A quarter of Cincinnati homicides linked to domestic violence. Program aims to fix that.

In October, the Investigations Bureau Commander with Cincinnati Police Department encountered the most troubling case he’d seen in 21 years of service.

Erin Marshall, a 29-year old mother of two, was allegedly bludgeoned to death by her boyfriend while their children were in her Sedamsville home.

Marshall’s boyfriend was arrested and charged with murder in connection with her death. Earlier in 2017, a restraining order was filed against him for domestic violence, court documents show.

“Maybe she would have called if she knew there was an advocate that could have helped,” said Lt. Col. Mike John, Cincinnati Police assistant chief.

According to police and advocates, Marshall is one of the 10 victims of domestic violence homicides in Hamilton County as of Nov. 15. Three women were victims of murder-suicides.

Every day in the United States, three women are killed by a current or former intimate partner on average, according to the National Network to End Domestic Violence. Nearly half of female homicide victims are murdered by an intimate partner. For males, that number is just below 5 percent.

In Cincinnati, about a quarter of all 2016 homicides involved an offender who was either directly engaged in a domestic assault at the time of the offense or who had a history of domestic or sexual assault, according to John’s cursory research of local records.

Some other troubling statistics:

• According to numbers from the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, intimate partner violence makes up 15 percent of violent crime in the United States.

• On top of the seven homicides in Cincinnati that were the direct result of a domestic violence offense, another nine homicides were committed by an offender with a history of domestic, sexual or child abuse, John said.

• Cincinnati Police made 1,462 incident reports for domestic violence from Jan. 1 to Nov. 28 and 992 of those incidents were cleared by arrest, according to the Cincinnati Insights data portal.

Victim advocates and police felt the pressure to address what Kristin Smith-Shrimplin, president and CEO of Women Helping Women, called a “public health epidemic.”

The Domestic Violence Emergency Response Team, or DVERT, will launch in January, to provide more support for victims.

Cincinnati Police and Women Helping Women already work together, but instead of waiting until the next day to respond to incidents, advocates will now respond directly with officers to calls for service for domestic violence.

Kendra Massey, vice president of programming for Women Helping Women, said while police are working to solve crimes, advocates are finding places for victims to stay, making sure they have a way to get to work or school and connecting them to other social services.

Shrimplin said one in three women and one in five men are victims of physical or sexual abuse.

“Some of that violence seemed to take on this chronic and more complex nature,” Shrimplin said. “Looking at our data we found that we were responding, not only to the community at a faster pace, but the actual time we were spending with each survivor was expanding too.”

More: How an improved Cincinnati partnership plans to curb domestic violence

Through the changing partnership, Shrimplin and John both hope to interrupt the cycle of domestic violence.

“There are a lot of individuals where there’s a gap in services and there are a lot of individuals who are unfortunately experiencing repeat victimization,” Shrimplin said.

John said advocates and police can have the biggest impact during the initial response.

“There’s a window of opportunity that exists that the DVERT program can help with,” he said. “We don’t always have the skill set, or are limited in those social services, especially with victims and children.”

That’s why the new partnership links advocates and police at the scene.

“Domestic violence is so different than other crimes because not only do the survivors know the perpetrator, their lives are entwined,” Massey said. “It might be someone they live with or have children with or that they love and care about. They could have a history or it’s someone they are financially dependent on.”

Last year, Women Helping Women performed more than 16,500 crisis interventions and is on target to surpass that in 2017.

“I know you hear that phrase ‘now more than ever’ all the time, but it’s true,” Shrimplin said. “Now more than ever, we need this pilot project to work,”

To reach the National Domestic Violence Hotline, which is free and confidential, dial 800-799-SAFE. To contact Women Helping Women visit www.womenhelpingwomen.org or call 513-381-5610.