A man shoots and kills a woman, believed to be his wife, in the parking lot of a local convenience store on a Monday afternoon. He then turns the gun on himself and dies on the way to the hospital. Witnesses report the couple had been arguing, and police describe the event as a likely murder-suicide.

This incident offers three characteristics common to most murder-suicides in the United States: 1) an intimate male and female dyad was involved, 2) a firearm was used in both deaths, and 3) the male perpetrator died by suicide shortly after murdering his spouse or partner.¹

While multiple murders may occur in a domestic murder-suicide, one is most common. Children, even infants, may become victims; however, adults and older people, particularly the latter, make up most of the lives lost.

Disagreement exists in the literature as to whether murder,⁴ suicide,⁵ or a distinct phenomenon⁶ drives these incidents. Nonetheless, domestic murder-suicide has two compelling features in common with suicide: 1) it is overwhelmingly committed by adult and older adult white males, and 2) firearms are the principal lethal means used.

These elements support a suicide prevention perspective. Domestic murder-suicides progress from suicidality and involve the same factors underlying all suicides.⁷ This suggests that at some point, as the perpetrator’s risk emerges and intent rises, a domestic murder-suicide, like other suicides, may be preventable.

Perpetrators

Domestic murder-suicide perpetrators belong to the same demographic group that accounts for most suicide victims in the United States — adult and older adult non-Hispanic white men. National Violent Death Reporting System data for 2003 to 2005 indicated that 91.4% of murder-suicides were committed by males, 97.6% by persons over age 19, and 77% by individuals identified as white.⁸

Members of every age group commit domestic murder-suicides, although youths perpetrate them less frequently than adults and older persons. One report characterized assailants as sexually jealous or rejected young men, mothers suffering from depression, and older men struggling to care for themselves and chronically ill spouses.⁹

Older adult males disproportionately represent the population carrying out murder-suicides, holding responsibility for at least one-third of all occurrences in the United States.¹⁰ A Florida study found a much higher incidence among such men — most in their 70s — than those in younger age groups.¹¹

In many cases, both the victim and perpetrator may have failing health.¹² The typical profile of a murder-suicide perpetrator is a depressed elderly man with new or worsening health problems who serves as the main caregiver for an increasingly dependent spouse and owns or has access to a firearm.¹³

Motives

A proposed typology offers three rationales that may underlie many domestic murder-suicides.

1. Significant negative dynamic, such as abuse, infidelity, or a perceived injustice, that exists in the relationship between the assailant and victim
2. Perpetrator’s feeling of obligation toward the victim, such as protecting a spouse, partner, or child from the stigma or shame of the planned suicide or the hurtful consequences of something the actor has done
3. Assailant’s sense of mercy to relieve the victim of ongoing suffering or indignity because of illness or disability¹⁴

An elderly couple died of gunshot wounds in an apparent murder-suicide at an assisted living facility where the 86-year-old woman resided. Her 92-year-old husband lived nearby and was visiting at the time.

A family member found the bodies of a couple in their 80s in a hospital room. Both had been shot, indicating a murder-suicide. One of the decedents had been hospitalized for a serious medical condition.

Risk Identifiers

Little guidance exists on recognizing domestic murder-suicide risk. Homicidality and suicidality are usually assessed separately under different circumstances.²² Co-occurrence or overlap may be missed. Authorities may not necessarily ask individuals considered in imminent danger to themselves about their homicidal intent toward others.²³ Suicide risk assessments should include questions specific to murder-suicide and a subject’s attitude toward the act.²⁴

One aspect of suicide risk bearing on domestic murder-suicide is the perpetrator’s acquired capability for self-harm. A prevailing theory posits that a suicide attempt requires an individual to overcome, among other things, the inborn resistance to such an act.²⁵ This entails surmounting the fear of death, which can result from exposure to violence, greater pain tolerance, persistent suicidal ideation, mental practice of a suicide plan, and harming oneself. The capability for suicide, of which a past attempt is the most obvious indicator, is a prerequisite for domestic murder-suicide.

