DES MOINES, Iowa -- October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and advocates want people to know what’s happening behind closed doors.

The Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence says that there has been a 52% increase in domestic violence homicides in the last three years. In 2022, there were 23 reported, 2023 had 30 and now in this last fiscal year of 2024, there were 35 cases reported.

Of the 88 Iowa domestic violence homicides in the past three years, 38 were current partners. Sixteen were newborn to age five. The majority, 65%, of the 88 deaths involved a gun.

“It's something that is easy to turn away from because it's ugly, it's uncomfortable. We don't want to think of individuals being unsafe within their home. It is happening here,” Lindsay Pingel, with the Iowa Coalition Ag

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