Santa Cruz Arredondo was 42 years old when he died on Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2012, in South Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma near 42nd Street and Broadway, in the area the Los Angeles Times calls Historic South-Central. 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 early 40s. Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Santa Cruz Arredondo 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, Santa Cruz, is unusual, and the surname Arredondo is not rare in Mexico and the Southwest. Even so, searches for his full name turned up nothing about him, only unrelated race results, social media posts and documents that happened to contain the same words.
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 the street or sidewalk near the corner of 42nd Street and Broadway, although the record does not say so directly.
Historic South-Central is one of the oldest parts of South Los Angeles, lying just south of downtown. In the first half of the 20th century it was the heart of Black Los Angeles, and the Central Avenue corridor was famous for its jazz clubs and businesses. In the decades since, the area has become home to a large Latino population, many of them immigrant families. Broadway runs north and south through the neighborhood, lined with small shops, auto businesses, churches and apartment buildings, while the side streets hold older houses and duplexes. It is a working-class area where many residents walk, ride buses and know one another by sight.
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 Santa Cruz Arredondo 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 or worked near 42nd Street and Broadway in August 2012, who saw a man hurt or heard about a fight in the area that week, or who knew Santa Cruz 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.
