Bill Ilnam Park was 65 years old when he died on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009, in Sherman Oaks. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 5000 Van Nuys Blvd. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Van Nuys Division case.
The public record of his death is very thin. The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report listed him in a weekly roundup of the county's homicides and added one detail that his own brief entry did not contain: "Park died of a fractured skull in the 5000 block of Van Nuys Boulevard in Sherman Oaks." No longer story about him appears to have been published, and no detective was quoted about the case.
A fractured skull can come from a blow, a fall or a beating, and the record does not say which it was in his case. It does not say whether he was attacked on the sidewalk, inside a building or in a parking lot, what time of day he was hurt, whether he died at the scene or later at a hospital, or whether anyone saw what happened. It also does not say whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Bill Ilnam Park 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. The name Bill Park is shared by many people, among them a well-known test pilot and men whose obituaries appear in several other states, which makes it harder to find any trace of this particular man. His middle name, Ilnam, appears in no other record found for this story. He surely had family, friends or neighbors who remember who he was, but none of that has entered the public record.
Sherman Oaks is a neighborhood in the southern San Fernando Valley, at the foot of the Santa Monica Mountains. It is known for Ventura Boulevard, with its restaurants, offices and shops, and for the Sherman Oaks Galleria, and it sits near the busy junction of the San Diego and Ventura freeways. Van Nuys Boulevard is one of the Valley's main north-south streets, running through Sherman Oaks and on toward Van Nuys and beyond. The area is mostly residential, with apartment buildings, condominiums and houses on the streets that branch off the boulevard.
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 Bill Ilnam Park 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, shop workers and anyone who was on the 5000 block of Van Nuys Boulevard in Sherman Oaks in October 2009 may remember a man who was hurt there, an argument, or someone leaving in a hurry. Anyone who knew Park, his family or his routines may also be able to help. 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.
