Rosemary Anahi Casarrubias was 2 years old when she died on Friday, Aug. 8, 2003, in South Gate, a city in southeast Los Angeles County. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 8924 McNerney Ave. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report gave only the most basic facts. It described her as "a 2-year-old Latino female" who "died Friday, Aug. 8, after sustaining blunt force trauma in South Gate, according to Los Angeles County coroner's records." It named no detective, said nothing about how she was hurt and did not mention any suspect.
Beyond her name, her age and the place where she died, almost nothing about Rosemary 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 her death. Searches for her name turn up only an adult woman of the same surname in North Carolina, who has no connection to this child. Rosemary had a family who chose her two given names, and surely relatives and neighbors who remember her, but none of that has entered the public record.
The death of a child this young from blunt force trauma raises questions that the record does not answer. A 2-year-old cannot defend herself or tell anyone what happened, and in cases like this one investigators usually look closely at the people who were caring for the child. That is a general observation only. The public record does not say whether Rosemary was hurt at home, whether she was struck, shaken, dropped or injured in some other way, whether she died at the scene or later at a hospital, or whether anyone was ever questioned, arrested or charged.
The address in the record is a home address on McNerney Avenue, which suggests that she may have been hurt in or near a residence, though the record does not say whether she lived there.
South Gate lies along the Los Angeles River about eight miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles. It was once home to large factories, including a General Motors assembly plant, and today it is a dense, largely residential city of small houses and apartment buildings where many families with young children live. On a residential street like McNerney Avenue, neighbors often know one another's children by sight and may notice when something seems wrong.
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 Rosemary Anahi Casarrubias 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 Casarrubias family in the summer of 2003, or who lived on or near McNerney Avenue in South Gate in August of that year, may hold information that could help investigators. Even the smallest detail about who was caring for Rosemary in the days before she died could matter. 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.
