Maria Delapaz was 34 years old when she died on Friday, Dec. 17, 2004. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died after sustaining blunt force trauma. The public record does not give the address where she was hurt. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Huntington Park Police Department, which places it in or near the city of Huntington Park.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded her death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It gave her age, listed her as a Latina woman, and noted the cause of death. It did not name a street, did not say how she was hurt or who found her, and did not say whether investigators had any idea who was responsible. No follow-up story appears to have been published.
Beyond her name, her age and the place where she died, almost nothing about Maria Delapaz 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. She surely had family, friends or neighbors who remember who she was, but none of that has entered the public record. The name Maria de la Paz is a common one in Spanish-speaking families, and searches turned up many women who share it, including women in Florida, the Virgin Islands and the Central Coast of California, none of them connected to her death. Her surname may also be spelled DeLaPaz or De La Paz in other records.
Because so little has been released, even the basic circumstances remain unknown to the public. The record does not say whether she 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 she was hurt, whether she died at the scene or later at a hospital, whether anyone saw what happened, or whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
The timing places her death one week before Christmas, a season when many families in the area gather and when friends and relatives would have expected to see her. Nothing in the record says whether she lived in Huntington Park, worked there or was only passing through.
Huntington Park is a small, densely populated city in the southeastern part of Los Angeles County, a few miles south of downtown Los Angeles. It is largely a community of Latino working families living in modest houses and apartment buildings. Its best-known landmark is Pacific Boulevard, a long shopping street lined with stores, restaurants and bridal and quinceañera shops that draws shoppers from across the region. The city has its own police department.
Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Maria Delapaz could be found in news archives or public records. More than 21 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who lived in or spent time in Huntington Park in December 2004, or who knew a 34-year-old woman named Maria Delapaz, 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 Huntington Park Police Department, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
