Avelino Camacho was 80 years old when he died on Tuesday, May 19, 2015, in El Monte, a city in the San Gabriel Valley east of downtown Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at Garvey and Merced avenues. His death was ruled a homicide. The Los Angeles Times record of his death does not list an investigating agency, but El Monte has its own police department.
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 Avelino Camacho 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. Avelino Camacho is not an unusual name in Mexico, Spain and the American Southwest, and searches turn up a long-running Spanish cycling race named for another man, along with several younger men in other states, none of whom can be tied to the man who died in El Monte.
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 coroner placed the death at an intersection rather than a house number, which suggests that he may have been found outdoors, on or near the street. That is an inference only; the record does not say where he was when he was hurt. His age stands out. Killings of people in their 80s are rare, and an older man walking, waiting for a bus or sitting outside would have been especially vulnerable to an attacker.
El Monte is a working-class city with a large Latino and Asian population, a mix of older single-family homes, apartment complexes, small factories and family businesses. Garvey Avenue is one of the main east-west streets through the western San Gabriel Valley, lined with shops, restaurants, bus stops and apartment buildings, and it carries traffic at most hours of the day. An intersection like this one would have had drivers, pedestrians and shopkeepers nearby, and some of them may have noticed something that day without realizing what it meant.
Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Avelino Camacho 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 Garvey and Merced avenues in El Monte in May 2015, or who knew Avelino Camacho and saw him in the days before he died, may hold information that could help 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. Anyone with information can contact the El Monte Police Department, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
