An expert on violent crime says there has been no increase in murder-suicides in Newfoundland and Labrador, despite a series of recent cases that have raised concerns about family violence.

Elliott Leyton, an anthropology professor emeritus at Memorial University, says crime data dating back to 1933 show that murder-suicides have been relatively stable, despite a public perception.

Elliott Leyton said murder-suicides have been a consistent part of Newfoundland and Labrador's crime history.
(CBC)

"[It's] one of the most common and consistent types of tragedies that has occurred without any particular change in frequency or rate, from the very beginning — alas," said Leyton, the author of the bestseller Hunting Humans and other books on crime.

The RCMP have confirmed that a double shooting in Head of Bay d'Espoir last weekend was a murder-suicide. There have been at least five cases within the province in the last two years.

Leyton said murder-suicides have accounted for more than 30 per cent of homicides since the 1930s, with only a small, gradual decline over time.

"That's one of the interesting — and tragic — patterns of traditional crime here in Newfoundland," Leyton said in an interview Thursday. He added that the province nonetheless has one of the lowest overall homicide rates in the world.

Leyton said media attention and changing mores may also play into how the issue is perceived.

Head of Bay d'Espoir resident Ron Skinner, 51, shot his partner of seven years, Jenny Hull, 52, late Friday night while she was across the street from their home in the central Newfoundland community. He then turned the gun on himself.

Joan Burke, minister responsible for the status of women, said whether or not the murder-suicide rate has been stable does not make the problem any less serious.

"It's a real issue in this province and until we can reach levels where everyone understands what violence is all about and it's unacceptable, we haven't got our work done," Burke told CBC News.

Nazir Ladha, a St. John's forensic psychiatrist who has frequently testified at criminal trials, said he cannot explain the recent cases.

"I don't think we can say too much specifically about that, except to say that this is perhaps a cluster — an unfortunate cluster at this point in time, at this point in our history," Ladha told CBC News.

Breaking the silence

Police officers in Newfoundland and Labrador have only recently been acknowledging that several cases were in fact murder-suicides.

In August, for the first time in Newfoundland and Labrador, the RCMP confirmed that a case in Hermitage — involving a man who murdered his wife before killing himself — was in fact a murder-suicide.

Since then, the RCMP have said three other recent cases in their jurisdiction — in Avondale, Arnold's Cove and Port aux Basques — were also murder-suicides.

RCMP have said they wanted to break the silence about domestic violence by describing the crimes appropriately.

Meanwhile, the Newfoundland and Labrador government is readying a new campaign to fight domestic violence. The province will spend about $7 million over six years, and is expected to announce details of the campaign next month.

Leyton said, historically, 27 per cent of homicides in the province have involved husbands killing their wives, while nine per cent involved wives killing husbands.