Charlotte Lester: Disappearance, Investigation, and Remains Found

Charlotte Lester, a 44-year-old East Greenwich woman, disappeared from Rhode Island on May 16, 2022, and her remains were discovered by a hunter in a wooded part of Exeter more than two years later. Her companion, Mark Perkins, was arrested in November 2024, indicted on a first-degree murder charge, and is being held without bail in Kent County Superior Court after pleading not guilty.¹

How She Disappeared

Lester’s landlord last saw her at her East Greenwich townhouse on May 16, 2022.¹ She was known to spend time at the Warwick home of Mark Perkins, then 64, with whom Perkins later told police he had a sexual relationship.²

She was not formally reported missing until May 19, 2022, after she failed to contact friends for several days.³ The night before, her dog Chloe was found wandering alone on Elmwood Avenue in Warwick. People who knew Lester said she never went anywhere without the dog.¹

What Investigators Found

Warwick police focused on Perkins within days. When they executed a search warrant at his home on Staples Avenue on May 21, 2022, they found blood spattered on the walls, ceiling, door, and bed frame. In the basement, a blue shirt with a brownish-red stain hung on a clothesline directly above a bottle of bleach, and DNA testing by the Rhode Island Department of Health’s forensic biology unit identified both Lester and Perkins as possible contributors to a mixed profile taken from it.²

A Cumberland Farms employee, Lynne Dubois, told investigators that Perkins came into the store on May 17, 2022, the day after Lester was last seen, with dried blood on his hands and scratches and bite marks on his arms.⁴ According to Dubois, Perkins said he and Lester had “the blowout of the century,” that his house “was a blood bath,” and that he thought he had killed her. He allegedly said he had “snapped” and punched Lester over another man, Wayne Lipka, whom he had urged her to leave.²

Surveillance footage placed Lester’s red pickup truck in Perkins’ driveway early on May 17, 2022. Two days later, cameras recorded Perkins leaving his home with an object the size and shape of a mattress in the bed of his truck, then returning without it. He paid cash for a new mattress that same day, using a fake name.⁵

Court-authorized GPS tracking on Perkins’ vehicle covered 2022 and 2023. The data showed his truck making repeated trips to secluded parts of the Wood River Arcadia Management Area in Exeter and West Greenwich, including two trips in July 2022 and two in October 2022. On October 7, 2022, the GPS recorded his truck traveling 1.18 miles down Plain Road, a dirt road, and sitting for 18 minutes near the Ben Utter Trailhead and a bridge over the Wood River. That stop was roughly 1,000 feet from where Lester’s remains would eventually be found.²

How Her Remains Were Found

On November 17, 2024, a hunter in the Wood River Arcadia Management Area came across a human skull off Plain Road near the Ben Utter Trailhead in Exeter, close to the Exeter–West Greenwich town line. He stayed at the scene until law enforcement arrived.⁶ State police recovered the remains, and dental analysis confirmed they were Charlotte Lester’s.¹

Warwick Police Chief Col. Bradford Connor said the department had deliberately waited to bring charges until the body was found. “Charging without first finding her remains was discussed at length,” Connor said. “Our fear was that had we not gotten a conviction and she was later discovered we would have failed Charlotte and her family. Ultimately patience paid off.”⁷ Rhode Island has no statute of limitations for murder.

Where the Case Stands

Three days after the remains were identified, on November 20, 2024, Warwick police arrested Perkins at his home without incident and charged him with first-degree murder.⁸ He was arraigned in Kent County District Court and held pending further proceedings, with the Rhode Island Attorney General’s office involved in the prosecution.⁷

After a multi-day bail hearing in Kent County Superior Court, the court ordered Perkins held without bail on February 6, 2025.⁹ A Statewide Grand Jury indicted him on one count of first-degree murder on April 29, 2025.¹⁰ At his arraignment on the indictment on May 15, 2025, Perkins pleaded not guilty, a judge affirmed his no-bail status, and he was scheduled to return to court on June 10, 2025. No trial date has been publicly set.¹¹

1
WPRI. Remains of Charlotte Lester Found 2 Years After Disappearance, Suspect Charged
2
Providence Journal. Charlotte Lester Murder Suspect Had Blood on His Hands
3
Warwick Post. Grand Jury Indicts Perkins for Charlotte Lester Murder
4
NBC 10 WJAR. Warwick Man Accused of Killing Charlotte Lester Pleads Not Guilty
5
NBC 10 WJAR. Court Documents Detail Police Evidence in Charlotte Lester Disappearance
6
RI Central. Remains of Missing Woman Discovered in Exeter Woods
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NBC 10 WJAR. Police Explain Wait To Bring Charges in Charlotte Lester Disappearance
8
Warwick Post. WPD Charges Perkins With Murder in Charlotte Lester Disappearance
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NBC 10 WJAR. Mark Perkins Bail Hearing in Charlotte Lester Murder
10
East Greenwich News. Warwick Man Indicted for Murder of Charlotte Lester
11
WPRI. Suspect in Charlotte Lester’s Murder Remains Held Without Bail