Alfredo Pacheco Sotelo Jr. was 39 years old when he died on Wednesday, June 12, 2013, in Historic South-Central Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 447 E. Vernon Ave. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case handled by the Newton Division.
He was a Latino man in his late 30s. Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Alfredo Pacheco Sotelo 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. Alfredo Sotelo is a common name, and searches turned up only other men who share it, among them men whose obituaries appeared in Texas, Arizona and other parts of California, none of whom is the man who died on Vernon Avenue.
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 record gives a specific street address, which suggests that he was found at or was hurt at a particular building rather than at an intersection, although it does not say whether that was his home, a business or somewhere else. Vernon Avenue is a busy east-west street, and many people pass along it every day.
Historic South-Central is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Los Angeles, lying south of downtown and east of the Harbor Freeway. In the first half of the 20th century, the Central Avenue corridor that runs through the area was the heart of Black Los Angeles, famous for its jazz clubs and its businesses. Today the neighborhood is overwhelmingly Latino, a dense area of small homes, apartment buildings, auto shops, small factories and corner stores, where many families have lived for generations and where people often know one another by sight.
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 Alfredo Pacheco Sotelo Jr. 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 or worked near the 400 block of East Vernon Avenue in June 2013, or who knew Alfredo and saw him in the days before his death, may hold information that could help detectives understand what happened. Family members and friends who remember him may also be able to help tell the story of who he was. 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.
