18 died at the hands of 'the one they loved' last year

The list reads like the grimmest of obituaries, with the remarkable fact that all of them were killed by the one they loved.

The Utah Domestic Violence Council released its annual report on domestic violence related deaths, classifying 18 deaths in 2007 as related to some form of abuse. The numbers released Wednesday are down from previous years, but they include a horrifying list of murders and suicides.

Many of the deaths were murder-suicides, or attempted murder-suicides.

• Kimberly Burnette, 41, was shot to death in a motel room in Bicknell, Wayne County. Her husband, Matthew Keller, 42, then turned the gun on himself, authorities said in August.

• Lynn Richards, 52, was shot several times and her husband, Daniel Richards, 55, apparently shot himself in their upscale Draper-area home in October. Neighbors never noted any problems between the couple, but police officers were called to the home the night before on a dispute.

• In October, Alefonsio Scanlan, 55, stabbed his wife, Kathy, as she slept. She was able to escape the bedroom, call 911 and later survived. He stabbed himself to death.

• On Monday, Benjamin Thomas, 60, slashed his estranged wife Sarah's throat and stabbed her in the stomach, authorities said. The 52-year-old Millcreek woman is expected to survive; he hanged himself inside her carport.

If someone is in a bad relationship and their partner threatens to commit suicide — get help before they take you with them, said Brandy Farmer, a domestic violence survivor.

"It wasn't until my husband pulled a gun on our daughter and threatened to kill her and me and himself that I knew I needed to get help," she said Wednesday. "That was the first time I made a call to the YWCA."

While horrible, some of the murder-suicides that made headlines prompted phone calls from other people trapped in a domestic violence relationship, seeking help to get out before they met a similar fate.

"We see an increase in calls to shelters throughout the state when there's a news story," said Judy Kasten Bell, the council's executive director. "People hear about it, read about it."

Some deaths don't appear to fit in what you would think of as a "domestic violence-related homicide." The report is based on definitions provided in state law for domestic violence and cohabitant abuse.

While acknowledging that some of the deaths on their list had no history of abuse or trouble in the relationship, the Utah Domestic Violence Council said there is always something.

"It didn't just happen out of the blue," said Bell. "There was a pattern or history in that relationship that led to the person being harmed."