AUSTIN — Intimate partners killed 160 people in Texas in 2025, including 136 women, according to a report released by the Texas Council on Family Violence in October 2026. Women made up 85% of the victims. Among the women killed, 85% were between 20 and 49 years old, 73.4% were fatally shot and 79.4% were killed by a current partner. Men killed nearly all of the women, the report found; two were killed by another woman. The report counted 24 male victims. Most were ages 20 to 49. Of those deaths, 46.2% involved a shooting and 38.5% a stabbing. Half of the men were killed by a current, unmarried partner. Seventeen were killed by a female current or former partner, while seven were killed by a man. The findings underscore how often lethal violence occurs in places victims may live or share with a partner. More than half of the homicides happened in a shared home, and another 12.5% took place in the victim’s home. Only four victims had a protective order against the person who killed them. Access to shelter was another concern: the report said 50.9% of survivors seeking shelter were turned away because there was no space. It cited this as evidence of barriers facing people who need somewhere safe to go. Gloria Aguilera Terry, the council’s chief executive, wrote that intimate-partner homicide is often preceded by escalating patterns of abuse, including coercive control, isolation and threats. The report also cautioned that LGBTQIA+ survivors can face discrimination and other obstacles when seeking help or reporting violence. The council reviewed 18 additional deaths from 2025 but could not include them in its count. Three were classified as self-defense, grand juries found no probable cause in six cases, and records were unavailable because nine investigations remained open. The report said those limits do not establish that domestic violence was absent and pointed to a statewide gap in the information available to assess such deaths. The report also documented 20 additional deaths during intimate-partner homicide incidents, including five unborn children and 15 children, relatives, friends or bystanders. Another 17 people were injured. Those deaths are not part of the primary victim count, the council said, because Texas lacks a unified system for tracking them. For people in immediate danger, call 911. The National Domestic Violence Hotline is available at 1-800-799-7233, or by texting START to 88788.