Mary Magdeline Goins was 52 years old when she died on Saturday, May 6, 2017, in Watts. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 1783 E. 105th St. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Criminal Gang and Homicide Division case.
The coroner's records describe her as a Black woman in her early 50s. Beyond her name, her age and the place where she died, almost nothing about Mary Magdeline Goins 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. The name Mary Goins is shared by many women across the country, and nearly every search result for it concerns someone else.
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 address on East 105th Street appears to be a residential one, which suggests that she may have been hurt at or near a home.
Watts is a neighborhood in South Los Angeles, south of downtown. It is known around the world for the Watts Towers, the soaring sculptures that the Italian immigrant Simon Rodia built by hand over more than three decades, and for the 1965 uprising that drew national attention to conditions in the city's Black neighborhoods. Watts is also home to several large public housing developments, including Jordan Downs, Nickerson Gardens and Imperial Courts. Over the decades the neighborhood has been a center of Black and, increasingly, Latino family life, with churches, schools and small homes on tight residential blocks.
Her case is listed with the Los Angeles Police Department's Criminal Gang and Homicide Division, a citywide unit that handles some of the department's most serious investigations. That assignment alone does not explain how she died, and no motive has been made public. 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 Mary Magdeline Goins 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 1700 block of East 105th Street in Watts in May 2017, or who knew Mary and was in contact with her in the days before her death, 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.
