Jose Felix was 61 years old when he died on Monday, Oct. 1, 2012, in Echo Park. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma near Bellevue Avenue and West Edgeware Road. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case handled by the Rampart Division.
He was a Latino man in his early 60s. Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Jose Felix 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. Jose Felix is a very common name, and searches for it turned up many other men who share it, among them athletes, public officials and a man killed in Alabama in 2026. An LAPD victim page under the same name describes a different man, 37 years old, who was stabbed on North Normandie Avenue in 2022. None of them is the man who died in Echo Park in 2012.
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 location the coroner gave is an intersection rather than a street address. That suggests he may have been found outdoors, on a sidewalk or in the street near the corner, although the record does not say so directly.
Echo Park is a hilly neighborhood just northwest of downtown Los Angeles, named for the lake and park at its center. It is one of the city's older neighborhoods, with winding streets of bungalows, older apartment buildings and Victorian-era houses, and it sits close to Dodger Stadium and the 101 Freeway. For much of the 20th century it was a working-class neighborhood with a large Latino population, and in the years around 2012 it was changing quickly, as rising rents and new cafes and shops drew younger residents.
Homicides in Los Angeles fell steeply in the late 2000s and early 2010s, yet many killings from those years were never solved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Jose Felix could be found in news archives or public records. More than 13 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who lived near Bellevue Avenue and West Edgeware Road in Echo Park at the start of October 2012, or who knew Jose and saw him in the days before his death, may hold information that could help detectives. Family members who remember him could also help by sharing 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.
