Barry Coleman was 45 years old when he died on Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2004, in Palmdale. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 539 Spruce Court. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It gave his age, listed him as a Black man, placed his death in Palmdale and gave the address. It did not say how he was hurt, whether the address was his home, who found him, or whether sheriff's detectives had identified anyone they wanted to question. No follow-up story appears to have been published.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Barry Coleman 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 many other men named Barry Coleman, in Virginia, Wisconsin and several other states. None of them had any connection to the man who died in Palmdale.
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 address, on a short residential court, suggests that he may have been hurt at or near a home rather than on a main road, but the record does not say whose home it was or whether he lived there.
Palmdale lies in the Antelope Valley, the high desert on the far side of the San Gabriel Mountains from the Los Angeles basin. Together with neighboring Lancaster, it is one of the two largest cities in the valley. Palmdale grew rapidly in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s as families looking for more affordable homes moved north and many residents made the long commute down the Antelope Valley Freeway to jobs in the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles. Palmdale contracts with the Sheriff's Department for police services, which is why the case belongs to the 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 Barry Coleman 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 on or near Spruce Court in Palmdale in November 2004, or who knew a 45-year-old man named Barry Coleman, 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.
