A Georgia police officer who claimed his wife committed suicide now faces a murder charge in connection with her death, according to Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills.
Michael Perrault, an Eatonton police officer, has been charged with murder after his wife was found dead Monday at their Eatonton home, Sills told the media Wednesday night.
Amanda Perrault, 44, was found dead at the home in the 100 block of Long Island Drive in Eatonton, Georgia, on Monday afternoon, Sills told the Union Recorder. The victim was shot once in the head with a .380-caliber handgun, Sills said.
Michael Perrault, who was charged last week with simple battery, family violence and cruelty to children in the third degree, told police that in the midst of he and his wife arguing, she pulled out a gun and shot herself. Perrault didn’t call 911 after the gunfire. Instead, he called Eatonton Police Chief Kent Lawrence.
Credit: WSB-TV
Credit: WSB-TV
Sills described Perrault as “very distraught” when deputies and detectives arrived to the scene. The officer was questioned and released Monday, but the sheriff’s department sought support to investigate the crime scene further, Sills said.
“This is a city police officer, and I didn’t want anyone to think that was any inference that there was any kind of special treatment being done because he was a police officer,” Sills said Tuesday.
The domestic violence allegations
On Jan. 31, Amanda Perrault told authorities that her husband, an Eatonton Police Department officer, hit and pushed her, Sills told the Lake Oconee News. The officer denied striking his wife. The couple’s 8-year-old daughter reported her parents were fighting, and said she witnessed her father shove her mom out of the entryway of their home.
Deputies on the scene reported seeing red marks on her neck and chest.
“The red marks on her chest are the only physical evidence, but when we have physical evidence, we have to make an arrest,” Sills said.
Last week, Perrault, 43, was released on a $1,500 bond. He has been an Eatonton police officer since 2018, Lawrence told the newspaper. Perrault previously worked in law enforcement in the Covington area.
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