In memoriam

THE STORIES OF DEATHS caused by domestic violence are always chilling. And they always drive home a single question: How could these fatal attacks have been prevented?

Jane Doe Inc. is looking for answers. The local antiviolence organization is launching a new study of homicides resulting from domestic violence. Starting with 2004, Jane Doe and Harvard Law School fellow Diane Rosenfeld will issue annual reports and analyze long-term trends.

It's a chance to gather data, test assumptions, and look at related issues such as when and why stalking escalates to murder; the impact of media coverage; and how to better serve the children of victims. And it's a chance to measure some of the collateral costs of domestic violence, from lost wages to children's impaired school performance.

After years of bruising budget cuts, Jane Doe's executive director, Mary Lauby, is also concerned about the sustainability of the many organizations that respond to domestic violence and sexual assault. Meager funding, low salaries, and doubts about the fiscal future hurt the ability of these organizations to help people rebuild their lives.

Lauby envisions a system of equal access to high-quality services in every part of the state. She would like to see a culture that protects people through awareness and, most of all, prevention. But achieving this will require financial stability and growth, as well as more attention to the grueling demands placed on staffers who spend their days responding to horrific cases of violence.

This year, there were 14 alleged domestic violence deaths in Massachusetts, eight women and six men.

It is fewer than the 28 deaths in 2004, according to lists kept by Jane Doe and Peace at Home, a local human rights organization. But it's too soon to feel relief or declare an emerging victory.

The numbers fluctuate from year to year. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that what it calls ''intimate partner violence" results in nearly 2 million injuries and 1,300 deaths nationwide every year.

As we do annually, we remember the victims of the year's domestic violence-related homicides. And we hope for more peace in the coming new year.

Jan. 8: Maria Hartogensis, 46, of Marlborough, was found dead in the woods wrapped in a tarp and a blanket. She had been beaten and her neck was broken. When police went to her home, they found her husband, Richard, wearing blood-stained clothes. The house was bloody and in disarray. Police charged Richard Hartogensis with his wife's murder, saying that he had killed her at their home and dumped her body in the woods. The couple had been married for two years, and law enforcement authorities had no record of past domestic incidents.

Jan. 9: Neil Olsen, 48, of Lanesborough, was shot as he entered the horse barn behind his home. Police were initially called to the home and told that Olsen had been struck in the head by a horse. But authorities eventually charged Olsen's stepson, Christopher Robinson. Police say that Robinson confessed to shooting Olsen. There was also evidence suggesting that Robinson beat Olsen with a metal rod. In February, police also charged Patricia Olsen with murder. She is Neil Olsen's wife and Robinson's mother, and police say she cajoled her son into killing her husband. Both Robinson and Patricia Olsen pleaded not guilty.

Feb. 7: Ryan Curtis, 29, of Leominster, was allegedly shot to death by his partner, Stephen CampoBasso. After getting a tip from CampoBasso's brother and a friend, police found Curtis's body in the home that the two men shared. Hours later, police found CampoBasso's body in a wooded area in Princeton, with a single gunshot wound to the head. Authorities declared his death a suicide. Friends said that Curtis and CampoBasso were engaged.

Feb. 24 : Andrea Harvey, 28, of Cambridge, was strangled. Her parents found her body on the floor of the home she shared with her husband, Damion Linton. Police suspected Linton because there was no sign of a forced entry into the home. He was arrested in North Carolina, where his brother lived, and returned to Massachusetts, where local authorities charged him with the murder. She had been a teacher at East Boston High School.

April 25: Sylvie Desilets, 31, of Woburn, was shot to death. A preliminary divorce decree had just been issued for Desilets and her husband, Ajit Chordia. According to police, Desilets had agreed to help him pack his things. But when she went to their apartment, he allegedly shot her and then himself to death. Police said the attack was planned -- that Chordia had previously arranged his financial affairs. The district attorney said Chordia was upset about a relationship his wife was having with someone she was in contact with via the Internet. Desilets, a native of Canada, was a teacher at Woburn's Daniel L. Joyce Middle School.

