Last week, Yellow Springs resident Frederick Dane Muenchau-Peterson was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murder of his father and beloved villager, Frederick “Doc Pete” Peterson.

Muenchau-Peterson was sentenced Friday, Jan. 30, by Greene County Common Pleas Judge Adolfo Tornichio.

Last October, Muenchau-Peterson pleaded guilty to aggravated murder and tampering with evidence in connection to the killing of Peterson at his Livermore Street home on Jan. 11, 2025

At the time of this plea, the Greene County Prosecutor’s Office recommended the sentence Muenchau-Peterson received last week.

“I want to express my deepest condolences to the family of the victim in this case,” Greene County Prosecuting Attorney David Hayes said at the time of the plea in November. “This murder was completely senseless and, frankly, incomprehensible. At this stage, the defendant has accepted responsibility for what he has done, and now we move on to sentencing.”

In addition to being a psychologist, Peterson was a writer and educator whose work focused on sexuality and gender and trauma resolution therapy. He was the author or co-author of several works, including 2020’s “The Gender Revolution and New Sexual Health” and a textbook released in 2022, “Sex and Gender: Current Clinical Concepts and Practices.” He co-authored a sex column in the Yellow Springs News.

He was one of the final clinical fellows of the Masters and Johnson Institute, founded by William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson, who were pioneers in the study of human sexuality. He was also, as the News reported in 2022, a passionate educator on issues of cultural diversity and white privilege.

Beyond his professional life, Peterson was an “incredible, loving husband,” his wife, villager Deborah Dixon, told the News last year.

“He had this way of instinctively knowing and giving a person what they needed,” Dixon said. “He has truly been the wind beneath my wings, and I cannot express how devastated I am that he’s no longer in my life.”

Ahead of Muenchau-Peterson’s sentencing last week, Dixon and several others addressed Muenchau-Peterson directly in the court room.

“Based on the documented evidence and the course of conduct that led to this murder, you present an ongoing and serious danger. For those reasons, and for the protection of others, I respectfully ask that justice be served through a sentence of life without the possibility of parole, Dixon said.

She continued: “This is not about revenge. It is about reality. Frederick L. Peterson deserved to live. He deserved safety in his own home. He deserved a future. Since he cannot stand here today, I do.”