Charles Dereck Reed was 31 years old when he died on Sunday, November 27, 2005, in Porter Ranch. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 19063 Kingsbury St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case handled by the department's Devonshire Division.
He was a Black man in his early 30s. Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Charles Dereck Reed 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 name is a common one, and searches turned up only other men who share it, among them a former chancellor of the California State University system, a federal agent killed decades ago and many men whose obituaries appeared in other states.
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 record gives a street address on Kingsbury Street, which may mean he was hurt in or near a home there, but it does not say whether he lived at that address. His death came on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, at the end of a long holiday weekend when many families are home or gathered together.
Porter Ranch is a neighborhood in the northwest corner of the San Fernando Valley, at the foot of the Santa Susana Mountains. Much of it was developed from the 1960s onward as a planned community of single-family homes, many of them on curving streets in the hills, and it is generally regarded as one of the quieter and more affluent parts of the city. The area is patrolled by the LAPD's Devonshire Division, based in the northwest Valley.
In a residential neighborhood like this one, neighbors tend to know which cars belong on the block and who comes and goes. A serious assault there may have been heard or seen by neighbors.
Los Angeles still recorded roughly 480 to 520 homicides a year in the mid-2000s, and many of those killings were never solved. The death of a 31-year-old man in one of the city's quietest neighborhoods does not appear to have been reported by any news outlet.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Charles Dereck Reed could be found in news archives or public records. More than 20 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was near Kingsbury Street in Porter Ranch over the Thanksgiving weekend of November 2005, or who knew him, 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.
