Officials honor 8 local residents killed last year in domestic violence cases

Eight people died last year in local domestic violence-related homicides, the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office said Thursday.

Though last year’s slayings exceeded 2023’s mark of five domestic violence homicides, the DA’s Office said local DV homicides remain at a lower rate than the average from the previous two decades.

In 2024, seven of the eight people who were killed, all women, died by the hand of a current or former intimate partner, officials said in a news release. The other person was with one of the women when she was killed.

The first, Brenda Valle, 38, died in January 2024 in El Cajon. Two others followed in April – Ashley Margaret Bird, 35, in Spring Valley, and Janai Patrice Johnson, 31, in City Heights.

The next month, Claire Soulnier, 90, was shot, as was Beverly Lynn Slater-Sheehan, 78, in July; both of those killings occurred in Santee. Amanda Lynn Buchanan, 44, followed in August, in Chula Vista.

A former partner killed Rachael Ortencia, 31, in November, along with Jose Rodriguez Medina, in downtown San Diego.

In five of the homicides from last year, the perpetrator died by suicide following the killings. Buchanan’s alleged killer was arrested and awaits trial for murder, while another, Johnson’s alleged assailant, died in an unrelated homicide, the DA’s Office said.

The DA’s Office filed 1,345 domestic violence cases last year following 15,298 domestic violence calls for assistance made to law enforcement across San Diego County. 

The figures were released as part of an effort to mark the start of Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Thursday’s event, the first of five to be held throughout the county in October, was held in Chula Vista at SBCS (formerly South Bay Community Services). The ceremony included a candlelight vigil in remembrance of the lives lost, while officials also offered resources for domestic violence victims.

One of the speakers, De Angelo Singh, lost his mother and cousin because of domestic violence.

“Although their lives were taken by domestic violence, their voices live on through me, my siblings, and my mission to help others,” he said. “We, as a community, must work together to help families seek help earlier, before the domestic violence becomes deadly.”

The D.A.’s office is opening a new resource center in National City later this month that will provide services for domestic violence victims. A similar center, One Safe Place, opened in San Marcos in 2022.

The office is part of the San Diego Domestic Violence Council, which includes the San Diego County Health and Human Services department, the San Diego City Attorney’s Office, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office, and other law enforcement and social services agencies.

“Domestic violence shatters lives, and no one is immune to its impact. To survivors, I want you to know you are not alone, and you do not have to live in fear – there are resources and people ready to stand with you,” District Attorney Summer Stephan said. “To those who choose to abuse, know this: We will hold you accountable.”

City News Service contributed to this report.