AUGUSTA, Maine — There were more homicides in Maine in 2015 than the year before, but the number of killings that involved domestic violence, which typically accounts for 50 percent or more of all homicides in the state, declined, according to Deputy Attorney General Lisa Marchese.
“There were 24 homicides last year, nine of which can be characterized as [domestic violence],” Marchese said this week in an email, noting that 14 of the 21 homicides in 2014 involved domestic violence. There were 12 domestic violence homicides amid a total of 25 killings in 2013.
Despite the decline, Marchese and a domestic violence prevention group’s spokeswoman said they weren’t reading too much into the numbers.
“I have been watching these trends for several years, and when the number of [domestic violence] homicides decreases in a given year, I become very optimistic that all the good work being done by folks across the state has made a difference,” she said in another email. “Then the following year, we are right back to 50 percent of the homicides being [domestic violence]. So, this is a long way of saying that one year means very little.”
In another positive development, only one victim of a domestic violence homicide last year was a child, down from six children killed in 2014.
For both years, “there were several [domestic violence] cases with multiple victims,” Marchese said.
The 2015 numbers include three domestic violence murder-suicides — in Fryeburg, Boothbay Harbor and Oakland — that resulted in six deaths, but only four of the deaths are listed as domestic violence-related. Two domestic violence murder-suicides happened in 2014 and resulted in five deaths, including one in Saco that left a wife and three children dead.
The state characterizes a case as domestic violence when a family member kills another family member or intimate partner. In the Oakland triple homicide, only one of the three is counted as a victim of domestic violence because only that person was in an intimate relationship with the killer, according to Department of Public Safety spokesman Stephen McCausland.
Suicidal talk is a strong indicator in many domestic violence homicide cases, Marchese said.
“Please remind people that threats of suicide should always be taken seriously,” she said in an email. “All too often — more than 50 percent of the cases — people threaten suicide before they commit a homicide/suicide.”
Investigators have found that there are always signs of trouble when it comes to domestic violence, Marchese said.
Domestic violence is best understood as a pattern of abusive behaviors used to exert power and control over a partner, according to the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence. Batterers use a range of tactics to frighten, terrorize, manipulate, hurt, humiliate, blame, often injure and sometimes kill a current or former intimate partner, it says.
The Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence calls the 2015 numbers “encouraging” but added, “we don’t yet know whether or not it represents a trend,” according to Regina Rooney, public awareness coordinator for the group.
“Any reduction in [domestic violence] homicide numbers is always a good thing, but it’s important we consider them with some context,” Rooney said in an email. “For many years, domestic violence has accounted for about half of the state’s yearly homicides. Some years it has been higher — as we saw in 2014 — while in others it has been lower. [Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence] and our partners have been working hard to bring that number down to zero, engaging in a range of homicide reduction strategies, including initiatives including risk assessment and response to strangulation.”
“It is certainly a move in the right direction and one we will continue working to build on,” she said later.
Lawmakers in Augusta gave bipartisan support to several domestic violence measures designed to improve safety in 2015. One strengthens the existing Address Confidentiality Program, another makes the dissemination of “revenge porn” a crime in Maine, another aligns state law with a federal provision to help keep firearms out of the hands of those convicted of domestic violence crimes, another ensures a victim’s attorney can speak on their behalf to prevent stalking and another improves workplace protections for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.
Law enforcement efforts resulted in arrests in most of the homicides last year.
There are 18 people in custody awaiting adjudication for 2015 killings — one case has been adjudicated — and investigators in Caribou are still trying to solve the homicide of a man found dead in his burning home in September 2015.
The body of Kenneth Zernicke, 58, was found inside his Lower Lyndon Street residence just before 10 p.m. Sept. 24, after Caribou firefighters went to a fire call.
The death was declared a homicide the next day after an autopsy at the state medical examiner’s office in Augusta, and the cause of his death is being withheld for investigative reasons, detectives have said.
Those with information about Zernicke’s death or who were in the area on Sept. 24 can call state police in Houlton at 532-5400.
An officer-involved shooting on Dec. 1 in Bangor that left one man dead is not included on the list because it is not considered a crime, according to McCausland. All officer-involved shootings are investigated by the attorney general’s office.
“The Bangor officer shooting is not included, nor are any other officer-involved fatal shootings in Maine,” McCausland said.
He said a November shooting of a 22-year-old Thomaston mother of two, who police say was accidentally shot in the head by her fiance in the parking lot at Shaw’s Supermarket while he showed a gun to a prospective buyer, is on the list because the case is still under investigation.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence and would like to talk with an advocate, call 866-834-4357, TRS 800-787-3224. This free, confidential service is available 24/7 and is accessible from anywhere in Maine.