Roderick Lamonte Turner was 29 years old when he died on Wednesday, December 4, 2002, in Vermont Vista, a neighborhood of South Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 104th Street and Vermont Avenue. 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 Black man, named the intersection of 104th Street and Vermont Avenue 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 Roderick Lamonte Turner 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. Roderick Turner is a fairly common name, and even the full name Roderick Lamonte Turner appears in public records belonging to other, living men in Southern California. No record found for this story could be tied to the man who died in Vermont Vista.
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 location itself offers one detail. He was hurt at a street intersection rather than at a home address, which suggests that whatever happened took place in public, on or near one of the busiest roads in South Los Angeles, where drivers, bus riders or people on foot may have been nearby.
Vermont Vista is a residential neighborhood in South Los Angeles, built along and around Vermont Avenue, one of the longest north-south streets in the region. Its blocks are lined mostly with modest single-family homes and small apartment buildings, with churches, small markets, liquor stores and auto shops along the main roads. Vermont Avenue carries heavy traffic and several bus lines through the area. The case is listed with the Sheriff's Department rather than the Los Angeles Police Department.
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 Roderick Lamonte Turner could be found in news archives or public records. More than 23 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was near 104th Street and Vermont Avenue in early December 2002, or who knew a 29-year-old man named Roderick Turner, 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.
