What We Know About the Chuck Peruto Story

Julia P. Law/Facebook

Here’s what we know so far about the strange tale of the dead woman and Chuck Peruto.

• A maintenance worker found 26-year-old Julia Papazian Law dead, naked, and face-down in a water-filled bathtub in the Delancey Place home of mega-defense lawyer Peruto at 10 a.m. on Saturday. She was pronounced dead at 10:24 a.m.
• Law, a 2011 Drexel graduate, had been Peruto’s paralegal for the past two years, but they had only been dating for two months. She was planning on telling her family about the relationship this weekend.
• Peruto says he was in Avalon when the body was found, but drove back immediately to Philadelphia, “crying” and “hysterical” when he received the news.
• Once home, Peruto scrubbed the bathroom “out of respect.” “He didn’t want some stranger doing that,” said a lawyer in his firm. “He wanted to give her that dignity.”
• Peruto posted this about Law on his Facebook page: “I’m especially sad for her 10 yr old brother, who was her life, along with her loving and close sisters, mother and step-father. Earth lost the best one ever.”
• The Absecon, NJ native would have turned 27 today.

Here are images of the last two messages Law posted to Facebook:

• Peruto has not been ruled a suspect in the case, but police are waiting for the autopsy, due as early as this afternoon, to decide anything further.