A 34-year-old mother of six, a woman who begged her children not to tell anyone she had reconciled with her abuser and two responding law enforcement officers were four of the record number of Coloradans who died in connection with a domestic violence incident last year.

The Colorado Domestic Violence annual report released by the state’s review board Monday showed that last year, 94 Coloradans died in a total of 62 intimate partner abuse and collateral damage incidents – a number which is 1.5 times the average number of Colorado cases in the seven years since the Colorado Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board started keeping data.

The total number included 33 accused perpetrators. Most of the fatalities, 87%, were caused by firearms.

What’s alarming about the increased number of deaths data for Margaret Abrams, executive director at the Rose Andom Center, are the the people who were also killed as part of the fatal incident.

“In some cases it was really just because they were in the same household. Six of those were children or were people who the offender perceived as helping the intended victim,” Abrams said. “This data tragically points to the fact that domestic violence impacts all of us. It’s neighbors, it’s sisters, it’s best friends and it’s our kids.”  

Before 2022, 2021 had recorded the all-time high, but board chair Attorney General Phil Weiser noted that “while it is difficult to determine whether the increased number of DVFs is due to an increase in violence or because we are better at identifying deaths that occurred within the context of domestic violence, every one too many.”

All but 3% of the victims were female and 95% of the perpetrators were male.

The victims were parents, children, girlfriends and roommates. They ranged in age from eight months old to 74-years-old.

Law enforcement officers who were killed as they were responding to domestic violence situations were considered “collateral damage deaths.” 

Arvada police officer Dillon Vakoff, who died from a gunshot wound to the head while responding to a violent child custody dispute, was on the list as was 39-year-old El Paso County Sheriff deputy Andrew Peery, who was struck and gravely injured while on a shots-fired call in Security near Colorado Springs in August 2022.

There were three victims in that fatal incident including Peery, the alleged shooter and his wife. 

Mallory Boyce, spokesperson for the Colorado Attorney General’s office, said that because of the sensitive nature of each case, it takes extensive research to verify that each one as being due to domestic abuse.

“These cases can be so complicated,” Boyce said. “Sometimes the people closest to the victims have no idea that the domestic violence is happening because sometimes the victims are silent.”

The number of domestic violence fatalities for 2023 were not available at the time of this writing, but there are plenty of references to those deaths in the news and from a search of the Colorado court system.

One of the latest tragic such incidents occurred during a losing Denver Bronco football game Sept. 17 after a Centennial woman head-butted her boyfriend. The incident happened during an argument over some corn which had fallen from a grocery bag, arrest records showed, and was recorded on home surveillance video.

The recording, which originated from suspect Matthew Ivester’s living room, revealed what happened between he and his girlfriend, Stephanie Long, after they got home from grocery shopping, turned on the game and started drinking, according to the arrest affidavit.

The video showed that after the head-butt, Ivester, 37, hit Long, slapped her and grabbed her by the throat, the arrest affidavit shows. Long, 35, got up from the couch and “appeared unsteady on her feet,” bleeding from the mouth, the affidavit said, but Ivester took her cellphone and would not let her call 911. 

He eventually called 911 after midnight after finding Long in the master bedroom lying on the floor “making gurgling sounds” and vomiting, the affidavit showed.

Long was later taken to Littleton Adventist hospital where doctors said she had  brain damage, according to the arrest record. She was taken of life support a couple of days later. 

Ivester’s story had some inconsistencies from the home surveillance video, the arrest document reported. He was recently charged with murder in connection with Long’s death and his preliminary hearing is scheduled for Nov. 6.

Sonny Almanza, the man accused of killing Officer Vakoff, is scheduled to  stand trial on first-degree murder charges Nov. 28.