Adrian Alvarado Dominguez was 41 years old when he died on Monday, Aug. 20, 2012, in Boyle Heights. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 629 S. Clarence St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case handled by the Hollenbeck Division.
He was a Latino man in his early 40s. Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Adrian Alvarado Dominguez 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. Adrian Dominguez is a common name, and searches for it turned up only other men, among them a federal police officer in Mexico, a defendant in a federal case in San Diego, a public health researcher and a student on a school list in Mexico. None of them is the man who died in Boyle Heights.
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.
Unlike many entries in the Homicide Report, his record gives an exact street address rather than an intersection or a block. That suggests he may have been found at or near a home on South Clarence Street, perhaps indoors or in a yard, although the record does not say whether he lived there or whether he was hurt somewhere else and found there later.
Boyle Heights lies just east of downtown Los Angeles, across the Los Angeles River. It is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city, and in the first half of the 20th century it was home to Jewish, Japanese, Mexican and other immigrant families living side by side. For decades since, it has been known as a center of Mexican American life in Los Angeles, with landmarks such as Mariachi Plaza, Hollenbeck Park and Evergreen Cemetery and a busy commercial strip along East Cesar E. Chavez Avenue. Many families have lived there for generations.
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 Adrian Alvarado Dominguez 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 on or near South Clarence Street in Boyle Heights in August 2012, who heard about a fight or an injury there that summer, or who knew Adrian and spoke with him in the days before his death, 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.
