Donald Raymond Howard was 46 years old when he died on Wednesday, March 17, 2004, in Los Angeles County. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report gave even less than its usual brief entry. It described him as "a 46-year-old black male" who "died Wednesday, March 17, after sustaining blunt force trauma." It listed no address, no neighborhood and no city, named no detective and offered no account of what happened.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Donald Raymond Howard 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 full name is shared by other men, including a physician in Washington state, and the shorter name Donald Howard belongs to hundreds of people across the country, none of whom can be tied to the man who died in March 2004.
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 missing location is itself unusual. Most entries in the Homicide Report give at least a block or an intersection, and the absence of one here may mean the details were never released, or that he was injured somewhere other than where he died. What the record does say is that the case went to the Sheriff's Department. The department patrols the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County and the many smaller cities that contract with it for police services, which means Donald Howard most likely died somewhere outside the city of Los Angeles, though the record does not say where.
The Sheriff's Homicide Bureau handles killings across a territory that stretches from the Antelope Valley in the north to the coast and the communities of the southeast county. Its detectives also investigate deaths in the county jails. Without a location, it is impossible to say which of those places is connected to this case.
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 Donald Raymond Howard 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 knew Donald Howard, a man in his mid-forties in early 2004, or who knows where and how he was hurt that March, 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 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.
