In 2018, Macon-Bibb County watched its homicide total climb, and climb, and climb.
As of December 26th, it stands at 40, which is close to what the Bibb County Sheriff's Office believes is the record--43.
With so many killings, it can be easy to lose sense of what each one of those numbers represent: a person who leaves family and friends behind.
And those losses leave an impact.
The murders began just eight days into 2018, according to data provided by the Macon-Bibb coroner's office.
Ida Mae Ford was shot to death less than a block from her house, according to Chief Coroner Leon Jones at the time.
11 months later, 20-year-old Tynesha Hammonds became Macon's latest homicide victim, shot in the head just days before Christmas. In an instant, her infant son Amari became motherless.
Several victims were young.
Coroner's office data shows 16 victims were 23 or younger. Of that group, seven were teenagers and one was still an infant.
Deputies say some of the alleged killers were young too.
"We lose life on one side with a person that's gone, and we lose them on the other side when they get arrested," said Bibb County Sheriff's Office Investigator Dominique Williams.
Every crime was unique, but the thread that ties them all together is grief, and it's something Williams sees firsthand.
"I've seen a mother scream out... I've seen fathers break down on their knees because their child is gone," she said.
Jones sees it too. He says 2018 has been especially violent.
"This is Macon, Georgia. This is not Fulton, Dekalb, Cobb where you expect to see all this," he said. "We at 40!"
40 lives taken suddenly, leaving families time and time again thinking the same thought.
"Why my son?" asked Nathaniel Hogan, after his son Keyon was killed in April.
The sheriff's office says of the 40 homicides so far in 2018, at least one arrest has been made in 30 of them. The other 10 remain unsolved.
If you have information about any cases, they urge you to call Macon Regional Crimestoppers at 1-877-68CRIME.