23 women have died after intimate-partner violence since the 1970s in this rural Ontario community

WARNING: This story contains graphic details of violence. 

As people gathered in Renfrew, Ont., for a Dec. 6 vigil commemorating 14 women killed at Montreal's École Polytechnique in 1989, another woman was on the minds of many: a local mother who was the recent victim of a violent death.

Candles flickered and roses wilted in the bitter cold as dozens of people gathered for the vigil about 100 kilometres from Ottawa.

"We felt if we were present here, that we could share resources if folks wanted to reach out," said JoAnne Brooks, co-ordinator for the Ending Violence Against Women Committee of Renfrew County.

Police are still investigating the Nov. 15 deaths of the local mother, who was found dead with her partner in their home. CBC News is not naming either of them because the case is still under investigation.

At the vigil, organizers handed out 23 roses, each with a tag bearing the name of a woman killed in the county in cases of intimate-partner homicides stretching back to the 1970s, along with one more for those who have not yet been named or identified and another for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

"Women are killed by men at such a high level and with such frequency in Ontario that sometimes it it feels almost like, 'Oh, here we go again,'" said Pamela Cross, a lawyer who works with a number of violence against women organizations across Ontario.

WATCH |  Why victims of domestic violence may face more challenges in rural areas

For 16 months, a CBC News investigation compiled and analyzed intimate partner homicide data across Canada between January 2015 and June 2020. CBC found one in four cases of intimate partner homicide was in rural, remote or northern area of the country.

"The lack of housing and lack of access to financial support is a big barrier … especially in rural, remote communities," said Peter Jaffe, psychologist and director emeritus of the Center for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children at Western University in London, Ont.

"When it comes to domestic violence, if you're a woman, you're at much greater danger in a rural community."

He suggested several other factors are at play in rural communities, including isolation, lack of transportation, poverty and access to guns. Those unique circumstances require approaches that don't necessarily work in big cities, he said.

Renfrew County, an area thousands of kilometres larger than P.E.I., is home to the Algonquin community of Pikwakanagan, Canadian Forces Base Petawawa, and small cities including Pembroke, Renfrew and Arnprior. 

There are vast areas of rural farms, fields and forests.