Kenneth Anderson Brainard Jr. was 75 years old when he died on Tuesday, April 4, 2006, in North Hills. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 9332 Sophia Ave. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case handled by the Mission Division.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It gave his age, described him as a white man and placed his death in North Hills. It did not say how he was hurt, who found him or whether detectives had any idea who was responsible. The LAPD does not appear to have issued a press release about the case.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Kenneth Anderson Brainard 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. His surname is not common, but searches turned up only other men named Kenneth Brainard, in Minnesota, Connecticut, Tennessee, North Dakota and New York, none of them connected to his death.
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.
North Hills is a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley, in the northern part of the city of Los Angeles. For decades it was known as Sepulveda, and residents chose the name North Hills in the early 1990s. It is a mix of single-family homes, apartment complexes and busy commercial streets, and it sits near Van Nuys, Mission Hills and Panorama City. Many of its residential blocks are quiet, the kind of streets where neighbors notice who comes and goes.
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 Kenneth Anderson Brainard 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 the 9300 block of Sophia Avenue in North Hills in April 2006, or who knew a 75-year-old man named Kenneth Brainard, may hold information that could help. Even knowing who he was, whether he lived on that street or who his family were could give detectives a place to start. 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.
