Rodney Franklin Rees was 49 years old when he died on Monday, May 26, 2003, in Hawthorne. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 4172 W. El Segundo Blvd. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It gave his age, listed him as a white man, named the address on El Segundo Boulevard and noted the cause of death. It did not say how he was hurt, who found him, whether the address was a home, a business or a stretch of sidewalk, or whether investigators had any idea who was responsible. No follow-up story appears to have been published.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Rodney Franklin Rees 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. His name is not an especially common one, yet searches for it returned nothing beyond a few scrambled web pages that had copied the name into unrelated text.
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 date itself stands out. May 26, 2003, was Memorial Day, a holiday weekend when many people in Southern California are out late, gathered with family or friends, or traveling.
Hawthorne is a city of the South Bay region of Los Angeles County, a few miles east of the coast and close to Los Angeles International Airport. It grew up around the aircraft and aerospace industry in the 20th century and is often remembered as the hometown of the Beach Boys. It has a small municipal airport and a mix of apartment buildings, modest single-family homes and busy commercial streets. El Segundo Boulevard is one of the main east-west roads through the area, lined in many stretches with shops, auto businesses and industrial buildings.
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 Rodney Franklin Rees 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 was on or near El Segundo Boulevard in Hawthorne over the Memorial Day weekend of May 2003, or who knew a 49-year-old man named Rodney Rees, may hold information that could help. 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 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.
