Domestic violence homicide victims’ names from calendar year 2006 are listed alphabetically along with a synopsis of the circumstances surrounding each murder as described in newspaper articles. We cannot be certain that we have included all of the domestic homicides in the state. Michigan Domestic Violence Prevention and Treatment Board (MDVPTB) contracts with a clipping service that provides newspaper stories reporting on domestic violence homicides printed in newspapers throughout Michigan. The stories are then put into synopsis form for the purpose of creating this document.
In 2006, 50 people were reported in local newspapers to have been killed in domestic violence related homicides in Michigan (up eight from 2005 when 42 people were reported murdered). This number includes 34 intimate partners and 16 friends or family members of the primary victim. The weapon of choice of abusive murderers was a firearm. Sixty-seven percent (34) of the victims were shot to death. Ten percent (5) were stabbed. Eight percent (4) were beaten to death. Three of the victims were strangled, one was pushed off a cliff, one was killed by arson, one was run over by a car and one method is unknown.
Twenty-nine percent of the time (14) after the victim was murdered, the perpetrator committed suicide. Males committed all of these. All used guns. An additional male attempted unsuccessfully to murder his wife and then shot himself.
In addition, current or ex-partners of their parents killed three children. Thirty-one children were left without a mother, father, or both parents due to the domestic homicide.
Males murdered eighty-nine percent (43) of the victims. Females perpetrated ten percent of the murders (5). There were five additional homicides that were likely domestic-related but there was not sufficient information in the newspaper coverage to be certain.
Many of the victims were killed after they had either left the abuser or discussed divorce or leaving. Many of the cases had a prior history of domestic violence documented by police and court records or reported by family or friends.
The synopsis of newspaper articles giving the stories of the lives of the victims contained in this report does not convey the complicated experience of torment and violence victims experienced.
These stories also cannot reveal to us all the ways victims protected their children, reached out to various systems for help, how long they were afraid, begged not to be hurt, or screamed for help before their lives ended. These images help renew our determination to continue working toward a world free of domestic violence. Our thoughts are with the families and loved ones of those mentioned here, and all others who died at the hands of those who professed to love them.
Source: Michigan Domestic Violence Prevention and Treatment Board
