David Echeverria was 46 years old when he died on Thursday, January 26, 2017, in Pacoima, in the northeast San Fernando Valley. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 13700 Paxton Street. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Valley Bureau Homicide case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report listed him as a Latino man. Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about David Echeverria 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. David Echeverria is a fairly common name, and the records that turn up belong to men in other states or cannot be tied to the man who died in Pacoima.
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 case was handled by the LAPD's Valley Bureau Homicide unit, the detectives who take on many of the killings in the San Fernando Valley. The record gives a block-style address on Paxton Street but no further description of the place, so it is not known whether he was found at a home, a business or along the street itself.
Pacoima is one of the oldest communities in the San Fernando Valley. It is a working-class neighborhood of modest single-family homes, apartment buildings, small shops and industrial lots, with mountains rising to the north. It is known as the hometown of the rock and roll pioneer Ritchie Valens. Paxton Street is one of the long residential and commercial streets that cross the area.
At 46, David Echeverria was in the middle of his life. He may have had children, siblings, coworkers or old friends from the neighborhood who still wonder what happened to him. Any one of them may remember where he had been in the days before he died, or who he had been spending time with.
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 David Echeverria 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 knew David Echeverria, or who was near the 13700 block of Paxton Street in Pacoima in late January 2017, 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.
