Emma Cristina Penate was 39 years old when she was found dead on Wednesday, October 2, 2013, in Inglewood. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 4907 W. 97th St. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as an Inglewood Police Department case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described her as a Latina and gave a short account drawn from coroner's records. "Penate was found unresponsive in a home with blunt-force trauma to her head," the report said. She was pronounced dead at 12:45 p.m. The report did not say who found her, whether the home was her own, or how long she may have been there before she was discovered.
Beyond her name, her age and the place where she was found, almost nothing about Emma Cristina Penate 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 her death beyond the Times entry. She surely had family, friends or neighbors who remember who she was, but none of that has entered the public record. Searches for her name turned up only reposts of the Times entry and other people named Emma Penate in other states.
The few facts that were released still leave the most basic questions unanswered. The record does not say what kind of object or force caused the injury to her head, whether she was attacked by someone she knew or by a stranger, whether there were signs of a struggle or a break-in, or whether anyone else was in the home. It does not say whether investigators ever identified a suspect. The fact that she was found inside a home suggests the attack may have happened there, though the record does not say so directly.
Her death came during a hard stretch for Inglewood. The Times listed another blunt force homicide in the city the very next day, the death of a 4-year-old boy in a different neighborhood, and the two cases appeared side by side in lists of that month's killings. Nothing public connects the two deaths.
Inglewood is a city of roughly 100,000 people in the southwestern part of Los Angeles County, just east of Los Angeles International Airport. It is largely residential, with neighborhoods of modest single-family homes and apartment buildings, and it is long known as the home of the Forum arena. For decades it has been a center of Black community life in the region, and many Latino families also live there. The city has its own police department, which investigates killings within its limits.
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 Emma Cristina Penate could be found in news archives or public records. More than 12 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who lived near West 97th Street in Inglewood in late September or early October 2013, or who knew Emma Cristina Penate and saw her in the days before she 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 Inglewood Police Department at 412-5240, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
