Albino V. Salgado was 57 years old when he died on Friday, June 9, 2017, in Tujunga. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 7661 Beckett St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Valley Bureau Homicide case.
The coroner's records describe him as a Latino man in his late 50s. Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Albino V. Salgado 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. He surely had family, friends or neighbors who remember who he was, but none of that has entered the public record. His first name is uncommon in the United States, and the few search results for his full name concern other people, including men in Puerto Rico and Mexico and relatives named in other families' obituaries.
Because so little has been released, even the basic circumstances remain unknown to the public. The record does not say whether he 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 he was hurt, whether he died at the scene or later at a hospital, whether anyone saw what happened, or whether investigators ever identified a suspect. The record does give a specific street address on Beckett Street, which suggests that he may have been hurt at or near a home rather than on a busy commercial street.
Tujunga is a foothill community in the northeast corner of the San Fernando Valley, part of the city of Los Angeles and often grouped with its neighbor Sunland. It sits at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains, and its streets climb toward the Angeles National Forest. Foothill Boulevard runs through it as the main commercial street. Cases in the area are handled by the Los Angeles Police Department's Foothill Division, and serious cases such as homicides are often taken by the Valley Bureau Homicide unit, which investigated this death.
In a close residential neighborhood like Tujunga, neighbors often know one another's cars, routines and visitors. Someone living near Beckett Street in June 2017 may remember a disturbance, an argument, or an unfamiliar vehicle around the time Albino Salgado was hurt. By the mid-2010s Los Angeles was recording roughly 250 to 300 homicides a year, among the lowest totals in decades, yet many of those killings still went unsolved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Albino V. Salgado 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 7600 block of Beckett Street in Tujunga in June 2017, or who knew Albino and saw him in the days before he died, 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.
