AUGUSTA – Maine State Police homicide detective Lt. Gary Wright was sitting in the Somerset County Courthouse waiting for a verdict in the murder trial of Shannon Atwood recently when his pager went off.

Wright was being notified of Maine’s 20th homicide of 2008, the killing of a young woman in Hope.

If the homicide rate in Maine continues at this pace, there will be double the number of slayings compared with recent years. Maine averaged 19.8 homicides annually over the past five years, a number that has been reached in 2008 with nearly six months still to go.

Even though Maine’s overall violent crime rate last year was one offense per 1,000 people – the national average is 4.6 per 1,000 – the spike in homicides this year has officials extremely concerned. They are worried not only about the number of deaths, but also that most of the killings have been rooted in domestic violence.

Of the 20 homicides this year, 19 have included either the suicide or arrest of a suspect.

Fourteen of this year’s 20 slayings are connected to domestic violence, officials said, rather than stranger-on-stranger crime.

“It is disheartening, and I don’t think it will get better before it gets worse with the economic situation we are in,” Anne Jordan, Maine’s Public Safety commissioner, said this week. “When you combine the pressures of the economy with mental illness and the typical power issues of domestic violence, we have a problem.

“In recent years, we actually dropped our domestic violence-based murder rate from 50 percent to 30 percent [of all murders committed],” she said. “Now we are heading back up again.”

The rate also has spiked because of a number of multiple-victim killings, including double homicides in Marshfield, Gray and Augusta, and a triple homicide in Old Orchard Beach.

Assistant Attorney General William Stokes leads the criminal division of the Maine Attorney General’s Office, which is charged with prosecuting murder cases.

“When I first came on in 1977, 32 to 35 was our norm,” Stokes said. “Then, in the mid-1990s, the rate began declining. This is an unusual uptick for us.” According to Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine State Police, the most deadly years for homicides were 1988, with 37, and 1989, with 40.

To put it into perspective, however, Stokes said a difference of five homicides is huge in a state that usually deals with 20. “I think that when it begins to increase, it strikes Mainers more. We are a state with a small population and a murder in Portland is reported in Aroostook [County].”

Although Maine has experienced at least one homicide a month this year, it is not unusual for months to separate such events, Stokes said, and Maine still has a relatively low homicide rate. Still, Stokes said, there is no way to predict where the rate will end up this year.

“I guess we’ve just got to hold on,” he said. “If we continue at this pace, we are going to have a real problem.”

Atypical crimes

“Earlier this year, we basically had two incidents that left five people dead,” Wright said. “We’ve had some high years in the past but this is extreme.”

Wright said that some of this year’s crimes also have been atypical.

“When a son executes his whole family, that is not typical. These are domestic violence but not the usual scenario,” he said. In addition, three infant deaths have been categorized as homicides.

People have used guns, knives, a frying pan, a log and their bare hands in the crimes.

Wright said the increased violence could be blamed on a societal change.

“The people that we deal with do not place a value on human life,” he said. “Look at the video games. We teach kids how to commit homicide. In the games, they get more points if they urinate on the victim. The greater the violence, the more points they are awarded. They just don’t feel a connection with their victims.”

The increased rate is taking a toll on the resources of state investigators. Wright’s division has nine detectives and two supervisors.

“Every division is working short-handed,” Wright said, but he said investigating today’s murder cases is very different from 20 years ago, considering the forensic evidence that is involved, such as DNA. “It’s a lot more difficult to successfully prosecute cases today and therefore we must invest a lot more time,” he said.

In the just-completed Atwood murder case, Wright said, two detectives – Jeffrey Love and Bryant Jacques – dedicated nearly two years solely to that investigation. “Thousands and thousands of hours,” Wright said.

“When you go from one case right to the next, it wears you out,” Stokes said. Five murder trials are scheduled for later this year, with just three prosecutors on staff.

Mary Farrar is one of only two victim-witness advocates with the Attorney General’s Office and she has been dealing with the victims of homicides for 12 years.

“It’s a tough job and everyone is feeling [the increase,]” Farrar said this week. “But people step up in this business.”

Farrar said that she follows victims from the moment of the initial crime, through the court system and trial, and even further, if the verdict is appealed.

“I am still working with families from 10 years ago,” she said.

“What makes it most difficult are the back-to-back cases,” she said. “We’ve had three in the last month and that means that all in the initial court hearings come up at the same time. With only two of us covering the whole state, working cases from Fort Kent to Kittery, it’s tough.”

How does Maine compare?

Even with a high rate this year, Maine, with a population of approximately 1.3 million people according to the 2000 U.S. Census, pales in comparison with other, more populated areas. Contrast Maine’s rate with a deadly eight-hour span in Boston last weekend over the Fourth of July holiday: A teenager was shot in the head during a cookout, a 20-year-old was killed in a drive-by shooting, and a homeless man was beaten to death outside a shopping mall, according to reports published in The Boston Globe.

