David Patrick Sanez was 19 years old when he died on Thursday, January 16, 2003, in Lancaster. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 2040 W. Avenue J-13. 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 Latino man, named the address on Avenue J-13 and noted the cause of death. No follow-up story appears to have been published.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about David Patrick Sanez 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. Sanez is a less common spelling of a familiar surname, and searches for the name turned up only other men, among them people in Texas, Pennsylvania and Wyoming, none of whom could be linked to the young man who died in Lancaster.
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.
His age makes the loss especially stark. At 19, David Patrick Sanez was barely out of high school, at an age when most young people are just beginning to work, study or start families of their own.
Lancaster is the largest city in the Antelope Valley, the high desert region of northern Los Angeles County on the far side of the San Gabriel Mountains from the Los Angeles basin. It has close ties to the aerospace industry and to Edwards Air Force Base to the northeast. Its streets follow a broad grid, with east-west avenues named by letter and smaller streets between them given numbered suffixes, such as Avenue J-13. Lancaster has no police department of its own and contracts with the Sheriff's Department for law enforcement.
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 David Patrick Sanez 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 Avenue J-13 in Lancaster in January 2003, or who knew a 19-year-old named David Sanez, his family or his friends, may hold information that could help investigators. 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.
