CINCINNATI — More Ohioans died as a result of domestic violence this year than in any year of the past decade, according to the Ohio Domestic Violence Network, a non-profit that tracks data and provides resources for support in Ohio.
The data released by the organization spans between July 1 of 2024 through June 30 of 2025. It comes from a compilation of media reports, police and court records and data provided by ODVN's 76 member programs.
In total, 157 Ohioans died in the past 12 months as a result of domestic violence, the organization reports.
That's a 37% increase over the previous year, when the organization recorded 114 fatalities.
"This was a tremendously lethal year for domestic violence in Ohio — with both the number of fatalities from intimate partner violence (IPV) and the number of fatal IPV cases rising dramatically," said Lisa DeGeeter, Esq., senior director of policy and prevention for ODVN.
During a press conference Tuesday, officials with ODVN said part of the increase can be attributed to more reporting on domestic violence, and more transparency available in those reports; however, they also said in the past, more victims survived attacks from their abusers, while this year saw more fatal attacks.
This is the tenth year that ODVN has tracked instances of intimate partner relationship fatalities, the organization says.
Still, Ohio outpaced every other year in the last decade in the 12-month period tracked by ODVN from 2024 to 2025.
According to ODVN, 40 of the cases the organization recorded — or 69% of the total cases — were murder-suicides, in which the perpetrator also died. ODVN said this was the highest amount of murder-suicides seen in Ohio in the decade of data available.
The vast majority of fatalities tied to domestic violence in Ohio were the result of a gun, ODVN also reports. Around 84% of the 157 deaths recorded were shootings, ODVN says.
The non-profit's report shows that the 157 fatalities were spread out over 18 counties throughout Ohio.
In Hamilton County, there were 11 fatalities tied to domestic violence. Butler County saw two fatalities.
Franklin County, where Columbus is located, saw the highest amount of fatalities in the past year, with 33 in total; Cuyahoga saw the second-highest, with 20 deaths.
The majority of victims killed in the past year as a result of domestic violence were women, according to ODVN. The organization reports that 61 primary victims killed in the past year were women; 8 victims killed were a secondary victim. Just 6 of the women who died were the perpetrators of a fatal domestic violence incident.
Still, more men died in domestic violence incidents in the past year than women, but the majority of those deaths were as perpetrators. In total, 82 men died as a result of a domestic violence incident, but 56 of those men were the perpetrators of the violence, ODVN reports. Just 13 of primary victim fatalities and 13 of secondary victim fatalities were men.
The perpetrators who were killed died usually by suicide, but some — six in all — were killed by law enforcement, the organization reports.
"The data tells a devastating story," said Maria York, policy director with ODVN. "By working with policymakers, community leaders and survivors themselves, we can work to prevent these tragedies to create systems that prioritize safety and justice."
Most perpetrators responsible for killing their intimate partner in the past year had a history of contact with law enforcement or Ohio's court systems, the organization reports. Around 55% of domestic violence killers in the past year had prior contact with the criminal justice system, while 69% of victims killed had been involved with the courts, including in divorce or custody proceedings.
Custody disputes were behind 38% of the cases where minor children were involved, ODVN says.
