Anthony Morales was 18 years old when he died on Wednesday, April 23, 2003. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma. The public record does not give the address or the community where he was hurt. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Montebello Police 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 Latino man and noted the cause of death. It did not name a street, did not say how he was hurt and did not say whether detectives had identified anyone responsible. No follow-up story appears to have been published.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Anthony Morales 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 a very common one. Searches turned up lawyers, college soccer players, a professional baseball catcher, a federal defendant and several obituaries of other men named Anthony Morales, none of them connected to the young man whose death is recorded here.
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.
He was only 18, an age when most young people are finishing high school, starting a first job or deciding what comes next. Somewhere there were parents, siblings, classmates or friends who knew him well, and some of them may still wonder what happened.
Montebello is a city just east of East Los Angeles, at the western edge of the San Gabriel Valley. It is largely residential, with neighborhoods of single-family homes, a stretch of hills that has long held oil wells, and commercial corridors along Whittier Boulevard and Beverly Boulevard. The city has its own police department, which handles crimes within its limits. Because the case is listed with that department, it is likely that he was hurt in or near Montebello, but the record does not say so directly.
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 Anthony Morales 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 an 18-year-old named Anthony Morales in the Montebello area in April 2003, including classmates, neighbors or friends, 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 Montebello Police Department, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