Boston has had 33 homicides already this year.

According to a report released last week by U.S. News and World Report, major cities across the country are experiencing a 2.7 percent decline in homicides. But most of that decrease was in major cities such as New York, whose rate dropped by 20 percent with 496 murders last year.

The trend appears to be that murder rates are dropping in larger cities but increasing in smaller locales.

The report states that in cities with populations of more than 1 million, rates dropped by almost 10 percent. But in medium-size cities, up to 249,999 residents, the rate increased by 1.9 percent; in small cities, up to 99,999 residents, the increase was larger still, at 3.7 percent.

One of the biggest problems, domestic violence workers say, is the public’s perception of what domestic violence actually is.

“I had a woman say to me, ‘If I’m pushed or beaten, that’s not domestic violence. My ex-husband put a gun in my mouth. That’s domestic violence,'” Department of Human Services worker David White said this week.

“We need to get past the sentiment ‘It’s not our business,’ and begin talking about domestic violence out in the community,” said Nan Bell with the Family Violence Project. “We live in a victim-blaming society and we need to hold abusers accountable.”

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Maine homicide victims, 2008

January, two victims

Richard Widdecombe Jr., 25, has been charged with the shooting death of Katie Cabana, 29, whom he had dated, and her friend Aaron Settipani, 41, at Cabana’s home on Jan. 23 in Marshfield. He is awaiting trial.

February, five victims

The shooting death of Darrel Smith, 56, of Woodland on Feb. 6 at his sawmill next to his home remains unsolved.

Matthew Cushing of Old Orchard Beach has been charged with three counts of murder in the stabbing deaths of his mother, Carol Bolduc, 42, his stepfather, Christopher Bolduc, 42, and his stepbrother Josh Bolduc, 15, on Feb. 20. Cushing also is accused of burning down the family home to mask the crime. He has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.

Raymond Leslie Clark, 35, was arrested for strangling his neighbor Audrey Lou Benn, 72, of Augusta. He has not entered a plea to the charges.

March, four victims

William Bryson, 22, of East Machias was arrested in connection with the death of his stepson Damon Nason, 2, who died of head trauma on March 2. He has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter.

Pamela Henderson, 43, of Harrison was arrested and charged with murdering her infant son Zachary Henderson, 3 months, on March 5. Henderson has pleaded not guilty.

Mika Mitchell, 23, was arrested and charged with manslaughter in the beating death of his infant daughter Pandora Mitchell, 9 weeks, at his Skowhegan home on March 6. He has pleaded not guilty.

Matthew Audet, 22, of Lewiston was charged with the strangulation of his mother, 47-year old Debra Audet, on March 16.

April, five victims

Albert Violette, 63, of Somerville beat to death his former girlfriend Naomi Buzzell, 60, then shot and killed himself on April 8.

Laureen Rugen, 49, of Portland was arrested and charged with the stabbing death of her husband, Chris Rugan, 61. She has pleaded not guilty.

Police say Kristin Cates, 18, and Blake Mishou, 20, were confronted in a Bradley home by Cates’ ex-boyfriend Eric Niles, 19, on April 20. Niles reportedly killed Mishou and abducted his former girlfriend in a stolen pickup before fleeing to Connecticut. Niles shot himself in the head after police caught up with the couple and then died of his injuries.

Lashawn Covington, 25, is shot and killed on April 20 in front of a Portland home after a home invasion. Randel Philips, 45, who was the target of the invasion, initially was charged with murder but that charge was dismissed and in June he pleaded guilty to reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon.

Clyde Worster, 63, is beaten to death in a wooded area adjacent to Interstate 95 in Bangor. Stephen James, 56, is charged with manslaughter. Both men were homeless.

May, one victim

Albert “Sonny” Merrill, 48, shot and killed himself and his estranged girlfriend Jennifer Lessard, 40, in Gray on May 19.

June, two victims

Ryan Muncey, 28, of Auburn has been charged with the stabbing death of Casey Stanley, 26, behind a market on June 11. Muncey fled to Illinois where he was apprehended and brought back to Maine. He has entered no plea to the charges.

Police have arrested Jeffrey Williams, 44, and Rennie Cassimy, 47, in the slaying of Winston George, 45, of Old Orchard Beach on June 20. Police have not revealed a cause of death or motive.

July, one victim, as of July 12

Steven Pomeroy, 23, has been arrested and told police he killed Jessica Nichols, 22, of Waldoboro on July 1 after hitting her in the head with a frying pan and stabbing her during an argument at his apartment in Hope.