Sergio Antonio Deleon was 46 years old when he died on Thursday, May 26, 2005, in Lynwood. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 10313 S. Alameda St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau case.
He was a Latino man in his mid-40s. Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Sergio Antonio Deleon 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 fairly common one, and searches turned up only other men who share it, among them men who died in New Mexico, New York, Washington, Utah and Texas, none of whom matches his age, the date or the place.
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 only a street address on Alameda Street, and it does not say whether that address was a home, a business, a lot or a stretch of sidewalk.
Lynwood is a small, densely built city in southeast Los Angeles County, surrounded by neighbors such as South Gate, Compton and the Watts area of Los Angeles. It is largely a working-class community of modest single-family homes and apartment buildings, with busy commercial corridors and industrial land along its edges. The city does not have its own police department and contracts with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department for law enforcement, which is why a killing there is investigated by the Sheriff's Homicide Bureau. Alameda Street is one of the region's major north-south routes, running from downtown Los Angeles toward the harbor, and it carries heavy truck traffic past warehouses, yards and businesses as well as homes.
Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest. The death of Sergio Antonio Deleon received only a brief notice in the Los Angeles Times Homicide Report, built from coroner's records.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Sergio Antonio Deleon 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 the 10300 block of South Alameda Street in Lynwood in late May 2005, or who knew Sergio and what was happening in his life at the time, 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.
