Violent crime: Homicides of 2003

Drugs, gangs and another unsettling year of domestic violence marked 2003's list of homicide victims.

Forty-three people were slain in incidents that were charged as first-degree, second-degree or child-abuse homicide, according to statistics compiled by the Deseret Morning News. That's down from 2002's total of 47 homicides listed by the Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification and the state's average of 54 homicides per year from 1978 to 2001.

Three of this year's homicide victims were children — two of those infants.

Most homicides in 2003 were either the result of domestic violence or were cases in which the victim previously knew the attacker. At least 18 of 2003's homicide victims were allegedly slain by a current or former spouse or significant other or a person with ties to the attacker's spouse or significant other.

One of those domestic violence cases included the stabbing deaths of LaRae Marara Sullivan, 34, and her 4-year-old daughter, Kehaulani Nui Sullivan in West Valley City, Feb. 21. LaRae Sullivan's husband was arrested and charged with two counts of aggravated homicide. In the two days following that incident, two more women were killed in separate incidents by a boyfriend or estranged husband.

Not all domestic-violence homicide victims were women. Gerald J. Richards Jr., 54, was shot in the chest and killed while lying in bed. His wife was arrested and charged with homicide. Investigators learned only after the incident that Lilly Volhert Richards had allegedly been abusing her husband for years but the incidents were never reported, according to police.

"Domestic violence is still a very real problem," said YWCA chief program officer Jennifer Mackenzie.

But just as big a problem as domestic violence-related incidents are domestic violence situations that go unreported.

"Domestic violence is one of the most underreported crimes," Mackenzie said. "We used to think about it as being a family matter. It's a violent crime, not a family matter."

From 2001 to 2002, there was a 69 percent increase in the number of women and families seeking shelter from abusive homes, Mackenzie said. In 2002 900 families were turned away from shelter services because the shelters were full, she said.

"Those numbers are so huge," Mackenzie said.

West Valley saw a rise in the number of homicides in its city, going from two in 2002 to seven in 2003. More than half of those homicides were the result of domestic violence. But in four of those incidents there were no previous reports of violence in the home, said West Valley Police Capt. Craig Black.