‘Hidden homicides’: Families push states for more scrutiny of domestic violence deaths

At least five states have considered such legislation this year; group hopes to add Alaska to list

Dr. William Smock, medical director of the Training Institute on Strangulation Prevention, part of the Alliance for HOPE International, speaks to students about evidence and how to detect staged scenes during a mock crime scene exercise. This year, at least five states have considered “hidden homicide” legislation. (Photo courtesy of Gael Strack/Alliance for HOPE International)

By Amanda Watford

Stateline

Families who believe local officials prematurely ruled their loved ones’ deaths suicides or accidents — rather than investigating whether domestic violence played a role — are pushing lawmakers in a growing number of states to require additional scrutiny.

Advocates call the deaths “hidden homicides” — killings they say may be staged to look like suicides, overdoses or accidents and then overlooked by investigators. Some advocates argue that requiring additional investigative steps could prevent potential evidence from being lost before a case is closed.

This year, lawmakers in at least five states — Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York and Oregon — have considered legislation aimed at identifying homicides or unexplained deaths involving domestic violence that might otherwise be misclassified. All of the bills have stalled in legislative committees amid concerns over financial and administrative constraints, including requirements for law enforcement training. 

California in 2024 became the first state to enact a law addressing the issue when lawmakers approved Joanna’s Law, or Senate Bill 989, which took effect last year. The law requires police officers, in certain cases, to interview family members before determining the manner and cause of death and allows families to request a complete autopsy when specific indicators of domestic homicide are present.

The law was inspired by the death of Joanna Lewis, whose family argued her death had been misclassified as a suicide. She had previously sought restraining orders against her husband, Mark Lewis, accusing him of domestic violence.

Alliance for HOPE International, an anti-domestic violence advocacy organization that helped develop the legislation, said that case reflects broader concerns about how suspicious deaths involving intimate partner violence are investigated nationwide.

The group has also helped families conduct independent investigations into their loved ones’ deaths. 

“We’ve come across some tremendous obstacles and have felt the pain and the frustration that family members have gone through,” said Gael Strack, co-founder of Alliance for HOPE International. 

The group would also like to help introduce similar legislation in Alaska, Arizona and Nevada.

Advocates acknowledge that not every suspicious death involving domestic violence is a homicide, but argue certain circumstances should prompt investigators to slow down and ask additional questions.

“In many of our cases, they make a conclusion on the manner of death within 30 minutes of arriving at the scene. They don’t know anything about the family, the relationship, the history,” said Casey Gwinn, co-founder of Alliance for HOPE International.

Advocates point to several reasons they believe deaths can be misclassified, including the limited number of autopsies, inconsistent death investigation practices and a lack of coordination among law enforcement, medical examiners, prosecutors and domestic violence experts.

In many cases, advocates say, a death that appears to be a suicide is treated differently than a homicide investigation — meaning investigators may not conduct the same level of scene analysis, interviews or evidence collection.

Families seeking answers also often face additional hurdles after a death is classified as a suicide or accident, some advocates say. They may struggle with obtaining police records, challenging a medical examiner’s findings or commissioning an independent investigation. 

Among those pushing for legislation is Kellee Harris of Oregon, whose daughter, Kelsey Harris, was found dead in her Linn County home in 2021 a week after she had reported that her boyfriend had strangled her.

Local authorities ruled Kelsey’s death a suicide. Harris says investigators failed to fully consider the circumstances surrounding her daughter’s death, including the recent strangulation report and the history of abuse she says occurred in the relationship.

“I just think that they wanted me to go away,” Harris told Stateline, referring to local authorities. “It’s real easy to slap a suicide determination on on a death, and then they don’t have to do anything else.”

Linn County Sheriff Michelle Duncan told Stateline that her office stands by its determination that Kelsey died by suicide.

Oregon lawmakers are now working to revive a proposal that stalled during this year’s legislative session. Democratic state Sen. Sara Gelser Blouin, one of the bill’s sponsors, said the original version of the legislation needed revisions after medical examiners and law enforcement raised concerns about its scope and cost.

The earlier proposal was interpreted by some stakeholders as requiring significantly more autopsies, leading to concerns about the financial impact. Gelser Blouin said the next version, which she plans to introduce next year, will take a narrower approach. She plans to update the bill’s language to more explicitly require additional evaluation in certain domestic violence-related deaths rather than automatically requiring an autopsy.

Those additional steps could include further documentation, toxicology testing, additional imaging or interviews before investigators determine the manner of death. Her goal, she said, is to make the death investigation process in the state more transparent in hopes of helping people find some sense of closure.

“People want to do this, and they want to get it right. They don’t want us to pass a law that can’t be implemented because it’s too confusing or that makes it worse,” Gelser Blouin said.

Duncan, the Linn County sheriff, said she generally supports efforts to strengthen Oregon’s death investigation system and said she would like to see more autopsies completed.

But Duncan said she has concerns about making certain investigative steps mandatory in every case, such as requiring law enforcement to contact family members, because sometimes investigators are unable to locate next of kin.

“There’s often people that we just can’t even find family for,” she said.

• Stateline reporter Amanda Watford can be reached at awatford@stateline.org.