Michael Morales Jr. was 26 years old when he died on Sunday, Sept. 23, 2012. 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 County Sheriff's Department case. The public record does not give the address, the street or even the community where he was hurt.
He was a Latino man in his mid-20s. Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Michael Morales 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. Michael Morales is a very common name, and searches for it turned up many other men who share it, among them a California death row inmate convicted of a 1981 murder, men arrested in Texas and others in obituaries and court records across the country. None of them is the young man who died in Los Angeles County in 2012. The "Jr." in his name suggests that he shared it with his father, but nothing more about his family has been made public.
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.
Because the record gives no location, it is not even clear in which part of the county he died. The fact that the Sheriff's Department handled the case means that he was most likely hurt in an unincorporated community or in one of the cities that contract with the department for police services, rather than in the city of Los Angeles itself, but the record does not say which.
The Sheriff's Department is responsible for a vast territory. It patrols unincorporated communities such as East Los Angeles, Florence-Firestone, Willowbrook, Altadena and Hacienda Heights, and it serves as the police force for dozens of contract cities, from Compton and Carson to Lancaster, Palmdale and Santa Clarita.
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 Michael Morales Jr. 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 knew Michael, who saw him in the days before Sept. 23, 2012, or who heard talk of a fight or an attack on a young man around that weekend, may hold information that could help investigators. 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 contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
