Police have laid a second-degree murder charge against a 60-year-old man in the death of an 84-year-old man in what’s believed to be Nova Scotia’s latest case of intimate-partner violence.
RCMP say the victim died in hospital on April 11 after allegedly being assaulted at a home on Highway 3 in Mill Village – a small community about 131 kilometres southwest of Halifax – on March 28.
When officers arrived at the scene, they discovered a man who had injuries “consistent with being stabbed” and learned that another man had left in a vehicle.
Derek Dominix of Mill Village was later arrested and initially faced a charge of attempted murder, which was changed to second-degree murder on Tuesday, after the medical examiner ruled the death a homicide.
In the past six months, police in Nova Scotia have reported a spike in the number of deaths resulting from intimate-partner violence.
Since Oct. 18, seven women have been murdered by their intimate partners, and in one of the cases the father of the victim was also killed.