Nacrissa L. Ulmer was 38 years old when she died on Sunday, September 17, 2017, in Hawthorne. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 13414 Roselle Ave. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Hawthorne Police Department case.
The coroner's records describe her as a Black woman. A website that republishes Los Angeles County coroner case listings recorded that she died in a hospital, which suggests that she was found alive and taken for treatment, and that the Roselle Avenue address is where she was hurt or found.
Beyond her name, her age and the place where she died, almost nothing about Nacrissa L. Ulmer 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 first name is very unusual, which makes it all the more striking that her death passed without a single news report.
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.
Hawthorne is a city in the South Bay region of Los Angeles County, east of the beach cities and a short distance from Los Angeles International Airport. It grew up around the aircraft industry in the middle of the twentieth century, and it is known as the hometown of the Beach Boys and, more recently, as the headquarters of the rocket company SpaceX. Much of the city is made up of apartment buildings and small houses on residential streets, and Roselle Avenue is one of them. Unlike many smaller cities in the county, Hawthorne has its own police department, which handled the investigation of her death.
A residential street is a place where neighbors notice things: a car that does not belong, a raised voice through an open window, an ambulance arriving late at night. Someone living on or near Roselle Avenue in September 2017 may remember what happened at that address, even if they never learned that a woman had died. Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Nacrissa L. Ulmer could be found in news archives or public records. More than eight years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who lived near the 13400 block of Roselle Avenue in Hawthorne in September 2017, or who knew Nacrissa and was in contact with her in the days before her death, may hold information that could help investigators. 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 Hawthorne Police Department, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
