Eusebia Rojas was 85 years old when she died on Friday, March 20, 2009, ten days after a man forced his way into her home in Arleta, in the northeast San Fernando Valley. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 13676 Chase Street. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case, handled by the Mission Division.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described what police said happened. On March 10, "Rojas saw a man in her back yard and asked him to leave. He came back and knocked on her door about 20 minutes later. When she answered, he hit her and carried her to the master bedroom, then ransacked her home." He stole some of her belongings and attacked her again before he left. She was hospitalized in critical condition for several days and was placed on life support. She never recovered.
Police released a description of the man. The Times reported that "the suspect is described by police as a tall, heavyset 40-year-old, male Latino with black hair and a mustache. He was wearing a gray hat and red jacket." The fact that he was first seen in her back yard and then came back to her door suggests that he may have been in the neighborhood for some time that day, and that others may have seen him too.
Her obituary, written in Spanish and published online in 2009, said that Eusebia Rojas was born in the city of Fresnillo, in the Mexican state of Zacatecas, on December 15, 1923, and that she was the second of 11 children in her family. Her funeral services were held through San Fernando Mission Cemeteries and Mission Hills Catholic Mortuary. She had lived more than eight decades, and her death came from an attack in the one place where she should have been safest.
Arleta is a largely residential neighborhood in the northeast San Fernando Valley, near Pacoima and Panorama City. Its streets are lined mostly with modest single-family homes with front lawns and back yards, and it has long been home to working families, many of them Latino. It is the kind of quiet neighborhood where older residents often live alone in houses they have owned for many years.
Homicides in Los Angeles fell steeply in the late 2000s and early 2010s, yet many killings from those years were never solved. The beating of an 85-year-old woman in her own home, by a man who had already been seen in her yard, was the kind of crime that neighbors remember.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Eusebia Rojas 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 lived on or near Chase Street in Arleta in March 2009 and remembers a tall, heavyset man in a gray hat and red jacket, or who later heard someone talk about the robbery, may hold the key to this case. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. The Times asked anyone with information to call LAPD Detectives Sergio Hernandez or Dean Watts at 838-9896. 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.
