Paula Santos was 38 years old when she died on Saturday, March 2, 2002, in the South Bay area of Los Angeles County. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 4737 Imperial Highway, an address listed as Hawthorne. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau case.
The coroner's record describes her as a Latina woman of 38. Beyond her name, her age and the place where she died, almost nothing about Paula Santos 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. She surely had family, friends or neighbors who remember who she was, but none of that has entered the public record. Paula Santos is a common name in Latin America, Portugal and Brazil, and searches turned up only other women who share it, none of them connected to the woman who died in 2002.
Because so little has been released, even the basic circumstances remain unknown to the public. The record does not say whether she 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 she was hurt, whether she died at the scene or later at a hospital, whether anyone saw what happened, or whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
The address also raises a question the public record does not answer. Hawthorne has its own police department, yet sheriff's homicide detectives took this case. That suggests the location may have been in an unincorporated pocket of county territory with a Hawthorne mailing address, but it could not be confirmed.
Imperial Highway is one of the main east-west roads across southern Los Angeles County, running from the area near Los Angeles International Airport through the South Bay and on toward the southeast county. Hawthorne, which sits along it, grew quickly in the 20th century as an aerospace town, home to factories and offices that employed thousands of workers, and it is known as the hometown of the Beach Boys. The surrounding neighborhoods are dense with apartment buildings, small homes and busy commercial strips, and by 2002 the area was home to many Latino and Black working families.
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 Paula Santos 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 Paula, who lived or worked near Imperial Highway in the Hawthorne area, or who remembers anything from early March 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 Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
