Juana "Juanita" Maritza Sandoval was 56 years old when she was found dying on Friday, February 17, 2017, in Del Rey, a small neighborhood on the Westside of Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died after sustaining blunt force trauma in the 4900 block of Marionwood Drive. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department West Bureau Homicide case.
That evening a powerful storm struck Southern California, and the power went out in her neighborhood. At about 8 p.m., according to Los Angeles Police Det. Sean Kinchla, a person in the area noticed Juanita on the ground near a parking lot. ABC7 reported that a neighbor found her unconscious next to her car in the Mar Vista Gardens housing development, where she lived, and placed the time at around 7 p.m. She was pronounced dead at the scene at 8:18 p.m. An autopsy found that she died of blunt force trauma to the head. Because of the blackout, Kinchla said, there was "no camera surveillance of what may have happened." Police said nothing was stolen from her.
Juanita was a wife, a mother and a grandmother of two, and she helped care for her grandchildren. Her husband, Juan Galvez, told ABC7 he thanked God that he had met his wife of 38 years, and said she lived to try and help others. Her daughters were members of the Youth Justice Coalition, which mourned her publicly and invited supporters to join the family in honoring her.
Three weeks after her death, the family stood before the public to ask for help. "We keep going over what we think might have happened. We're just driving ourselves insane. We haven't left home for about two-and-a-half weeks. We're just desperate to find out what happened," her daughter Maritza Galvez said. "Every day we wake up and we wish it's a nightmare. And we wish that we would have been there, we would have called her." Councilman Mike Bonin and the family asked the Los Angeles City Council to approve a $50,000 reward in the case. The family said it knew nothing about the circumstances of her death.
Mar Vista Gardens is a public housing development operated by the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles. Del Rey is a largely residential area near Culver City and Mar Vista, close to Ballona Creek.
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 Juana "Juanita" Maritza Sandoval 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 was at or near Mar Vista Gardens on the stormy evening of February 17, 2017, or who saw someone near the parking lots on Marionwood Drive that night, may hold information that could help. Detectives asked anyone with information to call LAPD West Bureau detectives at 382-9470. 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.
