Olivia Ma was an infant, less than a year old, when she died on Tuesday, May 8, 2018, in Los Angeles County. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died after sustaining blunt force trauma. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded her as an Asian girl and gave her age as zero, which means she had not yet reached her first birthday. Unlike most entries in the database, hers lists no street address and no neighborhood or city, so even the place where she was hurt has not been made public.
Beyond her name, her age and the place where she died, almost nothing about Olivia Ma 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. Her name is shared by many adults across the United States and abroad, and nearly every search result for it concerns someone else.
One public record may be connected to her. In April 2020, almost exactly two years after her death, a wrongful death lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court by two people described as successors-in-interest to a decedent named Olivia Ma. The defendants listed in the online docket included a home family child care business. Nothing in the online docket confirms that the lawsuit concerns this child. The timing and the child care defendant suggest that it may, but that remains unconfirmed, and a civil lawsuit is not a finding that anyone caused a death.
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 death of an infant from blunt force trauma is among the hardest cases a homicide detective can handle. A baby cannot describe what happened, and the injuries may not be visible at first. Doctors and the medical examiner often must work out when an injury happened, and detectives must then establish who was with the child at that time. Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest.
No arrest or criminal charge connected to the death of Olivia Ma 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 knew the baby, cared for her, or saw anything that worried them in the weeks before May 8, 2018, 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 contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
