Background Domestic violence homicide is the most extreme form of domestic violence reported worldwide. In Mozambique there are reports of domestic violence homicide, but no research has been published describing its pattern.

Aim To describe the pattern of domestic violence homicide.

Method A cross sectional descriptive and quantitative approach was applied using autopsy report data 2016 to 2017 at the Forensic Medicine Services at Maputo Central Hospital. Descriptive statistics were performed for victim’s age, sex, education level, relation to offender, place of occurrence, and cause of death. Logistic regression was applied to investigate associations of intimate partner homicide with these independent variables.

Results From the total of 689 victims of homicide, 96 (13.9%) were victims of domestic violence homicide, 62 (64.6%) males and 34 (35.4%) females. The median age was 35.5 years, and 31 (32.3%) had school level above primary, and 45 (46.9%) of the cases occur at home. The main cause of death was suffocation in 26 (27.1%) cases and blunt instrument in 24 (25.0%). From total, 24.0% was intimate partner homicide and 76.0% were non-intimate partner homicide. From multivariable logistic regression, intimate partner homicide was associated to the victim being female (OR=6.17, 95% CI 1.28–29.79, p-value 0.024), strangulation (OR=35.26, 95% CI 2.15–578.07, p-value 0.013) as cause of death.

Conclusion Research is necessary to understand the social contexts that triggers domestic violence homicide, which will be useful to identify preventive measures.