Ana Laura Gutierrez was 3 years old when she died on Friday, July 18, 2003, in Manchester Square, a small neighborhood in South Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 7830 S. Western Ave. Her 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 listed her as a Latina girl. The entry said only that she "died Friday, July 18, after sustaining blunt force trauma in Manchester Square, according to Los Angeles County coroner's records." It named no detective and offered no account of how she was hurt.
Beyond her name, her age and the place where she died, almost nothing about Ana Laura Gutierrez 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. She surely had family, friends or neighbors who remember who she was, but none of that has entered the public record. Ana Gutierrez is a very common name in the United States and across Latin America, and searches for it turn up only adult women, none of whom has any connection to this child.
The case was assigned to the LAPD's Abused Child Unit rather than to a regular homicide squad. That unit handles the deaths and serious injuries of young children when abuse is suspected, which suggests that detectives looked at whether Ana Laura had been harmed by someone responsible for her care. That is an inference only. The public record does not name a suspect, does not say how she was injured, and does not say whether anyone was ever questioned, arrested or charged.
Because so little was released, even the basic circumstances remain unknown to the public. The record does not say whether she lived at the Western Avenue address, whether she was hurt there or somewhere else, whether she died at the scene or later at a hospital, or how long her injuries may have gone untreated. It does not say who was caring for her in the hours or days before she died.
Western Avenue is one of the longest north-south streets in Los Angeles, running from the hills of Los Feliz down through South Los Angeles toward the harbor area. Through Manchester Square it is lined with small businesses and apartment buildings.
Los Angeles still recorded roughly 480 to 520 homicides a year in the mid-2000s, and many of those killings were never solved. The death of a child this young is among the hardest cases a detective can handle, and when no story is ever written, it can fade from public memory almost at once.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Ana Laura Gutierrez 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 Gutierrez family or lived near the 7800 block of South Western Avenue in July 2003, or who knows how this little girl came to be hurt, may hold information that could help detectives. Even the smallest detail about who was caring for her in the days before she died could matter. 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.
