Muhammad Lakhani was 62 years old when he died on Monday, May 9, 2005, in Bellflower. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 13768 Clark Ave. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau case.
The coroner's records listed him as a white man in his early 60s. Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Muhammad Lakhani 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. Searches for his name turned up many other men who share it, most of them businessmen, litigants and others in Pakistan, and none of them matches his age, the date or the place where he died.
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 Clark Avenue, but it does not say whether that address was his home, a workplace or somewhere he was passing through.
Bellflower is a city in southeast Los Angeles County, bordered by Downey, Paramount, Lakewood and Norwalk. It grew rapidly after World War II as a suburb of tract homes, and today it is a busy, diverse community of single-family houses, apartment complexes and commercial strips. The city contracts with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department for police services, which is why the Sheriff's Homicide Bureau handled the case. Clark Avenue is a residential and commercial street running north-south through the city.
On a residential street, neighbors tend to notice comings and goings, unfamiliar cars and raised voices. Someone who lived near Clark Avenue in the spring of 2005 may remember an older man who lived or worked there, or may recall seeing police and coroner's vehicles on the block.
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 Muhammad Lakhani received no news coverage that could be found, only a brief notice in the Los Angeles Times Homicide Report.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Muhammad Lakhani 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 lived or worked near the 13700 block of Clark Avenue in Bellflower in early May 2005, or who knew Muhammad and the people around him, 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.
