Investigators said her account changed after they reviewed phone data and forensic findings from the November killing in Huntersville.
HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. — A North Carolina woman is accused of murdering her husband after first telling police she found him wounded inside their home, then later saying he was shot during a struggle over a gun, according to an arrest affidavit and court records.
Why the case matters now is the sharp turn in the investigation. What began as a reported suicide attempt on Nov. 10, 2025, became a first-degree murder charge filed nearly three months later against Susan Michelle Perry, 54, in the death of her husband, Robert Joseph “Joe” Perry, 58. Investigators said the shift came after they reviewed the couple’s phones, reinterviewed Perry and compared her statements with a medical examiner’s findings. The case now sits at the point where prosecutors must decide how to present evidence about motive, intent and the minutes before the fatal shot.
According to the affidavit, patrol officers were sent at about 12:50 p.m. Nov. 10 to the couple’s home on New Oak Lane in Huntersville, a town north of Charlotte, after a call described the situation as a suicide attempt. Officers arriving at the house found Susan Perry kneeling on the floor as first responders moved in to help Joe Perry, who had a gunshot wound in the center of his chest. He was pronounced dead. Detective Ferrell, the case agent named in the affidavit, wrote that Joe Perry was lying on his back in his office. A firearm was on a table, and blood droplets were visible around a stool positioned in front of it. In her first statement, Susan Perry said she heard a “thud,” went into the office and found her husband on his side with blood before calling 911, the affidavit said.
That first version did not remain her only account. Investigators later downloaded data from both phones and said searches on Susan Perry’s device included questions about how much her husband’s wedding ring was worth, what to do if a husband wants a divorce and a search for “center mass shots.” Armed with that information, detectives brought her back for another interview on Feb. 6, 2026. During that session, the affidavit said, she described a different sequence. She told detectives she and her husband argued the night of Nov. 9 after he said he wanted a divorce. She said she had trouble sleeping and stayed in her room until after a woman identified in the affidavit as Lexi left for work around 10:30 a.m. the next day. Susan Perry then said the argument resumed in the hallway, continued into Joe Perry’s office and ended with him sitting on a stool while holding a firearm. She said he was not pointing it at anyone but that she feared he might use it, so she grabbed it and a struggle followed. The gun fired while she was holding it, she told police.
Investigators said several parts of that second account raised more questions than they answered. The affidavit states that Susan Perry made inconsistent statements about how long she delayed care after the shot and whether she tried to help her husband at all. Detectives also said she gave conflicting descriptions of where she placed the firearm after the shooting. The medical examiner’s report, as summarized in the affidavit, said the bullet’s path and the “close” range of the shot were consistent with the physical distance she described between herself and Joe Perry. What remains unclear from the public record is whether prosecutors believe the online searches show planning, panic or some other state of mind, and whether any additional digital evidence such as messages, call logs or deleted data will be introduced later. The affidavit also does not spell out whether anyone else was inside the house at the time of the shooting beyond noting that Lexi had left for work before the argument described in the second interview.
The timing of the case has added to its weight. Police did not arrest Susan Perry on the day of the shooting. Instead, the murder charge came on Feb. 6, the same day detectives conducted the follow-up interview detailed in the affidavit. That gap of nearly three months suggests investigators were building the case through records review, forensic work and interviews rather than acting solely on the first scene assessment. In domestic homicide cases, prosecutors often face the task of reconstructing a private dispute with little direct eyewitness evidence, and this case appears to fit that pattern. The publicly available affidavit points to a blend of scene evidence, phone activity and changing statements as the core of the accusation. It does not include a defense response, and public records available at this stage do not show any statement from an attorney for Susan Perry addressing the murder allegation or the searches cited by police.
Authorities charged Susan Perry with first-degree murder, one of the most serious criminal counts under North Carolina law. She was booked into the Mecklenburg County jail, and a judge set bond at $150,000. Early reports said she remained in custody after the charge was filed, but later court records cited by local outlets showed she posted bond on Feb. 10 and was released from jail afterward. The public affidavit listed a Feb. 27 court appearance, though the outcome of that hearing was not detailed in the records reviewed for this article. What comes next is likely to include additional hearings on scheduling, evidence and any motions from prosecutors or the defense. If the charge remains in place, the state will eventually need to show probable cause was backed by enough evidence to move the case forward. Defense lawyers, once fully engaged on the record, can be expected to challenge the meaning of the phone searches, the interpretation of the scene and the weight given to statements made during repeated police interviews.
The facts in the affidavit also paint a stark picture of the scene inside the home. Joe Perry was found in his office, a small and private setting at the center of the final account given by his wife. The stool, table, nearby firearm and blood droplets were all noted by investigators as they tried to map where each person had been when the shot was fired. Those details matter because they can support or undercut competing claims about whether the shooting was deliberate, reckless or accidental. For relatives, neighbors and friends, the case appears to have unfolded in two waves: first as a sudden death reported as self-inflicted, then as a murder case built slowly through a digital trail and a revised statement. Police have not publicly described a broader danger to the community, and the charging document focuses almost entirely on what happened inside the house and on Susan Perry’s own words and searches.
The case stood in mid-March with Susan Michelle Perry charged with first-degree murder in her husband’s death and the next major step expected to come in court as prosecutors and defense lawyers begin to test the evidence gathered since Nov. 10.
Author note: Last updated March 15, 2026.