When there is a spouse or other family member incapable of self-care in the household, investigators should ask about homicidal thoughts or plans. Similarly, interviews with men suspected of domestic abuse or violence should aim to identify the risk of domestic murder-suicide. Police officers responding to situations where someone has threatened suicide frequently discover the presence of strong ideation and a plan. Threats and other expressions of intent are known to precede some cases of domestic murder-suicide.²⁶

In more than half of murder-suicides in which an intimate partner was the victim, the offenders have histories of domestic conflict.²⁷ Murder-suicide perpetrators are more likely than those who only commit murder or die by suicide to be married, cohabiting, separated, or divorced.²⁸

Most domestic murder-suicides involve an older adult dyad. These couples may manifest signs of vulnerability to murder-suicide.

• Incidents of escalating domestic violence
• Male seeking/maintaining control over the female
• Relationship characterized by possessiveness
• Police contact with the household, resulting in restraining orders
• Presence of firearms in the home
• Use of weapons in household disputes
• Entrapment or isolation of the female partner in the residence²⁹

Although these factors do not predict domestic murder-suicide, the presence of any combination of them should raise concern.

Officer-Involved Incidents

Police found a man and woman dead inside a home in what evidence indicated was a domestic murder-suicide. The man was a 33-year-old off-duty officer and the victim his girlfriend.

Officers investigated an apparent murder-suicide involving two sheriff’s deputies vacationing with coworkers. The deputies were reported to be romantically linked and had been arguing before the incident.

Law enforcement has an inherent interest in better understanding domestic murder-suicides. Twenty years ago it was noted, “Because of job-related variables and personality factors, police officers appear to be disproportionately at risk for suicide and its subset, homicide-suicide, compared to other occupational groups.”³⁰ Subsequent research supports this sad reality.³¹ Municipal police officers are more often involved in domestic murder-suicides than are colleagues in other agencies.³²

Interpersonal violence in police families and households is rarely studied.³³ Early on, the risk for domestic murder-suicide among police officers was found to be related to the high incidence of household violence in their ranks.³⁴ Research has confirmed the high occurrence of officer-involved domestic violence.³⁵ Officers who commit murder-suicides most likely take the life of a spouse or other intimate partner.

Women perpetrate domestic murder-suicide against their intimate partner less frequently than men.³⁶ However, there is evidence that female police officers are more likely than their civilian counterparts to murder another adult in a domestic murder-suicide.³⁷

Insufficient research has been done on domestic murder-suicide in the law enforcement community.³⁸ Further, its incidence and risk among retired police officers is not known.

Implications for Law Enforcement

Because suicide plays an inextricable role in murder-suicides, perhaps available knowledge about suicide can be cautiously applied to these incidents.

Suicidal behavior proceeds from ideation to action.³⁹ Ideation may be the starting point and trajectory for domestic murder-suicide as well. Police officers dealing with overwhelmed or despondent older male caregivers should ask them about thoughts of relieving their burden or their spouse’s suffering by ending both lives.

Ideation may progress to suicidal intent and plans.⁴⁰ Thoughts of domestic murder-suicide may grow into the desire to perpetrate such an act, a plan to do it, and attainment of the necessary lethal means. Suicide and murder-suicide are planned, intentional behaviors. Both result from a suicidal person’s psychological debilitation.

Police officers may find individuals admitting thoughts of suicide but denying immediate intent — for example, standing on a bridge or by railroad tracks to “see what it is like.” These are rehearsals. Some people who attempt or die by suicide enact or try out their plan one or more times beforehand.⁴¹

Nonlethal domestic violence incidents involving a weapon may similarly be a possible murder-suicide trial run. A perpetrator may rehearse the homicidal part of a domestic murder-suicide as a domestic assault days or weeks in advance.

Capability to attempt suicide can be acquired by mentally practicing a suicide plan.⁴² Ruminating on the plan reduces the fear of dying and raises the prospects of implementation. An individual contemplating domestic murder-suicide may passively run through the act mentally, building the ability to carry it out. Individuals felt to be at risk of domestic murder-suicide can be asked if they have a plan and if they have done anything to further it, such as a rehearsal or mental practice.

Conclusion

Domestic murder-suicides are rare, but their association with suicidality is strong. The decision to die by suicide appears to precede and empower the decision to murder. Only a small number of suicidal individuals are potential domestic murder-suicide perpetrators. Nonetheless, tentatively exploring a suicidal individual’s possible danger to others as well as his evident danger to self may be a viable window for early intervention in a pending domestic murder-suicide.