May 5: Janice Giovanelli Ruth, 48, of Worcester, was found dead in her home by police. Her death was caused by sharp and blunt force injuries to the head and neck, according to the district attorney's office. Police later found her husband, Carl Ruth, at the Worchester Public Library. They arrested him and charged him with murder.

May 15: Rocky Ham, 19, of Dorchester, was stabbed three times in the neck and chest, and later died at Boston Medical Center. Police arrested and charged his 16-year-old girlfriend, Lina To, then a ninth-grader at East Boston High School. She was pregnant with a child fathered by Ham. The couple had been living together with To's family. Ham and To had been arguing. She later told authorities that she had been trying to scare him. The district attorney's office said there was no record of past disputes between the couple.

July: Lawrence Godin, 58, of Chicopee, was bludgeoned to death and buried in the basement of the apartment where he had lived for a decade with Fernando Ribeiro. The exact day of Godin's death is not clear. But co-workers reported hearing from him last on July 3. On July 15, police charged Ribeiro with murder. According to court documents, there was a history of physical abuse in the relationship. On three occasions in 2003, 2004, and 2005, police charged Godin with attacking Ribeiro. And Ribeiro had also been charged with attacking Godin. Just before Godin's death, a judge had ordered Ribeiro to undergo mental health treatment. Police were first alerted to the crime when Ribeiro went to the Chicopee Police Department with relatives and said that someone was dead and he might have something to do with it, according to a police report. Ribeiro was charged with murder.

Aug. 9: Amy Vilkisius Correa, 32, and Chelsea Vilkisius, 10, of Methuen, were beaten to death in a hotel in Puerto Rico. The mother and daughter were on a family vacation. Correa's husband, Jose, was charged with the murders. Police say he fatally bludgeoned his wife, tried to smother his stepdaughter, and then beat her. Another stepdaughter was wounded trying to thwart the attack. Jose Correa fled, taking children that he and Amy Vilkisius Correa had had together. He told his father, who lives in Puerto Rico, about the crime, and his father persuaded Correa to return to the hotel, where police had already arrived. The couple were having an argument sparked by Amy's accusation that her husband was having an affair. She had threatened to throw him out of the house once they returned to the United States.

Sept. 25: Wendy Cox, 35, of Gloucester, was allegedly suffocated by her boyfriend, John MacKenzie, in his home. On Oct. 12, a worried friend called police, who went to MacKenzie's home and found him sitting on the couch next to Cox's body, which was wrapped in blankets. He told police that Cox's death was an assisted suicide. In June, according to a police report, Cox had gone to police and reported that she had been badly beaten by MacKenzie because he was angry that she planned to go out with friends. At his arraignment, MacKenzie was allowed to remain free on personal recognizance. Cox did not seek a restraining order.

Nov. 18: Myron Crapps, 33, of Springfield, was allegedly stabbed to death by his girlfriend, Dawn Wheeler. Police said that the two had been arguing in the apartment they shared when she stabbed him. He was taken to the hospital, where he later died. Witnesses said Wheeler left the scene. Police arrested her several days later. She was charged with murder.

Dec. 1: Zinaida Girdauskiene, 65, of North Reading, was shot to death. Police say they arrived at the home that Girdauskiene shared with her husband, Roaldas Baran. He was standing in the doorway with his dog. When police confronted him, he said he was having a domestic dispute and retreated into the house. Police heard a gunshot and eventually broke into the house where they found Baran's body with a single gunshot wound in the kitchen, and Girdauskiene's body with multiple gunshot wounds in the bedroom. In 2004, Girdauskiene had applied for a restraining order, saying that her husband had put a gun to her head and fired twice, but the gun did not discharge.

Dec. 5: Frederick Keough, 43, of Salem, was allegedly shot to death by his girlfriend's estranged husband, Armando Pereira, who then fatally shot himself in the head. Keough was the father of two sons. According to the district attorney, Pereira and his wife had separated a year earlier and she had begun divorce proceedings.

CORRECTION: An editorial Thursday incorrectly spelled the name of state Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly.