Man Ling Tan was 79 years old when she died on Monday, November 23, 2020, in Glassell Park, a hillside neighborhood in Northeast Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died after sustaining blunt force trauma near 2426 West Avenue 30. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case.
She was an Asian woman nearing her 80th birthday. Beyond her name, her age and the place where she died, almost nothing about Man Ling Tan has been made public. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this story, and no news outlet appears to have reported on the death. She surely had family, friends or neighbors who remember who she was, but none of that has entered the public record.
Because so little has been released, even the basic circumstances remain unknown to the public. The record does not say whether she was beaten in a fight, attacked by a stranger, assaulted indoors or on the street, or struck by a vehicle, all of which can lead to a finding of blunt force trauma. It does not say what time of day she was hurt, whether she died at the scene or later at a hospital, whether anyone saw what happened, or whether investigators ever identified a suspect. The address on Avenue 30 is residential, but the record does not say whether it was her home.
The killing of an elderly Asian woman would likely draw far more attention today than it did in November 2020. In the months that followed, a wave of attacks on older Asian Americans, including fatal assaults in San Francisco and Oakland, drew national headlines and led to rallies against anti-Asian violence across the country, including in Los Angeles. Her death came just before that wave of attention, and it does not appear to have been reported at all.
Glassell Park sits between Eagle Rock, Mount Washington, Cypress Park and Atwater Village, on hills above the Glendale Freeway and the Los Angeles River. It is a mostly residential neighborhood of older single-family homes and small apartment buildings on narrow, winding streets, with a large Latino population and a growing number of Asian and white residents. Avenue 30 is one of the neighborhood's main residential streets, climbing from San Fernando Road into the hills. A beating death of an elderly woman there is rare, which makes the silence around it all the more striking.
Homicides rose sharply across Los Angeles County in 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, after years of relatively low numbers, and detectives were stretched across a growing caseload. Many of those killings were shootings that drew at least brief coverage on local television.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Man Ling Tan could be found in news archives or public records. Nearly six years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Neighbors near the 2400 block of West Avenue 30, or anyone who knew her, may remember something about the days before Thanksgiving 2020 that could help. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call the Los Angeles Police Department at 877-527-3247 or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
