by Ismael M. Belkoura, Fort Worth Report
October 29, 2026

Domestic violence homicides in Tarrant County increased for the second year in a row.

In all, 13 people in the county died in 2025 as a result of intimate partner violence, according to a report released earlier this month. That’s two more than last year and more than double the number of homicides the county reported in the review in 2023.

Kathryn Jacob, president and CEO of The Archway, one of the primary partner organizations participating in the Intimate Partner Violence Fatality Review, called the most recent findings the “elephant in the room.”

“Our goal is to go a 12-month period with zero intimate partner homicides, and sadly, our community is moving away from the goal,” said Jacob, reiterating the responsibility for the increase in deaths falls at the feet of domestic violence offenders.

If you are a victim of intimate partner violence, contact your local police department or The Archway’s 24-hour hotline at 1-877-701-7233.

The Tarrant County Intimate Partner Violence Adult Fatality Review Team consists of nonprofits like The Archway as well as police departments and the Tarrant County district attorney’s office. 

The team publishes the review every year in October, which is designated nationally as Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

The goal of the review and the team that puts it together is to “identify gaps in system responses and improve communication and collaboration among the agencies involved to reduce preventable deaths,” according to the county website.

In addition to creating the annual report, the review team, led by the Tarrant County district attorney’s office, allows for more open connections between leaders in the domestic violence prevention space, assistant district attorney Allenna Bangs said.

“Here in the criminal justice system, we are going to be a little bit reactive when a crime gets filed,” Bangs said. “But what we want to do is identify the gaps in services in the community to identify where we can fill a hole so that this potentially doesn’t result in a homicide.”

The review also examines trends and other data points related to the homicide cases in addition to reporting the total number. In 2025, it was found that seven offenders had previous intimate partner violence criminal charges against them. The review also found that 17 child dependents connected to these cases lost one or both of their parents that year. 

Jacob and Bangs noted that strangulation cases have consistently been an indicator of potential homicide in regard to intimate partner violence. One new pattern noted in the review pointed to a more direct connection between stalking and intimate partner homicides.

Being aware of these connections to other types of crimes allows the district attorney’s office to flag these situations ahead of time.

“When we’ve got stalking also as a part of it … we might need to approach the court and get a more strenuous bond condition. Or maybe, if they’re out of custody, focus on having them back in custody if they’re violating that,” Bangs said.

For Jacob, one of the more important details is that none of the 13 victims had filed a protection order or contacted The Archway prior to the homicide.

She noted that for many years, homicide victims in previous reviews had never gone to a shelter. 

“If you know that a resource exists in your community, a resource that is comprehensive and licensed to do this work, then it can very much save your life,” Jacob said. “But if you are not aware, if you think nothing exists or something exists and it’s not for me, then sometimes that can have fatal consequences.”

Bangs, who agreed with Jacob that the offender is ultimately responsible for preventing domestic violence deaths, also noted homicides wholesale in Fort Worth and Arlington look to be dipping significantly in 2026.

Alongside her work with the review team, Jacob is part of Gov. Greg Abbott’s Family Violence Criminal Homicide Prevention Task Force. Jacob said early findings culminated by the task force found several precursors to domestic violence homicides: strangulation, stalking, access to a firearm and pregnancy.

Awareness of these precursors and of the resources available will help get to the goal of zero deaths in one year, Jacob said.

“It is all of our responsibility to make sure that everyone in our lives knows that this exists, that you can find confidential, anonymous shelters and other services,” she said.

Ismael M. Belkoura is the nonprofit editor for the Fort Worth Report. His position is supported by a grant from North Texas Community Foundation. Contact him at ismael.belkoura@fortworthreport.org.

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This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. ""