On a ranch in Warner Springs, surrounded by the nature she loved so much, Sadie Stockalper’s dad stood to speak. He said the location was perfect. Just what he would have imagined for his daughter’s wedding, he said. Except it was her funeral.

Stockalper and her 63-year-old mother, Felice Howard-Vinnard, were murdered by the 28-year-old’s former boyfriend, Steven Keith, 52. She had recently started a food delivery business, and was bent over that night’s deliveries when Keith shot her three times in the back. He also fatally shot her mother before shooting himself in the head.

“It’s always there, underneath the surface,” said Stockalper’s aunt, Micky Stockalper Plummer tearfully. “Of course, you can have happy moments. And we have, as a family. But it’s always there — that someone’s missing who should have been there.”

Eighty three people were victims of homicide in San Diego County in 2015. Stockalper and Howard-Vinnard were among the 12 victims of murder-suicide, a manner of violent death that increased 500 percent from 2014 to 2015.


Overall, homicides increased about 12 percent county wide, from 74 in 2014 to 83 in 2015. Most victims were 29 or younger, were male and were shot.

Blacks suffered disproportionately from murder, accounting for 22 percent of victims, though they make up only 5 percent of the county’s population.

This trend was mirrored in state figures. Of 1,746 homicide victims, 549 were black, resulting in a homicide rate of 21.79 per 100,000. The national black homicide rate was 16.91 per 100,000, well above the the overall national homicide rate of 4.27.

Most of last year’s local homicide cases, about 72 percent, were resolved, either by an arrest, or the death of a suspect.


Annual numbers also show that for the fifth year in a row, San Diego had the lowest homicide rate among the country’s ten largest cities. The department investigated 37 killings, up from 32 in 2014, giving San Diego, the eighth largest city in the nation, a homicide rate of 2.7 per 100,000 residents, according to data compiled by the Union-Tribune.

(Michelle Gilchrist)

(Michelle Gilchrist)

INTERACTIVE MAP: San Diego County homicides

<< p>Although the city saw a 16 percent increase, 37 homicides is still the second lowest total in five years, San Diego Capt. Dave Nisleit said.


Cities across the nation, especially big cities, also saw increases in homicides, said criminologist and University of Central Florida Professor Jay Corzine, who has studied violence for decades. Homicides went up about 16 percent between 2014 and 2015 in the 60 largest cities. Baltimore logged the deadliest year in its history last year.

Corzine said a number of causes may have attributed to the increase. Baltimore may have suffered from the Ferguson effect, which suggests that some police officers took a less proactive stance toward crime as civil unrest and increased police scrutiny unfolded following the fatal police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. Corzine was quick to point out that not all experts agree the phenomenon exists or is to blame.

“There does seem to be evidence that some police are taking a less proactive stance at crime,” he said. “In essence, they’re answering calls, just like they used to. If there’s a call for service that gets responded to and it gets responded to just as rapidly, but they’re less aggressive in taking measures on their own to try to prevent crime.”

He said deaths related to the drug trade and gang violence were also to blame. Those factors also lead to the deterioration of neighborhoods, which further fuels violence.


“The national trend for homicide is up, 2014 to 2015, but that doesn’t mean it’s the same underlying causes,” Corzine said. “There may be a national increase in homicide. That doesn’t mean there’s a national cause for that increase.”

San Diego Capt. Nisleit couldn’t point to any particular factor that accounted for the city’s increase. He credited the relatively low overall homicide rate to the department’s robust relationship with the community and its commitment to a variety of prevention programs.

The agency’s Community Assistance Support Team, for example, tries to stem retaliations after gang violence. The department informs community members when there’s been an incident so they can reach out to victims and dissuade them of retaliation.

“In 2012, we had 16 gang-related homicides, and the first year we did that, we had three,” Nisleit said. “That speaks volumes for us, and we’ve been doing it ever since. It’s one of the reasons we don’t have a lot of gang-related homicides or a lot of homicides period.”


Last year, the department logged six gang-related killings.

Other prevention programs go one step further and try to teach conflict resolution skills, so acts of violence don’t happen in the first place.

That addresses another major cause of homicides: Fights. For the last three years, fights have led to the most slayings in San Diego County. This year, 22 of the 83 homicides, about 27 percent, were thought to have occurred during a fight. There were fights between roommates and strangers, over slights and women.

Most of the victims were younger people, with 10 victims who were between 18 and 29 years old.


So what if you could stop fights before they happen? Several organizations hope to do just that by giving people the skills they need to communicate through conflict.

“We’ve seen that miscommunication can escalate into serious violence, especially in communities that are diverse where people’s actions and communication styles might be misinterpreted,” said Steven Dinkin, president of The National Conflict Resolution Center. “That often leads to violence if it’s not addressed at the first instance. We think communication is really a critical element to preventing a lot of disputes that occur.”

His company has trained over 1,000 San Diego County community leaders in workshops on “The Art of Communication.” Some goals include teaching people how to better react when they feel attacked, and how to approach others with concerns in a respectful way.

Although fights were the most common factor in homicides in the county, murder-suicides had the highest year-over-year increase. In 2014, two victims were killed in murder-suicides. That number jumped to 12 last year. That’s not quite as high as 2011, which logged 16. Although they account for a relatively small percentage of all homicides, they are often disturbing and violent.


There isn’t a comprehensive database that tracks murder-suicides, but analysts at the Violence Policy Center have been collecting data on incidents since 2001.

They found a number of recurring patterns. About 90 percent of incidents involve a firearm and a male perpetrator. About two-thirds involve intimate partners. Most occur in a home. About a third involve elderly people. Those cases often stem from declining health. There is often a triggering event like financial misfortune or a break up. In many cases, surviving family members are left traumatized.

“Some of (our family members) have struggled more with anger, some of us with this general anxiety — kind of like you’re waiting for the worst to happen because the worst already did happen,” said aunt Micki Stockalper Plummer, speaking of her loved ones’ deaths. “…Perspective is hard.”

Of San Diego’s murder-suicide cases, 75 percent involved a firearm, and men were implicated in all but one. Two involved elderly couples.


Among those cases:

▪ Marshelle Newby, 56, used prescription drugs to kill her 16-year-old granddaughter and herself in their Casa de Oro house. On Oct. 14, their bodies were found partially decomposed and nestled together on a bed with vials of medication nearby. Deputies found a note signed by Newby that said she was tired and that her granddaughter Emily Kaminski, who had disabilities, had had another psychological breakdown.

"…this was it and she can’t handle it anymore,” the note read.

▪ In San Marcos, 80-year-old William Gery was seen trimming his hedges and checking his mail before going into his house and apparently shooting his ailing 84-year-old wife Inge in a murder-suicide on June 1. Gery called deputies before shooting himself. A note that was left suggested the deaths had been planned for some time.


▪ Hank Mata was 6 years old when he and his mother were shot dead by his father, Mark Mata, who then took his own life. The family was found dead in their Rancho Peñasquitos home on Jan. 20. Police believe the man was experiencing financial troubles.

Although murder-suicides often seem sudden, those who study them believe at least some of the cases are preventable. That is particularly true of incidents involving domestic violence and elderly caregivers.

“There seems to be a clear understanding that intervention is possible,” said Kristen Rand, legislative director of the Violence Policy Center, “and that we can save a lot of these lives.”