Antonio Acuna was 34 years old when he died on Sunday, June 30, 2002, in Long Beach. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma in the 500 block of West Esther Street. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Long Beach Police Department case.
The coroner's record describes him as a Latino man of 34. Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Antonio Acuna 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. Antonio Acuna is a common name, and searches turned up many other men who share it, among them a family memorial fundraiser in Texas from 2021 and obituaries for older men in other states. None of them is connected to the man who died in Long Beach in 2002.
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 gives only a block number rather than an exact address, which may mean he was found on the street or sidewalk, but it does not say whether he lived on West Esther Street or was there for some other reason.
At 34, he was a man in the middle of his working life. He may have had a family, a job and friends who expected to see him that Sunday or the following week.
Long Beach is the second-largest city in Los Angeles County and one of the largest in California. It is home to the Port of Long Beach, one of the busiest container ports in the country, as well as the retired ocean liner Queen Mary, a long stretch of beaches and a downtown that was rebuilt in the 1990s and 2000s. Beyond the waterfront, the city is made up of dense working-class neighborhoods of apartments and small houses, home to Latino, Black, Cambodian, white and many other families. Long Beach has its own police department, and its homicide detectives investigate killings within the city limits.
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 Antonio Acuna 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 Antonio, who lived on or near West Esther Street, or who was in the area on the last weekend of June 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 contact the Long Beach Police Department's Homicide Detail at 562-570-7244, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
