George Mamplackal Varughese was 72 years old when he died on Tuesday, October 19, 2021, in Artesia, the small city in southeast Los Angeles County known for its Little India shopping district. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died from blunt force trauma near 12200 Artesia Boulevard. His death was ruled a homicide and handed to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau.
He was born on March 16, 1949, in Kerala, the state on India's southwestern coast, according to an obituary posted by his family. His parents are named in the obituary as T and Mariamma George. He is survived by his wife, Jessy, and, in the obituary's words, "his loving family." He was laid to rest at Artesia Cemetery, a few miles from where he died.
The address recorded for his death is a 24-hour 7-Eleven on Artesia Boulevard, the main east-west road through the city. Artesia is barely more than a square mile and a half, a dense mix of homes, strip malls and the South Asian shops, restaurants and sari stores along Pioneer Boulevard that draw visitors from across Southern California. The city has no police department of its own and contracts with the Sheriff's Department for patrol, so deputies and Sheriff's homicide detectives handled the case.
Nothing beyond the bare details of the Medical Examiner's record has been made public. No news report found for this story describes what happened to him: whether he was attacked inside or outside the store, whether it was a robbery, an argument or a random assault, whether he was struck by a person or by a vehicle, or how long he survived after he was hurt. The Sheriff's Department did not issue a press release about his death that could be found, and no request for public help in the case was located.
The year he died was a violent one across the county. The city of Los Angeles alone recorded 397 homicides in 2021, the most since 2006, according to the Los Angeles Times, and killings also rose sharply in the unincorporated areas and contract cities patrolled by the Sheriff's Department. A 72-year-old man beaten to death at a neighborhood convenience store is an unusual case in a city as small as Artesia, yet his death drew no news coverage at all.
When an older man dies of a beating at a store that is open around the clock, there are usually people who can help: clerks on shift, customers coming and going, drivers stopped on Artesia Boulevard, and cameras inside and outside the building. None of what investigators may have learned from them has been made public, and there is no public account of whether detectives ever identified a suspect.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of George Mamplackal Varughese could be found in news archives or public records. His family remembered him as a husband and a man with deep roots in Kerala and in the Artesia community. Anyone who was at or near the 7-Eleven on Artesia Boulevard around October 19, 2021, may hold information that matters. Tips can be given to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500, or anonymously through Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
