On April 9, 2002, Enrique G. Garnica, a 73-year-old Latino man, was found dead in a hotel room at the Alexandria Hotel, 501 South Spring Street in Downtown Los Angeles. Hotel security discovered his body at approximately 11:50 a.m. after responding to a report of a possibly injured person; paramedics pronounced him dead at about 12:05 p.m. The Los Angeles County coroner's records list the cause of death as strangulation.
Garnica was identified in coroner records and reported by the Los Angeles Times' Homicide Report; at the time the Los Angeles Police Department's Central Area Homicide Unit opened an investigation. The victim was a long-term resident of the Alexandria in the Spring Street area of downtown. Initial public information indicated the cause appeared to be strangulation and that the victim's identity had been established; investigators from LAPD's Central Area handled the case.
According to the LAPD media release, there was no known suspect at the time the announcement was issued and no additional information was available publicly beyond the basic circumstances of discovery and cause of death. Investigators asked anyone with information to contact Central Area Homicide; the release listed Detective Emmett Badar and LAPD's Detective Information Desk as points of contact for tips.
As of the most recent contemporaneous public records located the killing of Enrique G. Garnica remained unsolved with no arrest publicly reported. Tips or information were requested by Central Area Homicide through the numbers provided in the LAPD release.
