Wilfredo Fernando Portillo was 57 years old when he died on Tuesday, March 22, 2016, in East Hollywood. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 811 North Virgil Avenue. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case handled by the department's Rampart Division.
He was a Latino man in his late 50s. Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Wilfredo 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 his death at the time. Searches turned up only other men who share his name.
He was not entirely forgotten, however. In May 2020 an East Hollywood community blog published a Memorial Day list honoring people who had been killed in the neighborhood over the previous five years. "With respect for each of these lives, which all entail grieving families & communities," the writer listed each victim's name, age, date of death and location. Among them was "Wilfredo Fernando Portillo, 57. March 22, 2016 811 North Virgil avenue." His name appears on that list between a teenager killed in 2015 and a young woman killed a few weeks after him, a few blocks down the same street.
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.
East Hollywood is a dense, diverse neighborhood east of Hollywood proper. It includes Thai Town and Little Armenia, and it is home to Los Angeles City College, Barnsdall Art Park with Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House, and the cluster of major hospitals along Sunset Boulevard near Vermont Avenue. Virgil Avenue is one of the north-south streets that run through the neighborhood, lined with apartment buildings, small markets, auto shops and restaurants. Many residents are immigrants or the children of immigrants, from Central America, Mexico, Armenia, Thailand, the Philippines and elsewhere, and many families live in crowded older apartments close to their neighbors.
The address on North Virgil Avenue may mean that he was hurt in or near a building there, though the record does not say whether he lived at that address.
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 Wilfredo Fernando Portillo could be found in news archives or public records. More than nine years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who lived on or near North Virgil Avenue in March 2016, or who knew Wilfredo, 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.
