Melvin Greenberg Jr. was 58 years old when he died on Tuesday, August 30, 2005, in Harvard Park, a neighborhood in South Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma. The coroner's record gives two locations, 5816 S. Western Ave. and 1119 W. 58th St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case handled by the department's 77th Street Division.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Melvin Greenberg 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. Many men named Melvin Greenberg appear in obituaries from Florida, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and elsewhere, but none of them could be tied to the man who died in South Los Angeles.
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 two addresses in the record are the clearest detail available. The Homicide Report lists the location as running from 5816 S. Western Ave. to 1119 W. 58th St., which suggests that he may have been hurt at one address and found, or taken, at the other, or that the incident moved from one place to the other. One address is on Western Avenue and the other is on 58th Street, east of it. That is an inference only; the record does not explain why two places are listed.
Harvard Park is a residential neighborhood in South Los Angeles, made up largely of single-family homes and small apartment buildings on a grid of numbered streets. Western Avenue, one of the longest streets in Los Angeles, runs through this part of the city as a busy commercial corridor lined with small businesses, churches and shops. The area is patrolled by the LAPD's 77th Street Division, one of the busiest divisions in the city.
The "Jr." in his name means he shared his father's name, and someone on those streets surely noticed when he was gone.
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 Melvin Greenberg Jr. 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 Western Avenue and 58th Street in Harvard Park in late August 2005, or who knew Melvin Greenberg Jr. and his routines, may hold information that could help investigators. 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.
