Ernesto Cabrera was 34 years old when he died on Sunday, January 25, 2004, in Mission Hills, a neighborhood in the northern San Fernando Valley. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 11160 Stranwood Ave. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case handled by the Foothill Division.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report gave only the most basic facts. It described him as "a 34-year-old Latino male" who "died Sunday, Jan. 25, after sustaining blunt force trauma in Mission Hills, according to Los Angeles County coroner's records."
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Ernesto Cabrera 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. Ernesto Cabrera is a very common name. Searches for it turn up many other men, among them a man of the same name who was shot and killed in Lubbock, Texas, in a separate case, along with lawyers, athletes and men in court cases in other states. None of them can be tied to the man who died on Stranwood Avenue.
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 a residential street, which suggests that he may have been hurt at or near a home, though it does not say whether he lived there, was visiting or was simply passing by.
Mission Hills takes its name from Mission San Fernando Rey de España, the Spanish mission founded in 1797 that still stands in the neighborhood and remains one of the best-known historic landmarks of the San Fernando Valley. Around it, Mission Hills is largely residential, a neighborhood of single-family homes and apartment buildings on quiet side streets, close to the busy corridors of the 405 and 5 freeways.
Los Angeles still recorded roughly 480 to 520 homicides a year in the mid-2000s, and many of those killings were never solved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Ernesto Cabrera 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 the 11100 block of Stranwood Avenue in Mission Hills in late January 2004, or who knew Ernesto and saw him in the days before he died, may hold information that could help detectives. 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 call the Los Angeles Police Department at 877-527-3247 or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
