Despite positive signs in many of the state's historical centers of violence, homicides spiked slightly across New Jersey in 2015.
According to a NJ Advance Media survey of prosecutor's offices in the state's 21 counties, at least 375 people died under violent circumstances over the last 12 months -- a roughly 4 percent increase over last year's total of 361.
More than a quarter of those slayings took place in Newark, where a bloody finish to the year, which included 25 homicides over November and December, drove the city's total to 105*, according to police department statistics -- an uptick of 12 over 2014.
The late surge drove Mayor Ras Baraka to lobby for a shake-up of the city's police department, pushing for the hiring of Essex County Prosecutor's Office Chief of Detectives Anthony Ambrose to take over a new public safety director position, while eliminating the traditional police and fire director jobs. The City Council is expected to approve those appointments early next month.
"We desperately need to do something different," Baraka said in a Tuesday address at City Hall. "Obviously, what has been going on has not been acceptable. We need to be able to go forward and address what's happening in our city in a very quick and definite way."
The bloodshed in the state's largest city was also evident in many of its neighboring communities, which continue to battle their own waves of violence.
East Orange saw 11 slayings this year, nine more than 2014 and its highest total since 2009. Irvington's total dropped from 18 to 12, but Orange -- which went without a single homicide in 2014 -- recorded 5 cases.
As a whole, Essex County accounted for 143 homicides in 2015 -- far and away the most of any county, and nearly 40 percent of all cases.
Positive signs for cities
Essex represented something of an anomaly around the state, however, as other metropolises managed to either flatten their homicide rates or make measurable progress on their troubled streets.
Trenton, just two years removed from an all-time record of 37 homicides in 2013, cut its rate by roughly half to just 17.
Police spokesman Lt. Stephen Varn attributed the decline to increased collaboration with state and federal agencies in the area, as well as the work of a newly formed unit dedicated solely to investigating and preventing shootings.
"What we found was that individuals involved in non-fatal shootings were also the ones being involved in homicides," he said. "We felt that if we could put more resources into solving the non-fatal shootings and getting those offenders off the street, it was just a matter of time before they ended up into a fatal shooting."
View 2015 Homicide in N.J. Counties in a full screen map
Positive trends were also evident in Paterson, where the city cut killings by eight after a troubling 2014 that saw 26 homicides, and Elizabeth, where slayings fell from 13 to 10.
In Camden, police recorded 32 homicides, one fewer than its total for 2014. The two statistics reflect a marked improvement from 2013, when the city of just 77,000 piled up 59 murders, spurring the state to send in a new regional police force that put nearly 200 more officers on the street.
Violent deaths in Jersey City increased by one to 25. Mayor Steven Fulop said that despite the addition of 55 new officers -- all of whom were assigned to the city's more troubled southern and western districts -- officials continued to battle a pervasive gun culture.
"Relatively speaking, versus most cities of our size, we're doing very well," he said. "But access to guns, and particularly access to guns among young people, continues to be a challenging situation for Jersey City and every city in the country."
Homicides at home
In June, Philip Seidle began tailing Tamara Seidle, through the streets of Asbury Park.
The veteran Neptune police sergeant fired several shots from his .40-caliber service handgun into his ex-wife's Volkswagen Jetta, killing her as their 7-year-old daughter looked on from her passenger seat, officials have said.
What emerged in police reports and court documents in the weeks to come, including allegations of physical and emotional abuse dating back years, painted a picture many advocates say is fueling much of the homicides in sleepy bedroom communities known more for farmers' markets than open-air drug sales.
In October, 48-year-old Suzanne Bardzell was killed with a machete outside her Midland Park home. The alleged perpetrator Arthur J. Lomando, was her ex-boyfriend and a former New York City cop who threw himself in front of a subway train in Harlem hours after the slaying. He survived.
In other incidents, all of the parties died, including a Christmas night tragedy in which a distraught husband killed his wife and 8-year-old daughter in their Edgewater apartment before turning a gun on himself.
The stories cut across all of the state's racial, gender and socioeconomic divides.
Latrena May, a 27-year-old teacher in East Orange, was gunned down by the father of her young daughter in May. The following month, Cindy Fortino fatally shot her husband Dean in their Vernon home before killing herself.
Nicole Morella, Director of Policy and Communications for the New Jersey Coalition to End Domestic Violence, said problems with domestic violence turning deadly are far from a new phenomenon, though cases like those involving Seidle and Bardzell are receiving far more media scrutiny than in the past.
"I think what we're seeing in New Jersey is unfortunately just tried and true of what's happening nationally," she said.
"(The coverage is greater) not just in the reporting of homicides, but with more information in some of the history in these cases and some of the challenges. When we just read the headlines of the death, we kind of miss the boat."
Morella said her organization is lobbying the state to allow courts to better track and assess domestic offenders who might be at high risk of reoffending, or escalating their level of violence.
Results thus far have been mixed, however, and she said problems can often go undiscovered for years due to the emotional attachments between abusers and their victims, and the fears both are forced to battle when weighing how to confront the issue.
"Sometimes there is a stigma around actually asking for help. For men, it shows their vulnerability, which they may not be supported in doing," she said.
That sentiment was shared by many tasked with preventing untimely deaths around the state, whether on a city corner or suburban cul-de-sac.
Fulop said authorities in Jersey City often struggle to convince witnesses to come forward or testify, leaving some of its worst offenders to roam free and trap some residents in a seemingly endless cycle of violence.
"We need the community to be a part of it," he said. "Sadly in a lot of urban communities, there's a culture of 'snitches get stitches', which is really hard for us."
*Note: The overall homicide count in Newark stands at 105, according to the Newark PD, and 104 according to the Essex County Prosecutor's Office.
Correction: An earlier version of this article provided an incorrect total of homicides for Jersey City in 2014 and Camden in 2015.
Dan Ivers may be reached at divers@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DanIversNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.