Until his suicide Monday outside St. Augustine's Episcopal Church, Everett Perrin Jr. was hiding from Richmond County authorities who had charged him with taking his wife's life savings.

Mr. Perrin, 68, was found dead shortly before noon outside the church on Wheeler Road, according to police.

He had been indicted in February on 27 counts of forgery and a grand jury had issued a warrant for his arrest, according to District Attorney Danny Craig.

Richmond County sheriff's Investigator Anita Hopson said Mr. Perrin fled his home in December.

"He just snuck out of the house and never came back when he knew we had a warrant," Investigator Hopson said. "Even his wife didn't know much about him. He was one of these people who had total control and you couldn't know his business."

Police said Mr. Perrin cashed 27 checks from his wife's personal brokerage firm account, in addition to his stepson's monthly government checks, for a total of $194,408, according to a February article in The Augusta Chronicle. Not once in the almost 10 months that Mr. Perrin cashed the checks was his wife, Alice M. Middlebrook, asked to confirm his authority to do so, Investigator Hopson said.

There were no witnesses to Mr. Perrin's death, but several people were in the church Monday when they heard a gunshot, according to sheriff's Maj. Ken Autry. When police went to investigate, they found Mr. Perrin's body lying against a column in a garden area of the church grounds, police said. A two-page, handwritten suicide note was found nearby.