Nathan Alan Morgan was 25 years old when he died on Monday, March 10, 2008, in Venice. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma near Ocean Front Walk and Breeze Avenue. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Pacific Division case.
Morgan, who went by Nate, grew up in the small farming town of Wauseon, Ohio, and was visiting Venice from Portland, Oregon, where he had been working as a telemarketer, his parents told the Los Angeles Times. He was found beaten to death and buried under a mound of sand on Venice Beach, in the area where the Venice Beach drum circle is held. Police said he was beaten near the boardwalk, then dragged to the spot where he was found and covered with sand.
Just hours earlier, he had been treated in the emergency room at Centinela Freeman Regional Medical Center for an injury to his left elbow. Autopsy records described a severe beating to his neck, chest and legs, and said his nose and throat "had been packed with sand." His father, Richard, said his son had struggled with drugs and alcohol since his late teens. "When he was clean and sober, he was a great kid," he said. His mother, Susan, said, "That weekend I felt in my gut that there was something wrong.. . . I can't explain it."
In January 2009 his parents traveled to Los Angeles, met with detectives and walked the boardwalk asking people whether they remembered their son. "I was hoping someone would remember him," Susan Morgan said. Det. Luis Carranza told the Times, "My only hope is that one day we can bring closure to this case and find out what happened."
A 2018 Santa Monica Observer article by a family friend said Morgan had been playing guitar on the boardwalk that evening and that a drum circle leader had given him a card, later found in his pocket. Photos from a disposable camera found in his hotel room showed him with other young people in Venice. The writer said a woman had once posted on a Los Angeles Times blog that a fight broke out after a dispute in the group. That claim has never been confirmed by police. He left behind his parents and his sisters.
Venice is a beach neighborhood on the city's west side, famous for Ocean Front Walk, its crowded boardwalk of street performers, vendors and Muscle Beach. On weekends the drum circle draws crowds to the sand, and after dark the beach empties.
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 Nathan Alan Morgan could be found in news archives or public records. More than 17 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible.
Someone who was on the Venice boardwalk or the beach near Breeze Avenue on the night of March 9, 2008, may remember Nate Morgan and the people he was with. Detectives asked anyone with information to call Pacific Division homicide at 482-6316. 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.
