We bring you our annual Maine homicide list with 2023’s 51 homicides, a record year and more than twice the average annual number. Even without the Lewiston shootings that killed 18, it was the worst year for homicide in Maine in decades.

The list wasn’t yet available from the Maine Department of Public Safety, but that wasn’t going to stop use. We compiled it ourself and got all 51, with some others still pending information from investigators.

Guns tell the tale this year, with 39 homicides by gun, including two mass shootings that accounted for 22 gun victims. Nine of the state’s 15 domestic homicides were also by gun, five of which were murder-suicides with the woman killed by a male partner or former partner (the suicide end is not counted in the overall tally).

Once again, the facts show the narrative of out-of-state drug dealers coming in and causing trouble is simply not true. Homicide in Maine is a Maine-grown problem.