Kevin Glen Polinskey was 29 years old when he died on Thursday, July 23, 2009, in Lancaster. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 1617 E. Avenue I. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department case, with the department's Lancaster Station named in the record.
Kevin lived in Palmdale. According to the Los Angeles Times Homicide Report, he got into an argument in the parking lot of a trailer park in the 1600 block of East Avenue I, and the argument "escalated and led to his stabbing," said Ed Winter, a spokesman for the coroner's office. It happened at about 9:30 p.m., and Kevin died at the hospital at 11:44 p.m., Winter said.
The Times account describes a stabbing, while the coroner's listing gives the cause of death as blunt force trauma. The released record does not explain the difference. It is possible that he suffered more than one kind of injury, or that the early description was later revised, but no follow-up report has been published. The Times also corrected an earlier version of its weekly list, which had wrongly placed his death in Wilmington.
A genealogy listing gives Kevin's birth date as November 9, 1979, and records his death at age 29 on July 23, 2009, which matches the Homicide Report. Beyond that, almost nothing about his life 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. He surely had family and friends in the Antelope Valley who remember who he was, but none of that has entered the public record.
The account leaves the key questions open. It does not say whom Kevin argued with, what the argument was about, whether he knew the person or people involved, or whether he lived at or was visiting the trailer park. An argument in a parking lot on a summer evening suggests there may have been other people nearby, but no witness accounts were released.
Lancaster is the largest city in the Antelope Valley, in the high desert of northern Los Angeles County. Like its neighbor Palmdale, it grew quickly in the 1980s and 1990s as families moved north in search of more affordable housing. Its streets follow a large grid of lettered avenues running east and west and numbered streets running north and south, and Avenue I is one of its main east-west roads. Lancaster contracts with the Sheriff's Department for police services.
Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Kevin Glen Polinskey 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. Anyone who was at the trailer park in the 1600 block of East Avenue I in Lancaster on the evening of July 23, 2009, or who heard someone talk about the argument there, 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 contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
