Jose Ruben Arellano was just 20 months old when he died on the night of Saturday, August 19, 2006, at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department case. The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report gives no address for where he was hurt.
Two days after his death, the Los Angeles Times published a short item headlined "Toddler's Death Is Investigated." It reported that Los Angeles County sheriff's detectives were "investigating whether a toddler who died at a Long Beach hospital was a murder victim." Sheriff's officials said they suspected that the boy "was the victim of foul play before he was hospitalized." The coroner's office identified him as Jose Arellano of Long Beach, and an autopsy was scheduled for the following days.
The Times noted that sheriff's officials "did not disclose what the boy was being treated for or how long he had been hospitalized." The coroner later ruled that he died of blunt force trauma and that his death was a homicide. No later news story about the case could be found, and the published record does not say who was caring for him, where he was injured, or whether any adult was ever questioned or charged.
Beyond those few lines, almost nothing about Jose has been made public. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this story. His name is a common one, and searches turned up only adults who share it, in Mexico, Texas, Virginia and elsewhere, none of them connected to his death. He was a toddler not yet two years old, at an age when children are learning to walk and talk and depend entirely on the adults around them.
The fact that the Sheriff's Department took the case, even though the boy was from Long Beach and died in a Long Beach hospital, may mean that he was hurt somewhere outside the city's own police jurisdiction, or that the case was assigned for other reasons. The record does not say which.
Long Beach is the second-largest city in Los Angeles County, a port city on San Pedro Bay with a busy downtown, the Queen Mary and one of the largest harbors in the country. Long Beach Memorial Medical Center is one of the region's major hospitals and serves families from across the South Bay and southeast Los Angeles County.
Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest. The deaths of very young children are among the most painful cases investigators handle, and they often depend on what relatives, neighbors and doctors are willing to say.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Jose Ruben Arellano 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 knew Jose or his family in Long Beach in the summer of 2006, or who saw anything that worried them about his care in the weeks before August 19, may hold information that could help. 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.
