Albert Hurtado was 44 years old when he died on Wednesday, March 19, 2003, in Norwalk. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 11841 E. 164th St. 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 described him as "a 44-year-old Latino male" who "died Wednesday, March 19, after sustaining blunt force trauma in Norwalk." It did not say how he was hurt, whether he lived at the address on 164th Street, or whether detectives 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 Albert Hurtado has been made public. Rose Hills Memorial Park and Mortuary in Whittier, not far from Norwalk, keeps an online memorial page for an "Albert Mario Hurtado," but the portion saved for this story shows no dates, so it cannot be confirmed that the page is his. No other obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found, and no news outlet appears to have reported on the death.
His name is a fairly common one. Searches for it turned up a well-known historian of the American West, a jazz guitarist, a Chilean saint and people named in obituaries elsewhere. None of them can be tied to the man who died in Norwalk.
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 street address suggests he may have been hurt at or near a home, but the record does not say so.
Norwalk is a city in the southeast part of Los Angeles County, southeast of downtown Los Angeles. It grew from farmland into a suburb of tract homes in the years after the Second World War. The city is home to Cerritos College and to the main office of the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder. Much of Norwalk is made up of modest single-family homes on quiet residential streets. The city does not have its own police force and contracts with the Sheriff's Department, whose Norwalk Station patrols it. Homicides there are investigated by the department's Homicide Bureau.
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 Albert Hurtado 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 on or near East 164th Street in Norwalk in March 2003, or who knew a 44-year-old man named Albert Hurtado, 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.
