David Lee Trantham was 63 years old when he died on Friday, October 20, 2006, in the Westlake neighborhood near downtown Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 698 S. Alvarado Street. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Rampart Area case. The coroner's record describes him as a white man.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about David Lee Trantham 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. Trantham is not a common surname, but several men named David Trantham appear in public records in other states, none of whom could be connected to the man who died in Westlake.
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 places his death on Alvarado Street, the busy commercial corridor that runs past MacArthur Park. The record does not say whether it is a home, a hotel, an apartment building or a business.
Westlake is one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in Los Angeles, a district of older apartment buildings, residential hotels and small shops west of downtown. MacArthur Park, with its lake, has been its center for more than a century. By 2006 the neighborhood was home to many immigrant families from Mexico and Central America, along with older residents who had lived there for decades. Alvarado Street is lined with street vendors, discount stores, check-cashing shops, bus stops and the entrance to the Metro station at Westlake/MacArthur Park, and it is crowded with pedestrians at almost every hour. The area also struggled with drug dealing and street crime, and police patrolled it heavily.
On a street this busy, it is likely that someone saw or heard something. A fight, a robbery or a man left hurt on a sidewalk would have been witnessed by vendors, shopkeepers or people waiting for buses, even if none of them knew his name.
Los Angeles still recorded roughly 480 to 520 homicides a year in the mid-2000s, and many of those killings were never solved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of David Lee Trantham 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 was near the 600 block of South Alvarado Street around October 20, 2006, or who knew a 63-year-old man named David Trantham who lived or spent time in Westlake, 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 call the Los Angeles Police Department at 877-527-3247 or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
