ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- Seven of the eight women killed in Orange County through July of 2007 had one thing in common. Their partners killed them. Statistics show Orange County has the highest rate of domestic violence in the state. Department of Children and Family managers say their investigators haven't been taught to deal with it.

An ultimatum a DCF investigator gave a woman three years ago, leave or lose your children, forced her to escape an abusive boyfriend. But she's still hiding from him at Orange County's Harbor House for victims of domestic violence. That ultimatum was a common one for battered mothers, until recently when statistics began to show that while it made sense on one level, it wasn't always good for the mothers or their children. Mothers weren't always told where they could go or what kind of help was available.

"When they leave, they're (still) in great danger and what these investigators were doing, unintentionally, was putting her life and her children's life at risk by forcing her to leave," said Carol Wick of Harbor House.

DCF has put all 150 investigators and managers through training, to teach them to look at things from a different perspective.

"If Mom can be protected, the children can be protected and we're catching on to that," said Dan MacClean of DCF.

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FIND HELP: Domestic Violence Resources

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Over the next 4 to 5 months, and at a cost of $12,000, Harbor House counselors will train investigators to assess the chances a woman will die and show investigators how to offer her help instead of forcing her to make hard choices.

Simply directing women to local women's shelters could make a difference. Statistics show 98-percent of women killed by their partners in Florida over the last two years never had any contact with a shelter.