Samuel John Cruz Jr. was 52 years old when he died on Sunday, Oct. 12, 2014, in Hollywood. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 6314 Willoughby Ave. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department West Bureau Homicide case.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Samuel John Cruz Jr. 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. The coroner's record gives a specific street address rather than an intersection, which may mean he was found at or near a home or building, but the record does not say whether he lived there.
Samuel Cruz is a common name, and searches for it turned up many other men: a New York man shot by police in 2013, a young man in New Jersey who drowned while saving someone, a South Gate man killed by a commercial vehicle years later, and obituaries from across the country. None of them was the 52-year-old who died on Willoughby Avenue. The "Jr." in his name suggests that he was named for his father, but nothing more about his family has been made public.
Hollywood is known around the world for the film and television industry, the Walk of Fame and the theaters along Hollywood Boulevard, but most of the neighborhood is made up of ordinary residential streets. Willoughby Avenue is an east-west street that runs through a part of Hollywood where homes, apartments and businesses stand close together. It is a part of Hollywood where residents, workers and passersby share the same few blocks, and where people may have noticed something unusual on that October weekend.
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. When a case receives no news coverage at all, as this one appears not to have, the public has little chance to offer help.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Samuel John Cruz Jr. 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. Anyone who knew Samuel Cruz, or who was on or near the 6300 block of Willoughby Avenue in Hollywood in mid-October 2014 and remembers an argument, a fight or an injured man, may be able to help. 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.
