Francis Larry Falaxco was 61 years old when he died on Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2014, the day before Thanksgiving. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Pasadena Police Department case. The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report, which recorded his death, did not give an address or even a neighborhood for the place where he was hurt, so the public record does not say exactly where in Pasadena his fatal injuries happened.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Francis Larry Falaxco 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.
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 name is unusual. Searches for the full name "Francis Larry Falaxco" and for "Francis Falaxco" turned up no news stories, no court records and no memorial pages connected to his death. That rarity cuts both ways. It makes it unlikely that he has been confused with someone else, but it also means that whatever people remember about him has never been written down in a place where it can be found.
Pasadena is a city of roughly 135,000 people at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains, about 10 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is best known around the world for the Rose Parade and the Rose Bowl, and it is home to the California Institute of Technology, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the shops and restaurants of Old Pasadena. Behind that famous image is a city of quiet residential streets, apartment blocks, older bungalows and busy commercial corridors such as Colorado Boulevard. The Pasadena Police Department, rather than the Los Angeles Police Department or the Sheriff's Department, investigates killings inside the city limits.
Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest. When nothing is released to the press, as appears to have happened here, people who saw or heard something may never realize that it was part of a homicide.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Francis Larry Falaxco could be found in news archives or public records. More than 11 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Someone in Pasadena who knew Francis Falaxco, saw him in the days before Thanksgiving in November 2014, or heard talk of a man who was badly hurt around that time may hold the piece of information that investigators still need. 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 Pasadena Police Department, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
