Humberto Rodriguez-Varon was 51 years old when he died on Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009, in Pico-Union. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 1300 S. Orchard Ave. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case.
The few known details came from the coroner's office and were published by the Los Angeles Times Homicide Report in December 2009. Ed Winter, a spokesman for the coroner's office, said Rodriguez-Varon was found on the sidewalk by someone walking in the area at 6:44 a.m. "He had been hit in the face with a board and was pronounced dead at the scene," the report said. It added that "additional details were not immediately available," and no later update appears to have been published.
That short account leaves much unanswered. It does not say whether Rodriguez-Varon lived on the block or was passing through, whether he knew the person who hit him, or how long he had been lying on the sidewalk before he was found. The discovery at daybreak suggests he may have been attacked during the night or in the early morning hours, but the report does not say when the assault took place. Nor does it say whether the board was found at the scene, whether anyone heard a fight, or whether detectives ever developed a suspect.
Beyond that, almost nothing about Humberto Rodriguez-Varon has been made public. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this story, and no other news outlet appears to have reported on the death. His hyphenated surname is less common than many, yet searches turned up no trace of his life, his work or the people closest to him. He surely had family, friends or neighbors who remember who he was, but none of that has entered the public record.
Pico-Union is a densely populated neighborhood just west of downtown Los Angeles, named for the intersection of Pico Boulevard and Union Avenue. It is one of the older parts of the city, a place of aging apartment buildings, small storefronts and a scattering of Victorian-era houses that survived from the late 1800s and early 1900s. For decades it has been a first stop for immigrant families arriving in Los Angeles, especially from Central America, and its sidewalks are busy from early morning with people walking to work, to bus stops and to neighborhood markets. Someone walking through the area at dawn was the person who found Rodriguez-Varon.
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 Humberto Rodriguez-Varon could be found in news archives or public records. More than 16 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Residents of the 1300 block of South Orchard Avenue, early-morning commuters and anyone who was in Pico-Union during the night of Nov. 24 or the morning of Nov. 25, 2009, may remember an argument, a person carrying a board or someone hurrying away from the block. Even a passing comment heard later from someone who knew what happened could matter. 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.
