2014 Hamilton Homicide Roundup: Seven Murders, Over Half of Killings By Stabbing

The year 2014 is done and it is time to go over the murders in Hamilton. I've been keeping track of them throughout the year and this year we ended up with seven murders, which is a large decrease from the 13 last year (please note this is in the city of Hamilton alone, not the census area). Things started off quickly, with three homicide in the first nine days and then only four more the rest of the year. In fact there were five in the first two months of 2014, so Hamilton seems to be a city of cold weather murders.

Assuming a population for the city of 520K, that works out to a relatively low 1.35 murders per 100,000. I believe that's lower than Toronto for 2014, but I'll have to check.

In terms of where the murders happened, all but one occurred in the lower city; the lone other murder was on the Mountain in Ward 8. In fact, wards 2, 3 and 4 all had two murders.

For causes of death, stabbing was by far the most common cause of death, with four out of the seven murders (time for a knife registry?). Only one murder involved a shooting.

Ages of the victims ranged from 14 year old Jessie Clark to 82 year old Mary Fletcher. Ages of the accused ranged from 18 to 57.

Two murders are currently unsolved (or more correctly no arrests), that of Marley Rowe and that of Richard Doucette.

Here's a table with a breakdown on the murders:

Date of Murder		Victim	Victim's Age	Cause of Death	City Ward	Suspect
January 1st, 2014		Marley Rowe	23	Shooting	3 (Barton and Sherman)	N/A
January 4th, 2014		Margaret Elizabeth Steer	56	Stabbing	2 (MacNab Street	Karen Flynn, 43
January 9th, 2014		Ernie Sitter	57	Blunt Force Trauma	4 (King Street East at Edgemont)	Rodney Ryan, 42
February 23rd, 2014		Mary Fletcher	82	Neglect	8 (Rymal Rd W, East of Garth)	William Fletcher, 57
February 28th, 2014		Richard Doucette	28	Stabbing	2 (103 Barton St. E near Mary St.)	N/A
August 18th, 2014		Jesse Clark	14	Stabbing	3 (Lincoln Ave and Gordon St)	Brodie Nicholls, 18
November 6th, 2014		Tony Robles	66	Stabbing	4 (33 Morley St. )	Jonathan Robles, 35