Fred Contreras Jr., known to his family and friends as Freddy, was 49 years old when he was found dead early on the morning of Monday, March 25, 2019, outside the Edendale post office at 1525 North Alvarado Street in Echo Park. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of blunt head trauma, and his death was ruled a homicide. The case is listed with the Los Angeles Police Department's Northeast area.
Freddy was unhoused at the time of his death. The local news site The Eastsider reported that a homeless man had been found dead at the post office on Alvarado and that he was pronounced dead a little after 5 a.m. His sister, Edna Contreras, later told NPR that she first learned of the discovery from the local news. "It said, 'A homeless man was found on the sidewalk,'" she said. "He had a name."
At the end of 2019, NPR featured Freddy in a national story about the rising number of homeless people killed in Los Angeles. He was, NPR reported, a Dodgers fan, a father and a grandfather. He and his sister grew up in Echo Park, the same neighborhood where he died. Edna remembered their father making them release a pet turtle into Echo Park Lake when they were children. "My brother didn't want to let the turtle go," she said. "I miss him so much every day. Every day." In December 2019, local advocates held a vigil at Echo Park Lake for people who had lived on the streets nearby and died that year. A banner listing their names included Freddy's photograph, and lanterns were placed on the lake in their memory.
The public record does not say how Freddy was hurt, whether he was attacked while sleeping, in a fight or by a stranger, or whether anyone saw what happened. It does not say whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
Echo Park is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Los Angeles, just northwest of downtown. The area around the post office was once known as Edendale, where some of the earliest Hollywood film studios operated in the 1910s, and the post office still carries that name. By 2019 the neighborhood had gentrified rapidly, and a large encampment had grown around Echo Park Lake. Police and advocates told NPR that disputes over territory or property among people living outside can turn violent, and that the number of homeless homicide victims in the city was rising along with the homeless population itself.
Los Angeles recorded about 260 homicides in 2019, among the lowest yearly totals in more than half a century, yet many of those killings still went unsolved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Fred Contreras Jr. could be found in news archives or public records. More than seven years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was on Alvarado Street near the post office on the night of March 24 or early on March 25, 2019, or who knew Freddy from the neighborhood, may hold information 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.
