A 12-year-old boy and his father both shot the man’s girlfriend, then abandoned her body in a car in rural Colorado, leaving a fire to mutilate her beyond recognition.

Another perpetrator knocked his victim unconscious, then ran over her head with a car (she survived).

One perpetrator killed himself by strangulation after stabbing his wife non-lethally.

These are some of the domestic violence cases graphically described in a report released Thursday by the Colorado Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board. The panel analyzed the 43 fatalities from 2018, which included 26 primary victims, two child victims and four collateral adult victims.

In 11 instances, the perpetrators themselves died.

“It is noteworthy that the majority of domestic violence fatalities in the past year occurred by use of firearms, which accounted for 62% of fatalities — almost four times the rate of the next highest type of injury that led to death, stabbing,” wrote Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, who chairs the panel.

Lydia Waligorski, the public policy director of Violence Free Colorado, said Weiser’s observation was “not a surprise.”

“We know that with the presence of a firearm in the home, someone is 500 times more likely to be killed in that domestic violence situation,” she said.

Denver was the jurisdiction with the highest number of fatalities, with eight. Adams, Jefferson and El Paso counties followed with six, five and three victims, respectively. Overall, the data showed an increase of eight additional primary victims over 2017 and a 13% increase overall since 2014.

Earlier this year, the General Assembly passed a law to establish extreme risk protection orders, in which a court can temporarily remove firearms from someone deemed a risk to himself or others. That law is set to take effect in January.

“I’m sick and tired of all the tragedies gun violence causes in our state,” said one of the sponsors, Sen. Lois Court, D-Denver, at the bill signing in April.

El Paso County Sheriff Bill Elder and other law enforcement officials from largely rural areas have slammed the legislation, known as a red flag law, as unconstitutional. The El Paso County Commission unanimously voted to become a “Second Amendment Preservation County” and “actively resist” the law. (The resolution passed only applies to the unincorporated areas of the county.)

Waligorski felt that if sheriffs and governments believed that a signed court order to remove firearms was not a priority for them, “victims across the state need to know which orders they’re going to enforce and which orders they’re going to ignore, because it’s a safety issue for all victims of all crimes.”

Jaqueline Kirby, a spokesperson for Elder, said that while the sheriff’s office is developing a policy for serving protection orders, his opposition still stands.

“This new law does nothing to address the mental health issue in and of itself, which is another primary concern of the sheriff,” she said. “We are also working on solutions to get people the mental health help they may need if we serve an ERPO.”

E-mails sent to all five El Paso county commissioners asking whether the three fatalities in their county would change their position on the law were not returned.

The report warned that although data were limited, the rural and Western Slope areas of the state could pose an elevated risk due to the isolation of victims and greater proclivity to own firearms.

Domestic violence exhibited a clear gender pattern, with almost half of deaths being women killed by a current or former male partner. In nearly one out of five cases, children were present at home or witnessed the crime.

Among adult victims, the average age was 36; perpetrators had an average age of 32. The two murdered children were three and four.

The board chose 11 cases to review in depth. In more than 90% of those instances, the perpetrator felt a sense of abandonment, betrayal and loss of control. More than 80% had a history of drug or alcohol abuse and more than 70% were unemployed or underemployed.

The natural response to people, especially women, in abusive relationships — Why don’t you just leave? — is not always the solution.

“Sometimes survivors know that leaving is more dangerous,” Waligorski said. Many homicides occur after the couple has separated and the abuser thinks “she’s really leaving. I’ve lost control.”

Bridget Dyson, according to the report, had two children with a man who was prone to fits of rage. In 2014, he began strangling her during an argument, prompting her to barricade herself in their guest room.

She filed for divorce, but did not report her husband, Anthony Dyson, to police out of fear of her kids seeing their father arrested. In the divorce, she told the judge about the strangulation, but was informed that “something would have to happen” for her to receive a protective order.

On Dec. 6, 2016, Dyson’s then-ex-husband attacked her at her Brighton home with a blunt object, backed over her head with her car, and then left her for dead. Dyson spent four months in a coma and had seven brain surgeries, but survived.

Anthony Dyson received a 35-year sentence in 2017.

The board acknowledged parallels to conclusions in other agencies’ findings, including a report from Slovenia this year which noted that “the bases of these acts are strong traditional or patriarchal attitudes on partner relationships and gender roles and especially male feelings of the ownership of their female partners.”

Two policy recommendations were included, the first of which was to focus prevention efforts on teen dating violence. More than one-fifth of female domestic violence victims reported the first abuse as beginning between 11 and 17 years of age. Perpetrators’ history of assaults was a strong risk factor for domestic violence fatalities.

A second recommendation was to study how to enforce court-ordered domestic violence treatment for offenders after their release from jail. The report cited a Colorado Court of Appeals case from 2019 which found that trial courts may not order such treatment after a prison term, but must do so after a jail sentence. However, the trial court in question decided against setting a hearing for the treatment, ensuring that the defendant would have no supervision for any treatment.

A majority of recommendations from the prior year’s report involved firearms restrictions for offenders.

This is the second report from the Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board, which included 19 members representing state departments, law enforcement, and included two domestic violence survivors. 

The National Domestic Violence Hotline number is 1-800-799-7233. It is capable of taking calls in over 200 language and routes callers to the nearest victim advocacy organization.