35-year-old woman, who lured a 31-year-old man she claimed indecently assaulted her years before to a wooded area and shot him in the back of his head, refuses to pay restitution
Ohio – In a harrowing case that stretched from Virginia to Ohio and ended in a courtroom filled with grief and rage, a 35-year-old woman, identified as C. Perkins, is now facing backlash not only for the brutal killing of a 31-year-old man, identified as M. Dunmire, whom she claimed had indecently assaulted her years before but also for her refusal to pay restitution to the children of the man she murdered.
Perkins was sentenced in September 2025 to 22 and a half years in federal prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder and using a firearm during a crime of violence in the March 2021 execution-style killing of Dunmire inside an Ohio national park. Now, as part of her sentencing under the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act (MVRA), Perkins is objecting to nearly $600,000 in restitution requested by prosecutors—money that would compensate for Dunmire’s lost income and provide support for his surviving children.
On March 6, 2021, Perkins lured Dunmire—an old high school acquaintance—into a deadly trap. The two had reconnected through social media, and Perkins drove over 300 miles to meet him in Ohio. Surveillance and license plate readers later revealed she was driving her husband’s white car. They spent the night at an Airbnb she had rented using her own credit card. The next morning, they drove to the park, where she led Dunmire deep into a wooded area before shooting him in the back of the head. A water bottle with her DNA was later found beside his body.
Hikers heard a single gunshot around 11:30 a.m. that day and later saw a woman in black knee-high boots—Perkins—wandering the woods claiming to be lost. Dunmire’s body was discovered three days later by hikers. Investigators tied Perkins to the killing through a combination of GPS tracking, ballistics, digital communications, and DNA. Phone records showed she had messaged Dunmire just before her trip. Surveillance footage, witness accounts, and a fake suicide note later found on her phone all added to the weight of the evidence. After the murder, Perkins drove to Michigan, where she had a tattoo representing death, execution, or dark themes on her forearm. She was arrested in December 2021 following a months-long FBI investigation.
Perkins had filed a 2017 police complaint in Virginia, alleging that Dunmire had indecently assaulted her. However, police said there wasn’t enough evidence to pursue charges at the time. After rejecting a previous plea deal that would have sentenced her to over 27 years, Perkins ultimately accepted a deal that reduced her charge from first-degree to second-degree murder, sparing her from a mandatory life sentence. Perkins eventually told the court she took “full responsibility,” and was sentenced to 22 ½ years in federal prison. Prosecutors described the killing as a premeditated and deliberate execution, citing her digital footprint and her efforts to cover her tracks afterward. They emphasized her lack of remorse, pointing to her actions following the murder—including deleting the staged suicide note.
Despite admitting to the murder and accepting a plea deal that spared her a life sentence, Perkins is now refusing to pay the full restitution requested by the government. Her legal team has challenged the nearly $600,000 figure, arguing that it does not accurately reflect Dunmire’s actual lost wages. Perkins’ attorneys claimed that while she is willing to pay for funeral expenses and allowed a family member to attend sentencing, the projected income loss is “speculative.” Dunmire was earning $15 per hour at a screen printing business, working full time. The prosecution insists the estimate is based on “conservative” numbers that reflect a reasonable projection of future earnings. A closed-door hearing on the restitution issue was held, but the court has yet to issue a ruling.
The pain of Dunmire’s murder spiraled into further tragedy. In November 2021, before Perkins was arrested, his grieving mother and stepfather tried to find her in Washington, D.C., intending to kill her. Disguised as a UPS driver, the victim’s mother knocked on the door of a woman she believed to be Perkins and shot her twice in the abdomen. The victim was a stranger—completely uninvolved. She survived. The victim’s mother later fatally shot herself during a police pursuit. Her husband, was arrested, pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact, and was sentenced to three years in prison. Dunmire’s obituary described him as a “free spirit who loved music, loved playing his guitar, and loved being with his friends.” His children now grow up without their father—while the woman who shot him in cold blood argues in court over what his life was worth.
