Ivan Alexander Merlos was 2 years old when he died on Wednesday, October 1, 2003, in Canoga Park, a neighborhood in the west San Fernando Valley. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 21315 Roscoe Blvd. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case assigned to its Abused Child Unit.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described him as "a 2-year-old Latino male" who "died Wednesday, Oct. 1, after sustaining blunt force trauma in Canoga Park, according to Los Angeles County coroner's records." The entry gave no account of how he was hurt and did not name a suspect, a detective or a relative. His death appears twice in the Times database, once under the Abused Child Unit and once under the department's Juvenile Division, with the same age, date and address in both entries.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Ivan has been made public. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this story. Searches for his name turn up only adults who share it, mostly in Spanish-language social media posts about soccer and old school friends, none of whom has any connection to this little boy.
The assignment to the Abused Child Unit is the most telling fact in the record. That unit investigates the deaths and serious injuries of young children when abuse is suspected, which suggests that detectives looked closely at whether Ivan had been harmed by someone responsible for his care. That is an inference only. The public record does not name a suspect, does not say who was caring for him and does not say whether anyone was questioned, arrested or charged.
Because so little was released, even the basic circumstances remain unknown to the public. The record does not say whether the Roscoe Boulevard address was his home, whether he was hurt there or somewhere else, whether he died at the scene or later at a hospital, or whether his injuries came from a single event or from harm over time. A 2-year-old cannot tell anyone what happened to him, and in cases like this one the adults around a child are often the only ones who know.
Canoga Park is one of the older communities of the west Valley. It was founded in the early twentieth century as the town of Owensmouth and took its present name in 1931. Today it is a busy residential area of apartment complexes, single-family homes and shopping centers, bordered by the commercial towers of Warner Center. Roscoe Boulevard is one of the long east-west streets that cross the Valley, and along much of its length it is lined with apartment buildings where many young families live.
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 Ivan Alexander Merlos could be found in news archives or public records. More than 22 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew the Merlos family, or who lived near the 21300 block of Roscoe Boulevard in Canoga Park in the fall of 2003, may hold information that could help detectives. 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.
