Roberto Morato Vizcarra was 37 years old when he died on Friday, July 5, 2002, in El Sereno, on the northeast side of Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 5401 Alhambra Ave. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Hollenbeck Division case.
The coroner's record describes him as a Latino man of 37. Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Roberto 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 at the time. His name has since appeared in lists of El Sereno homicide victims drawn from the Los Angeles Times Homicide Report and shared on community social media pages, which shows that some residents still remember the people the neighborhood has lost. Those posts repeat only the basic facts and do not describe what happened to him.
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 record does not say whether he lived near Alhambra Avenue, worked there or was passing through, and his death came the day after the Fourth of July holiday, when many people would have been out late.
His name is shared by several other men, among them a well-known baseball manager in Mexico, and searches turned up only those namesakes and other unrelated records. None of them is connected to the man who died in El Sereno.
El Sereno is a hilly, largely Latino neighborhood at the northeastern edge of the city of Los Angeles, bordered by the cities of Alhambra, South Pasadena and Monterey Park. Its streets climb into the hills above Huntington Drive and Valley Boulevard, and many families have lived there for generations in modest single-family homes. California State University, Los Angeles, sits nearby. The neighborhood is patrolled by the LAPD's Hollenbeck Division, which also covers Boyle Heights and Lincoln Heights.
Homicides in Los Angeles rose sharply in the early 2000s, climbing past 600 in 2002, and detectives carried heavy caseloads. Many killings from those years were never solved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Roberto Morato Vizcarra 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 knew Roberto, who lived or worked near Alhambra Avenue in El Sereno, or who remembers hearing about a man hurt there in early July 2002 may hold information that could help detectives. 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.
