SAN CLEMENTE – Within a week this fall, two women in south Orange County were shot to death by their husbands, who then killed themselves.

Both women had filed for divorce before they were killed. Other than that, the only thing the crimes had in common was their proximity in time and location.

There is no way of knowing with certainty what, if anything, sparked the violence. Death certificates in such cases simply record whether someone died through homicide or suicide.

But the act of killing another person before committing suicide isn’t uncommon. Based on news reports and coroner’s office records, there have been at least eight murder-suicides, and two attempts at the crime, so far this year in Orange County.

A recently expanded program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is aimed at shedding more light on the often-hazy data or possible patterns that surround these crimes.

The basic idea is the more that is known about murder-suicide, the more that can be done to prevent it.

“It is our hope that the system, from the data, will be used to inform state violence prevention efforts,” said Janet Blair with the CDC’s Division of Violence Prevention.

SEEKING PATTERNS

The two most recent murder-suicides in Orange County don’t show a pattern.

One woman was killed on a Saturday afternoon in the San Clemente clothing store she owned; the other was shot during a Halloween night custody exchange in the parking lot of a Mission Viejo apartment complex.

Beyond that, not much is known. That’s not unusual. By its nature, murder-suicide offers little in the way of explanation.

Such crimes also are notoriously difficult to track, and there aren’t strong historical data to show if they’re happening more or less frequently.

But compiling broad numbers – statistics that might show patterns – is a potential starting point. And that data is starting to be examined.

In 2002, the National Violent Death Reporting System began collecting data about violent, related deaths in six states, gathering information from, among others, coroners, medical examiners and law enforcement. The hope is that the details can help assemble a narrative of the circumstances leading up to each incident.

While law enforcement sees and records homicides and suicides in separate categories, making the tracking of linked deaths such as murder-suicides difficult, the Reporting System treats such interconnected deaths as a single incident.

That’s how authorities know that three years ago in North Carolina 24 people are suspected to have killed at least one other person before killing themselves.

California also is tracking such data, but independently from the federal agency.

In 2008, the Department of Public Health started the California Electronic Violent Death Reporting System, tracking murder-suicides in eight counties (Orange County is not one of them).

Others also are looking into murder-suicides.

Two years ago, the Violence Policy Center, which researches violence in America and advocates for stronger gun laws, published the latest installment in a series of studies that tracks news reports of such incidents.

In the first half of 2011, according to the report, there were 313 such incidents nationally, and California, with 34 murder-suicides, topped the nation.

DATA THAT SAVE

Knowing the circumstances in which the killer and the victim, or victims, found themselves before their deaths would give people trying to prevent such deaths a better insight into why and when they occur, researchers say.

In some states, it already has, at least in terms of learning about the suicide half of the murder-suicide equation.

Oregon’s Public Health Division reviewed information collected from 2008 to 2012 and found that suicide was the leading cause of death among veterans younger than 45.

The rate of suicide was significantly higher among veterans than non-veterans, particularly among young men who had served in combat, the report states.

“They’re actually working with the Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs, taking steps to develop, inform and focus suicide prevention efforts in that state,” said the CDC’s Blair.

In Alaska, data are being used to help develop intervention strategies to stop veteran suicides, Blair said. North Carolina is using the information gathered as it updates its statewide suicide prevention plan.

Information gathered on the circumstances surrounding intimate partner homicides in Oklahoma are being used to help law enforcement determine whether victims of domestic violence are at risk of being killed by their partner, Blair said.

When police see a higher risk, they work with local domestic violence prevention agencies to move the person to safety.

That was based on data from the Reporting System showing that police had often responded to reports of domestic violence at the homes of people later killed by their partners, Blair said.

In 2010, information on 16,186 deaths throughout 16 states was collected via the Reporting System. Of the homicides, 190 were followed by suicide.

In September, the Centers for Disease Control earmarked $7.5 million to expand the tracking system to an additional 14 states. Researchers hope to expand the program in coming years to all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

“We just want to continue to provide useful, actionable data in order to save lives,” Blair said.

Contact the writer: 949-492-0752 or sdecrescenzo@ocregister.com