Committee will examine NH deaths connected to domestic violence

MANCHESTER, N.H. —

A committee formed in the aftermath of a murder-suicide this summer in Berlin has the goal of preventing deaths from domestic violence.

The Domestic Violence Fatality Review Committee aims to take a close look at many cases of domestic violence, such as the death of Marisol Fuentes in Berlin.

The goal is to identify areas of improvement in the hope of preventing future deaths from domestic violence.

“More than half of homicides in New Hampshire are directly related to domestic violence,” said Meg Chant of the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence.

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Domestic violence deaths tend to affect a large number of people, experts said.

“Those cases don’t just impact the direct victims, whether they’re deceased or not, but also impact children, families and our whole communities,” Chant said.

The state formed the Domestic Violence Fatality Review Committee because of the impact such incidents have.

“What we want to see is where the cracks in the system are,” said Scott Hampton, director of Ending Violence in Dover. “This is all about prevention. This is all about our learning about how to make this system work better.”

The committee became codified after Fuentes was killed in a murder-suicide in July in Berlin, a death that sparked criticism of the process meant to protect victims of domestic violence.

“We know that Marisol’s death wasn’t an isolated incident,” Chant said. “It was a result of systems that don’t understand and respond to the patterns and lethality of domestic violence situations, and that’s something that we can look at through this committee and prevent future deaths.”

Fuentes had a protective order issued against her husband, Michael Gleason Jr., prior to her death. He was out on bail when she was killed.

According to the attorney general’s office, the committee will meet for the first time in about a month and will issue a public report every two years.