UPDATE TO OCTOBER 1, 2025 RELEASE:

October 6, 2025



CONTACT:

Elise Buchbinder 

Communications Director, End Domestic Abuse WI 

eliseb@endabusewi.org

Message from Executive Director Monique Minkens

Following the initial release of our annual Homicide Report, it came to our attention that a 2024 DV homicide case was missed in Monroe County. Our initial press release is available below, updated to reflect changes to the 2024 data.

In addition to bringing awareness to the tragedy that is DV, our guiding rationale of releasing a report each year is to make sure those lost are known and honored. This victim’s story, like that of each and every life lost, needs to be told. We acknowledge the impact of this case being left out, one valuable story not told, as we re-release the report today.

• View the updated report in PDF form here: 2024 End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin Homicide Report.
• View an updated interactive version of the report here or visit https://www.endabusewi.org/our-work/homicide-reports/ and click on the image at the very top of the page.

Domestic violence is a community issue, and 110 individual souls are missing from communities and families. This is the highest number of homicides since we began reporting this data in 2000. Our work to honor lives lost and call our communities to action continues.

Thank you,

Monique C. Minkens

Executive Director

End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin

As Domestic Violence Awareness Month Begins, State Coalition Releases Annual Homicide Report

Report offers 2024 Homicide Data, highlights the need for a Missing and Murdered African American Women and Girls Task Force, and examines the impact of funding instability on programs and survivors

Madison – According to the newly released annual End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin Homicide Report, 110 people in Wisconsin lost their lives to domestic violence (DV) and family violence in 2024. End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin (End Abuse) Executive Director Monique Minkens announced the release of the report during the launch of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and as major federal funding cuts actively impact programs and survivors statewide.

“As Domestic Violence Awareness Month begins," said Minkens, "Wisconsin domestic violence programs are scrambling to navigate severe funding instability.

Domestic violence homicide continues to be a community crisis in our state, and we are not seeing meaningful state or federal government investment to prevent it. Programs are forced to cut staff, reduce service availability, and even close their doors."

End Abuse has produced the annual report since 2000, with the intention of honoring victims’ lives, drawing attention to the pervasiveness of domestic violence, and catalyzing change. The 2024 report marks the highest number of homicides since reporting began.

In 2024, domestic violence homicides took place in 28 WI counties. Approximately 40% of the homicide incidents occurred in rural areas and 60% in urban areas, with a rate of 1 death every 3.7 days and an average age of victims being 36 years old, with an age range of an unborn infant to 81 years old.

Past reports’ patterns re-emerge in the latest report. In 2024, 77% of perpetrators were male, reflecting that most harm-doers in domestic violence homicide cases are male. As in past years, firearms remain the most common means of perpetrating domestic violence homicides - firearms were the weapons used in 71% of domestic violence deaths in 2024.

The report, as in past years, also reflects the connection between homicidality and suicidality in domestic violence cases with 14 harm-doer suicides in 2024.

In addition to data on 2024 homicides, the report offers historical, national, and global context and spotlights the impact of funding instability on programs and survivors, the need for a Missing and Murdered African American Women and Girls Task Force in Wisconsin, and tangible ideas for community response to this community crisis.

"Nationally," said Minkens, "Black women are 6 times more likely to be killed than white women. It is far past time for our state to establish a task force to investigate and address the root causes of violence against Black women and girls. To ignore this racialized epidemic is to participate in the violence. Do not look away."

To review the Annual WI Domestic Violence Homicide Report, visit www.endabusewi.org/resources

Note to Media: We encourage reporters to include the National Domestic Violence Hotline [1−800−799−SAFE (7233)] and the National Sexual Assault Hotline [1-800-656-4673] in their stories for victims who need help.

A list of local Wisconsin domestic violence victim service providers can be found at www.endabusewi.org/get-help. A list of local WI sexual assault victim service providers can be found at www.wcasa.org/survivors/service-providers. A list of local WI Black and Brown culturally-specific domestic violence and sexual assault victim resources can be found at www.bbwpcoalition.org/resources-in-wi

End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin: The Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence (End Abuse, www.endabusewi.org) is the leading voice for victims of domestic abuse in Wisconsin. At End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin, we educate shelter and program volunteers and advocates, law enforcement, legislators, and community members to provide safety and support to survivors. We strive to shift Wisconsin from the attitudes and beliefs that cause domestic violence to values of mutual respect and equity, and we partner with communities in the effort to prevent and end domestic abuse.