Carlos Alvarado Jr. was 19 years old when he died on Wednesday, November 8, 2006, in Hawthorne. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 4826 119th Place. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau case.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Carlos Alvarado Jr. 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. Carlos Alvarado is a common name in Southern California and across Latin America, and a search for this young man turns up many others who share it, including a man killed in Los Angeles in 2024 whose case is unrelated. No public record of this Carlos Alvarado Jr. could be found.
Because so little has been released, even the basic circumstances remain unknown to the public. The record does not say whether he was beaten in a fight, attacked by a stranger, assaulted indoors or on the street, or struck by a vehicle, all of which can lead to a finding of blunt force trauma. It does not say what time of day he was hurt, whether he died at the scene or later at a hospital, whether anyone saw what happened, or whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
The address on 119th Place appears to be on a residential street, which suggests that he may have been hurt at or near a home rather than at a business, but the record does not say so. At 19, he was barely an adult, and he would likely have had parents, siblings, classmates or friends in the area who remember him.
Hawthorne is a city in the South Bay region of Los Angeles County, south of Inglewood and east of El Segundo and Los Angeles International Airport. It grew up around the aerospace industry in the decades after World War II and is famous as the hometown of the Beach Boys. Its neighborhoods are a mix of small single-family homes, apartment buildings and busy commercial streets, and the area around it includes small pockets of unincorporated county land patrolled by the Sheriff's Department.
A killing of a 19-year-old on a residential street rarely goes unnoticed by the people who live nearby. Neighbors may have heard an argument, a fight or a car speeding away that evening without knowing that a young man would die.
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 Carlos Alvarado Jr. could be found in news archives or public records. More than 19 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who lived near 119th Place in Hawthorne in November 2006, or who knew a 19-year-old named Carlos Alvarado Jr. who lived or spent time in the area, 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.
