Verwyn Jirel Santos was less than a year old when he died on Wednesday, September 18, 2013, in Los Angeles. 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 Los Angeles Police Department case assigned to its Abused Child Unit.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described him as an Asian baby boy and listed his age as zero, meaning he had not yet reached his first birthday. The entry gave no address, no neighborhood and no account of what happened. Unlike most entries in the Homicide Report, it did not even give a block number or an intersection.
Beyond his name, his age and the date he died, nothing about Verwyn Jirel Santos 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 his death. His life was very short, but he had a name, a family and people who cared for him in the months he was alive, and none of their memories of him have entered the public record.
The assignment of the case is the most telling detail in the record. The LAPD's Abused Child Unit is a specialized team that investigates serious physical and sexual abuse of children, including the deaths of young children when abuse is suspected. Its involvement suggests that investigators believed the injuries that killed him may have been inflicted by someone responsible for his care, though nothing public says who that might have been or whether anyone was ever identified as a suspect.
Because so little has been released, even the basic circumstances remain unknown to the public. The record does not say where he was hurt, whether he was injured at home or somewhere else, whether he died at the scene or later at a hospital, or how long before his death the injuries occurred. It does not say who was caring for him at the time or who called for help.
Deaths of infants are among the hardest cases for investigators. Babies cannot describe what happened to them, the injuries are often discovered only after a child is brought to a hospital, and the adults who were present may be the only people who know the truth. Cases like this one can stall for years unless someone who was close to the family comes forward.
The absence of a location means the public cannot say which part of Los Angeles he lived in. The Abused Child Unit works cases across the entire city, from the San Fernando Valley to the Harbor area.
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 Verwyn Jirel Santos 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 knew the family of Verwyn Jirel Santos, or who saw him or spent time with him in the weeks before September 2013, 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.
