Fernando Jimenez III was 24 years old when he died on Tuesday, June 10, 2003, in Los Angeles. 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 Police Department Hollenbeck Division case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report gave even less than its usual brief entry. It described him as "a 24-year-old Latino male" who "died Tuesday, June 10, after sustaining blunt force trauma." It listed no address, no neighborhood and no intersection, named no detective and offered no account of what happened.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Fernando Jimenez III 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. The "III" in his name means that he carried the name of his father and his grandfather before him, though nothing more about his relatives has been made public. Searches for the name turn up only other men, among them a television journalist and a property appraiser overseas, none of whom can be tied to the young man who died in 2003.
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 LAPD's Hollenbeck Division, which suggests that he was hurt somewhere on the city's Eastside.
Hollenbeck Division patrols the neighborhoods east of the Los Angeles River, including Boyle Heights, Lincoln Heights and El Sereno. These are some of the oldest neighborhoods in the city, with deep Latino roots, busy commercial streets such as Cesar Chavez Avenue, and landmarks such as Mariachi Plaza in Boyle Heights. Without a location, it is impossible to say which of those communities is connected to this case.
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 Fernando Jimenez III 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 Fernando Jimenez on the Eastside of Los Angeles in June 2003, or who heard talk at the time of a young man who was badly beaten, 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.
