ABOUT
This began with a question: Where are their names?
The Violet Thread began from a simple frustration: intimate partner violence deaths are counted, reported, investigated, and studied, yet the information—and often the names behind it—can remain scattered across agencies, court records, news archives, reports, and local organizations.
This project exists to connect those fragments carefully.
WHY THE VIOLET THREAD
A number can tell us how many. A name reminds us who.
Homicide statistics are essential, but aggregate numbers alone cannot preserve individual lives or show the documented circumstances surrounding individual cases. The Violet Thread brings public information together so cases can be researched individually while patterns can eventually be examined collectively.
RESEARCH
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REMEMBER
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RECOGNIZE
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RESOURCES
Research documents what happened. Remember preserves the person beyond the homicide. Recognize makes documented patterns easier to see. Resources help turn knowledge into possible next steps.
WHERE IT STARTED
Built from lived experience. Grounded in evidence.
The founder is a survivor of intimate partner violence whose experience created a lasting interest in understanding how coercion, violence, risk, systems, and survival intersect. That experience eventually developed into academic study in psychology and social work and a broader commitment to IPV research, education, prevention, and remembrance. Lived experience raised the questions; research and careful methodology guide the work.
“My story is part of why I began looking. It is not the story this project exists to tell.”
WHAT WE’RE BUILDING
Florida first. A larger archive over time.
The Violet Thread is developing a public, searchable archive of verified intimate partner violence homicide cases beginning in Florida, with the long-term goal of expanding geographically as research capacity and verification allow. Development is intentionally incremental: cases are identified, sourced, verified, coded, reviewed, and only then prepared for public presentation.
Accuracy before scale. People before numbers.
THE VIOLET THREAD IS:
An independent research and public-education project; a developing IPV homicide archive; a remembrance initiative; a resource connector; committed to transparent methodology and correction.
THE VIOLET THREAD IS NOT:
Law enforcement; a crisis-response service; a substitute for professional advocacy, legal advice, or individualized safety planning; a predictive tool; a place for speculation, graphic imagery, or sensationalized storytelling.
THE STANDARD
Care is part of the methodology.
Document what can be supported. Clearly distinguish unknown from no. Cite public-facing factual claims. Correct the record when credible new information emerges. Separate independently documented case information from family-contributed memorial material. Preserve dignity without sanitizing the realities of IPV.
FOUNDER PHOTO — WHEN APPROVED
Behind The Violet Thread
The Violet Thread was founded by a survivor, veteran, psychology graduate, and graduate social work student whose academic and advocacy interests center on trauma, intimate partner violence, and the systems surrounding survivors.
Her lived experience with IPV first raised many of the questions behind this project. Her education gave her a framework for investigating them.
The Violet Thread grew from a question that proved surprisingly difficult to answer: Who were the people behind the statistics—and what might we learn if their cases were documented together?
What began as individual case research is developing into a larger effort to preserve names, organize verified public information, identify documented patterns, and make that knowledge accessible to survivors, families, advocates, researchers, educators, and communities.
Every statistic had a name. Every name had a life.
The Violet Thread exists because remembering what happened and understanding what preceded it may help us recognize more before another name is added.
Remember the lives. Recognize the patterns. Break the cycle.
Before another name.
Every statistic had a name. Every name had a life.
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REMEMBER • RECOGNIZE • BREAK