Antonio Vargas was 49 years old when he was found dead on Thursday, November 12, 2015, in Watts. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma in the 1500 block of East 92nd Street. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Criminal Gang Homicide Division case.
According to the Los Angeles Times Homicide Report, a person walking by an alley found Vargas' body at about 6:20 a.m. He had suffered blunt force trauma to the head, and he was pronounced dead at the scene at 6:30 a.m. Police said they believed his body had been dumped in the alley, and that they were trying to find out where he had first been assaulted. That detail suggests that whoever hurt him moved him afterward, which would mean at least one person knew exactly what had happened and took steps to hide it.
The coroner's records describe him as a Latino man in his late 40s. Beyond his name, his age and the alley where he was found, almost nothing about Antonio Vargas has been made public. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this story, and no other news outlet appears to have reported on the death. Antonio Vargas is a very common name, and searches for it are dominated by a well-known journalist with a similar name and by many unrelated men across the country, so whatever trace he left online is buried beneath theirs. He surely had family, friends or coworkers who remember who he was, but none of that has entered the public record.
The account leaves many questions open. It does not say where Vargas lived or worked, when he was last seen, how long he had been dead when he was found, or whether a vehicle was used to move him. It does not say whether he was attacked in a fight, a robbery or a dispute with someone he knew.
Watts is a neighborhood in South Los Angeles with a long history. It is home to the Watts Towers, the folk-art sculptures built by Simon Rodia over more than three decades, and it is remembered nationally for the 1965 uprising. The neighborhood is made up largely of small single-family homes, apartment buildings, public housing developments and churches, and many of its residential blocks are crossed by narrow alleys that run behind the houses. Those alleys are often quiet before dawn.
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 Antonio Vargas could be found in news archives or public records. More than ten years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Someone who lived near East 92nd Street in Watts in November 2015, who saw a vehicle stop in an alley there during the night, or who knew Antonio Vargas and wondered where he had gone, may hold information that has never reached investigators. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. The LA Times listed the Criminal Gang Homicide Division at 786-5111. 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.
