A 70-year-old woman was found dead inside a home on Broadway Avenue Northeast in Nimishillen Township early Wednesday, and the 64-year-old man found with her died later at a hospital, after deputies responded to a domestic violence call just before 3 a.m. A third person, a woman who placed the 911 call, was found safe hiding in an upstairs closet.
The Stark County Sheriff's Office received the call early Wednesday morning for a reported domestic violence incident, according to cleveland19.com. At approximately 3 a.m., deputies moved to the 4100 block of Broadway Avenue Northeast after a report that a man had shot a woman inside the home, the station reported. Deputies said the woman who called for help reported that a man had shot a woman inside the home, then hid until officers arrived, according to News 5 Cleveland.
What Deputies Found Inside the Home
Deputies found Lorene Denton, 70, lying dead on the kitchen floor, per the same cleveland19.com account. Jeffery Denton, 64, was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, deputies said. He was transported to Cleveland Clinic Mercy Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, while Lorene Denton died at the scene, according to deputies cited by News 5 Cleveland.
The woman who called 911 was found safe in an upstairs closet, the station's report notes. News 5 Cleveland reported that she was taken to a hospital with injuries described as not life-threatening. The sheriff's office was assisted at the scene by the Nimishillen Township Fire Department and the Stark County Coroner's Office, per the cleveland19.com account.
Investigation Continues
The incident remains under investigation, according to the Stark County Sheriff's Office. Investigators are still piecing together what happened inside the Nimishillen Township home, News 5 Cleveland reported, and no further details about the relationship between those involved or the sequence of events have been released.
A Grim Statewide Pattern
The deaths come as Ohio has recorded its highest number of domestic violence fatalities since the Ohio Domestic Violence Network began compiling its annual report. The Ohio Domestic Violence Network reported 157 domestic violence fatalities statewide in the year ending June 30, 2025, the highest total since it began compiling its annual fatality report. That figure marked a 37 percent increase over the 114 fatalities recorded the previous year, according to the network's report.
Guns were used to kill in 144 of those 157 fatalities, or 84 percent, the report found. Forty of the cases involved murder-suicides, with four additional attempted murder-suicides recorded statewide, according to the network.
