“In cases where the survivor is not believed, especially by people in positions of authority, it creates this whole new layer of trauma,” Benzo says. “They’re already feeling shame, they’re already feeling unworthy, and may feel like they did something wrong to cause this abuse, so that can be compounded by law enforcement, the judicial system and prosecutors who won’t pursue justice for them for one reason or another.”
According to investigators, Perkins, who was married, arranged to meet Dunmire in Ohio, with plans to share an Airbnb overnight and then go hiking in the morning at Ohio’s Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
Once they were deep into the woods, Perkins ended Dunmire’s life, shooting him once in the back of the head. The day after the murder, Perkins got a tattoo of a noose in Michigan. Dunmire’s remains were found three days after his March 6, 2021, killing.
Police said they used GPS data, DNA and ballistics evidence from the murder weapon, and social media and phone records to identify Perkins as the killer. Detectives analyzing her phone would later recover a fake suicide letter from Dunmire that Perkins wrote—and then deleted—around the same time his body was discovered.
Frustrated with the pace of the police investigation, Dunmire’s mother initiated her own probe into her son’s killing. Tommie Lynn Dunmire eventually came to the incorrect conclusion a 30-year-old woman who was living in Washington, D.C., was responsible for her son’s murder.
Tommie Lynn and Dunmire’s dad, John McQuillen, drove to the woman’s home on November 5, 2021, and Tommie Lynn shot the innocent women twice in the abdomen. The two fled the scene before stopping to switch the car’s plates. Hours later, Tommie Lynn died by suicide. The woman was treated for her wounds and recovered. In 2022, McQuillen pleaded guilty to helping Tommie Lynn flee and avoid apprehension after the murder attempt and received 42 months in prison.
Past Trauma Becomes Present
In September 2025, before a judge sentenced Perkins to 22.5 years in federal prison, she apologized to Dunmire’s relatives, saying, “I take full responsibility for what I’ve done.”
Perkins’ attorney argued at trial that PTSD from prior sexual violence drove her murderous actions. They told the court how, before she was even 5, a babysitter allegedly molested Perkins and how in high school, she claimed to be raped by a male student. Then, Perkins alleged she was abused by a superior while serving with the U.S. Coast Guard. She reported the sexual assaults to her parents, to school officials and to military police, but no further action was taken.
“There are so many layers of trauma when you’re a victim of gender violence, and nothing is done,” Benzo says. “There is the actual act itself, which causes a whole host of immediate and long-term effects like PTSD, depression, anxiety and disassociation along with the secondary effects to cope with those things—substance abuse, lower self-worth, trust and intimacy issues, eating disorders. They’re also more prone to revictimization.”
Since Perkins claims she was repeatedly victimized, “her trauma was compounded with each and every subsequent abuse period in her life,” Benzo adds. “There is a third layer of trauma that comes when not one of your abusers is held accountable, and you feel like you’re never believed.”
Survivors “will ‘do it the right way’ by going to police, getting a forensic examination, going to court for protection orders, and yet, they are still not believed, because of either misogyny or bias,” Benzo offers. “It is a whole system designed to silence victims and protect abusers, and it’s really unfortunate. We are trying to chip away at that system one day at a time.”
Not all victims of gender or sexual violence want to see their abusers arrested.
“The end goal isn’t to ruin someone’s life with a rape conviction,” she says. “Real survivors want to be believed, and to make that person look them in the eye and say, ‘What I did to you was wrong.’”
