Jose Lugo Murillo was 35 years old when he died on Sunday, April 19, 2009, in Whittier Narrows, an unincorporated area in the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma on Peck Road south of the Pomona Freeway. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report gave only the most basic facts about his death: his name, the fact that he was a Latino man, his age, the date, the location and the cause. It did not say how he was hurt, who found him, or whether investigators had any leads. The location was given as a stretch of road rather than a street address, which suggests that he may have been found outdoors, along the road or on open land nearby, though the record does not say so.
There is one more small clue in the record. The web address of his Homicide Report entry is built from the words "unknown male Hispanic 40-50," which suggests that when the entry was first created he had not yet been identified, and that he was thought to be a Latino man between 40 and 50 years old. If that is right, his name was learned later, and he turned out to be younger than first estimated. The record does not say how he was identified or how long it took.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Jose Lugo Murillo 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. Jose Murillo is a common name, and searches for it turn up many other men, in California and elsewhere, none of them the man who died in Whittier Narrows.
Whittier Narrows takes its name from a gap in the hills where the San Gabriel River and the Rio Hondo pass from the San Gabriel Valley toward the coastal plain. Much of the land lies behind the Whittier Narrows Dam, a flood-control project, and is given over to county parkland, sports fields, lakes and open space, with the Pomona Freeway crossing through.
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 Jose Lugo Murillo 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 on or near Peck Road in Whittier Narrows in mid-April 2009, or who knew a man named Jose Lugo Murillo and lost touch with him that spring, may know something that could 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 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.
