Kim Calisse Danielson was 41 years old when she died on Friday, April 4, 2003, in the Westlake district of Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 1017 W. Wilshire Blvd. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart Division.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded her death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described her as "a 41-year-old white female" who "died Friday, April 4, after sustaining blunt force trauma in Westlake." It did not say how she was hurt, whether the address on Wilshire Boulevard was a home, an apartment building, a business or a sidewalk, or whether detectives had any idea who was responsible. No follow-up news story appears to have been published.
Beyond her name, her age and the place where she died, almost nothing about Kim Calisse Danielson 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. Her middle name, Calisse, is an unusual one, but her first and last names are common, and searches for Kim Danielson turned up an author, a musician's former companion and people named in other families' obituaries. None of them can be tied to the woman who died in Westlake.
Because so little has been released, even the basic circumstances remain unknown to the public. The record does not say whether she 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 she was hurt, whether she died at the scene or later at a hospital, whether anyone saw what happened, or whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
Westlake is one of the oldest and most densely populated neighborhoods in Los Angeles, lying just west of downtown and centered on MacArthur Park, which was once known as Westlake Park. In the early 20th century it was a fashionable district of grand hotels and apartment houses. In later decades it became a crowded neighborhood of older apartment buildings, small shops and street vendors, home to many immigrant families from Mexico and Central America. Wilshire Boulevard, one of the best-known streets in the city, runs through the neighborhood on its way from downtown toward the ocean. The area is patrolled by the LAPD's Rampart Division.
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 Kim Calisse Danielson 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 lived or worked near the 1000 block of West Wilshire Boulevard in April 2003, or who knew a 41-year-old woman named Kim Danielson, 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 call the Los Angeles Police Department at 877-527-3247 or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
