Adam Douglas Cola was 33 years old when he died on Monday, March 4, 2019, in the Vermont-Slauson neighborhood of South Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 7118 Kansas Avenue. His death was ruled a homicide, and the case was assigned to the Los Angeles Police Department's South Bureau Homicide unit.
Adam was born on January 5, 1986, in New Orleans, according to his obituary, and had made his home in Los Angeles. He was engaged to be married. Days after his death, a friend of his fiancée, Carolyn, started an online fundraiser to support her. "Last week, Carolyn's fiancé Adam Cola was killed near their home in Los Angeles," the friend wrote, calling his death an "inconceivable injustice." The money raised was meant to let Carolyn take time off work to grieve and to organize a memorial service in Adam's honor. Dozens of people donated. The fundraiser describes the attack as happening near the couple's home, which suggests that Adam was hurt in his own neighborhood, perhaps on his own street.
Beyond those details, little about Adam's life or death has been made public. No news outlet appears to have reported on his killing, and the public record does not say how he was attacked, whether he knew the person responsible, what time it happened or whether anyone saw it. It does not say whether investigators ever identified a suspect. He is not the Los Angeles pop singer of the same name, whose music career continued after 2019.
Vermont-Slauson takes its name from the intersection of Vermont Avenue and Slauson Avenue, two of the main commercial streets of South Los Angeles. Away from those busy boulevards, the neighborhood is made up of residential streets of modest houses and small apartment buildings. Kansas Avenue is one of those residential streets. The area has long been predominantly Black and Latino, and it has struggled with gang violence and poverty, though by 2019 violent crime across South Los Angeles was far below its levels of the early 1990s.
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. A man in his early 30s, engaged and living with his partner, was killed near his home, yet his death drew no public attention beyond a line in the Medical Examiner's records and a fundraiser started by a friend.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Adam Douglas Cola 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. Neighbors on Kansas Avenue may remember a fight, an argument or a police response in early March 2019, and anyone who knew Adam or Carolyn may hold information that could help detectives. 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.
