plant somewhere to convince people Matthew had taken his own life, but for some reason, she'd bailed on that plan and deleted it instead. Seemingly unbeknownst to her, her phone's history kept track of it in the metadata, which I think is a takeaway in this case. It's the little details, the invisible actions that are digitally archived, which can sometimes serve as evidence in and of themselves. And evidence like that, unlike dead men, always tells the story. Park Predators is an AudioChuck production. You can view a list of all the source material for this episode on our website, parkpredators.com. And you can also follow Park Predators on Instagram, at parkpredators. I think Chuck would approve.