Sixto Pineda was 49 years old when he died on Sunday, Aug. 19, 2012, in Westlake. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma in front of 134 S. Witmer St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case handled by the Rampart Division.
The coroner's record listed him as a white man in his late 40s. Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Sixto Pineda 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. His first name is uncommon in the United States, but searches for it turned up only other men, among them a man in Honduras named in a corruption case there and men listed in old historical records. None of them is the man who died in Westlake.
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 coroner placed the location in front of a building on South Witmer Street rather than inside it. That suggests he may have been found outdoors, on the sidewalk or in the street, although the record does not say whether he lived nearby, whether he was hurt at that spot or whether he was found there after being hurt somewhere else.
Westlake lies just west of downtown Los Angeles, centered on MacArthur Park and crossed by Wilshire Boulevard. In the early 20th century it was a fashionable district of hotels and grand homes around the park's lake. Today it is one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in the city, filled with older apartment buildings, small shops, street vendors and busy bus lines, and it has long been a home for immigrant families, particularly from Mexico and Central America. Many residents spend much of their day on its crowded sidewalks, which means many people pass through its streets at all hours.
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 Sixto Pineda 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 Witmer Street in Westlake in August 2012, who saw a man hurt or lying on the sidewalk there that weekend, or who knew Sixto 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.
