OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Law enforcement officials say although several murder-suicide cases have made headlines across Oklahoma in recent months, there is nothing to suggest a measureable uptick in such crimes.
Agencies have reported five murder-suicides statewide since March 5, bringing the year's total reported cases to six — or half the total for the most recent entire year available. There were 12 murder-suicides in the state in 2008 and 11 in 2007, according to the Oklahoma Violent Death Reporting System.
"From a statistics standpoint, we should just wait and see" before drawing any conclusions, said Sheryll Brown, director of violence prevention programs at the Oklahoma State Department of Health. "We could have six up to this point and we might not have anymore."
No single agency tracks the number of murder-suicides nationwide, said Kristen Rand, legislative director for the Washington D.C.-based Violence Policy Center, which seeks stricter gun control and tracks news accounts of murder-suicides. The Federal Bureau of Investigation records homicides and the National Center for Health Statistics tracks suicides but nobody combines them, Rand said.
Oklahoma is one of 18 states participating in the Violent Death Reporting System, a pilot program sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to track murder-suicide cases.
Some experts have pointed to the economic downturn as a possible cause for a perceived increase in cases, particularly those related to domestic violence, Rand said.
"The common pattern in murder-suicide is that they are under tremendous stress, like losing a job," Rand said. "In particular, men can feel like they can't provide, so it's reasonable when we have an economic downturn and unemployment rates increase that we would likely see an uptick."
Friends said they noticed changes in Michael McCreary of Edmond after the real estate agent switched jobs. His wife, Freda Cross, filed for divorce and a protective order after the 61-year-old began drinking heavily last fall. McCreary shot Cross to death outside an Oklahoma City convenience store on March 22.
"The nature of that work — there were some years he was reasonably successful ... but his income was sporadic," said Becky Tallent, who was friends with Cross for 20 years. "He never really contributed to the household. Freda was carrying all the weight financially almost all the time and she was getting weary of that."
Brown said the suspect in murder-suicides often is male and the victim female.
"Occasionally, a female is the suspect, but it's very rare," she said. "They're most always male."
Investigators believe a man shot a woman in five out of the six Oklahoma cases reported since January. In the other case, a volunteer firefighter from Foster who was going through a divorce shot his 5-year-old twin boys before setting the home on fire.
"Those, too, are often domestic violence situations where child custody issues are going on," Brown said.
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