Jonathan Mitch Tennis was 19 years old when he died on Saturday, September 12, 2015, in Venice. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma in the 900 block of South Victoria Avenue. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case handled by its West Bureau Homicide unit.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report listed him as a white man. Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Jonathan Mitch Tennis 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. His middle name is unusual, but the surname Tennis makes searching for him difficult, because it is also the name of a sport, and searches turn up other men named Jonathan Tennis in Florida, Maryland and elsewhere, none of whom can be tied to the young man who died in Venice.
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.
His age makes the loss especially stark. At 19, he would have been only a year or so out of high school, at an age when most young people are beginning work, college or their first years of independence. The address is given only as a block, which suggests a location on a residential street rather than a business with a set number, though that is an inference.
Venice is one of the best known neighborhoods in Los Angeles. It is famous for its beach and its boardwalk, for the canals that were built more than a century ago, and for Abbot Kinney Boulevard, a street of shops, galleries and restaurants. The neighborhood draws large numbers of visitors and has long been a home for artists, surfers and young people. Away from the beach, its streets are lined with bungalows, apartment buildings and newer homes, and many people walk or ride bicycles through the neighborhood at all hours.
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 Jonathan Mitch Tennis 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. Anyone who was near the 900 block of South Victoria Avenue in Venice in September 2015, or who knew Jonathan Mitch Tennis and saw him in the days before he died, 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.
