Marco Herrera was 18 years old when he died on Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2007, three days after he was beaten in Woodland Hills. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 20001 Ventura Blvd. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's West Valley Division.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report gave a detailed account of what happened. Herrera "was beaten outside the Red Square nightclub" at that address "at about 1:45 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 24, and afterward remained comatose at a Northridge hospital for several days before dying Tuesday, Nov. 27, around 10 p.m. of head trauma."
LAPD West Valley Det. Joel Price told the Times that "police believe some kind of dispute involving Herrera erupted inside the club just before closing time." The entry continued: "There was some pushing and shoving, and security guards may have asked some people to leave. Herrera was among those leaving the club. He was outside on the sidewalk when a group of young men" attacked him. "They beat and kicked him severely."
According to the Times, his friends then took him to the hospital in Northridge, "where he underwent surgery, then lingered on a respirator for four days before dying."
The account leaves many questions open. It does not say what the dispute inside the club was about, whether Herrera knew the men who attacked him, how many of them there were, or whether any of them were ever identified. The fact that the beating happened on a public sidewalk outside a busy nightclub at closing time suggests that there may have been many witnesses, including club staff, security guards and other patrons leaving at the same moment.
Beyond the Times account, almost nothing about Marco Herrera has been made public. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this story. Marco Herrera is a very common name, and searches return many other men who share it, including a victim in a San Diego County cold case and men whose obituaries appear in Utah, Florida and elsewhere. None of those records is connected to the 18-year-old who died in 2007.
Woodland Hills sits at the southwest corner of the San Fernando Valley, near the edge of the city of Los Angeles. It is a largely affluent area of hillside homes, office towers and shopping centers, including the Warner Center business district. Ventura Boulevard, the Valley's best-known commercial street, runs through it and is lined with restaurants, bars and clubs. The area is patrolled by the LAPD's West Valley Division.
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 Marco Herrera could be found in news archives or public records. More than 18 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was at the Red Square nightclub on Ventura Boulevard in the early hours of Nov. 24, 2007, or who heard talk afterward about a fight outside the club, may hold the information detectives need. 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.
