Stacey Klimovitch, the grandmother who was gunned down in the doorway of her Stockton home last week while her daughter and baby grandson were inside her townhouse, is one of 19 women killed in acts of violence across Australia so far this year.
The Counting Dead Women Australia project, in association with awareness organisation Destroy The Joint, has been collecting and publishing information about the number of women who have died at the hands of violence each year since 2012.
"It's tragic that you can't be safe in your own home," a spokesperson for Counting Dead Women Australia told the Newcastle Herald yesterday when asked about Ms Klimovitch's murder.
The 61-year-old former swimming instructor was fatally shot in the chest after she answered the front door of her Queen Street unit just before 8pm on June 9.
Newcastle detectives and State Crime Command Homicide Squad police have formed Strike Force Backhouse to hunt for the killer of the much-loved mother of four.
They had not made any arrests or pressed any charges in relation to the shooting at the time of publication.
Ms Klimovitch's name now sits among those belonging to women who have had their lives taken by violence.
There are still too many women dying, we've got 19 so far [in 2021].
Counting Dead Women Australia Project spokesperson.
The Counting Dead Women Australia spokesperson said yesterday that 56 women were killed in acts of violence across the nation last year, while 63 women died by violence in 2019.
While the numbers were decreasing in the past few years, she said, they were doing so in line with a general decline in the number of homicides.
"There are still too many women dying, we've got 19 so far [in 2021]," she said.
"Those women have been killed by men and women - but only very, very few by women.
"You might look with relief at the number of fatal violence coming down, but then there are women who live with brain injury all their lives as a result of some kind of violence.
"We do know that the one thing that is climbing is assaults against women and those assaults damage them in ways which go on for years and years."
Investigators believe Ms Klimovitch's killer escaped down Little William Street after the shooting.
They are calling for anyone who has CCTV or dashcam footage from that part of Stockton in the lead-up to - or just after - 8pm on June 9 to contact police. Anyone with information that could help detectives in the investigation into Ms Klimovitch's murder can contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
