'Familicide' very rarely happens without warning signs, say domestic violence researchers

WARNING: This story contains discussion of intimate partner violence and suicide.

In social media images, the Walsh family of Harrow appeared the picture of domestic bliss — making the murder-suicide event that destroyed them all the more shocking.

But while the devastating tragedy of June 20 may have been unthinkable to the community, it's highly unlikely that it occurred arbitrarily, according to researchers on the subject.

"These cases don't happen out of the blue. Someone doesn't wake up one day and decide to kill their family members," said Peter Jaffe, a founding member of the Chief Coroner of Ontario's Domestic Violence Death Review Committee.

"Usually, there's multiple warning signs. The vast majority of cases have seven or more risk factors that would be known to friends, family, coworkers. Often the police, and often community professionals — family doctors, potentially teachers."

"Generally speaking, it would be extremely rare to find a situation of a homicide-suicide with no warning signs."

OPP have not released information about the circumstances leading to the family's deaths, but have described the incident as a case of "intimate partner violence."

Jaffe's work has included participation in the Canadian Domestic Homicide Prevention Initiative, which defines "familicide" as an individual killing his or her current or former spouse and at least one child, whether biological offspring or a stepchild.

Such events remain uncommon. According to the initiative, there were only 25 cases of familicide in Canada over a 10-year period, from 2010 to 2019 — comprising less than four per cent of all domestic homicides.

The initiative's examination of familicide is among the first of its kind in Canada, pooling knowledge from coroners' investigations, inquests, inquiries, and studies to help inform promising practices in prevention.

"There's an increasing amount of data available where we can see consistent patterns," Jaffe said. "There's consistent risk factors, and there's consistent missed opportunities to intervene."

All but one of the 25 cases that met the criteria for familicide were perpetrated by men, with the most-represented age range being males between 25 and 54 years of age.

The average age of the perpetrators was 39.

Katreena Scott, academic director of Western University's Centre for Research & Education on Violence Against Women & Children, feels there's no dispute that familicide is "a very gender-related crime."