Frederick Dane Muenchau-Peterson, 23, pleaded guilty last week to aggravated murder and tampering with evidence. (Submitted photo)
Villager pleads guilty to murder
- Published: November 14, 2025
According to a press release from the Greene County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, Yellow Springs resident Frederick Dane Muenchau-Peterson, 23, pleaded guilty last week to aggravated murder and tampering with evidence.
Those charges stem from the Jan. 11 killing of villager Frederick Peterson — known locally as “Doc Pete” for his work as a clinical psychologist — Muenchau-Peterson’s father.
Peterson was fatally wounded by gunshots at his Livermore Street home, and as the News previously reported, later died from his injuries.
The press release states that Muenchau-Peterson will be sentenced at a later date, but that the Prosecutor’s Office is recommending a prison sentence of life without parole, plus three years for the firearm specification.
“I want to express my deepest condolences to the family of the victim in this case,” Greene County Prosecuting Attorney David Hayes said. “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.”
Hayes also lauded the Yellow Springs Police Department and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations for their joint work in investigating Peterson’s killing.
“This case was expertly handled from the moment the crime was discovered, to the moment the defendant made his admissions, to the moment the crime lab completed their forensic analysis of the evidence,” Hayes said.
That evidence against Muenchau-Peterson included his likeness being captured on a neighboring security camera at the time of Peterson’s death; his internet search history, including looking for a “plan to kill”; and the fact that one of the three firearms on Muenchau-Peterson’s person at the time of his arrest contained bullets that matched shell casings found at the scene of the crime.
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 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 Peterson told the News earlier this year.
“He had this way of instinctively knowing and giving a person what they needed,” Dixon Peterson 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.”
Doc Pete’s obituary can be read in full here.
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