In the early morning hours of Thursday, August 6, 2015, deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department were dispatched following an emergency call reporting an unresponsive man down in a residential neighborhood. When deputies arrived around 3:20 a.m. at the 14900 block of Janetdale Street in unincorporated Valinda, an area adjacent to West Covina and La Puente, they discovered a young man lying motionless in an empty dirt lot. He had suffered catastrophic physical trauma. Paramedics responded to the scene, but his injuries were severe, and he was pronounced dead at 3:43 a.m.
The victim was soon identified as Victor Alfonso Pacheco, a 25-year-old Hispanic man. Born in West Covina on November 19, 1989, Pacheco had resided in Rancho Cucamonga and Ontario. He was a loving son to his parents, Dario and Margarita, a brother to two sisters and two brothers, and a devoted father to a young son, Victor Brandon. Pacheco had been riding a bicycle in the area in the hours leading up to the violence. When his mother learned what had happened, she rushed directly to the taped-off crime scene, where investigators confirmed the devastating news of her son's death.
Sheriff's homicide detectives cordoned off the residential block and launched an immediate investigation into the killing. While early administrative summaries categorized the cause of death broadly under other trauma, coroner officials and investigators determined that Pacheco had been attacked and killed through blunt-force trauma, with investigators noting that he had also sustained stab wounds. Next to him in the dirt lot, authorities recovered the bicycle he had been riding.
Preliminary information gathered from neighborhood witnesses revealed a terrifying sequence of events preceding the discovery. Hours before the emergency call brought deputies to the quiet suburban street, witnesses reported seeing Pacheco pedaling his bicycle while being aggressively pursued by someone driving a blue pickup truck. Detectives canvassed Janetdale Street and the surrounding unincorporated San Gabriel Valley neighborhood in search of surveillance footage and additional witnesses who may have seen the confrontation unfold or spotted the blue truck fleeing the area in the dark.
Despite early leads regarding the chase and the distinctive blue truck, the driver and any potential passengers were not identified, and no arrests were announced. Investigators faced the persistent challenge of solving an act of street violence committed in the middle of the night without immediate eyewitness identification of the perpetrator. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau repeatedly urged anyone who was awake at that hour or traveling near Janetdale Street to come forward with information.
More than a decade after the attack, the homicide remains open and unsolved. Detectives continue to appeal to the public for tips that could help identify the occupants of the blue pickup truck and reconstruct the circumstances leading to the confrontation. Anyone with information about the murder of Victor Alfonso Pacheco is urged to contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau or submit an anonymous tip through Crime Stoppers.
