Michael R. Mason was 43 years old when he died on Thursday, September 20, 2001, in the Green Meadows neighborhood of South Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 425 E. 107th St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's Southeast Division.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 43-year-old black male" who "died Thursday, Sept. 20, after sustaining blunt force trauma in Green Meadows." The entry gave a street address, but it did not say whether that was his home, the home of someone he knew or simply the place where he was found. No follow-up story appears to have been written.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Michael R. Mason 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. Michael Mason is a very common name in the United States, and searches turn up many other men who share it, including several with the same middle initial in other states, none of whom can be connected to this death.
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.
He died just nine days after the September 11 attacks, at a time when national attention was fixed elsewhere and local crime coverage was thin. That may help explain why a death like his drew no newspaper story of its own, but it does not explain what happened to him.
Green Meadows is a residential neighborhood in South Los Angeles, made up mostly of modest single-family homes and small apartment buildings on numbered east-west streets. It lies in the part of the city south of downtown that is patrolled by the Southeast Division, which also covers Watts.
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 Michael R. Mason could be found in news archives or public records. More than 24 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who lived on or near East 107th Street in Green Meadows in September 2001, or who knew a 43-year-old man named Michael Mason from the neighborhood, may hold information that could help. 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.
