David Lynn Parks was 40 years old when he died on Friday, September 14, 2001, in Lancaster, in the Antelope Valley of northern Los Angeles County. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 1052 W. Avenue J 15. 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 described him as "a 40-year-old white male" who "died Friday, Sept. 14, after sustaining blunt force trauma in Lancaster." The entry gave a street address, but it did not say whether he lived there, whether he was visiting or whether that was simply 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 David Lynn Parks 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. David Parks is a common name, and searches turn up other men called David Lynn Parks in Ohio, Virginia and Idaho, including a teenager who died in an accident in 1976, none of whom can be tied 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 three days after the September 11 attacks, during a week when national news crowded out nearly everything else.
Lancaster is one of the two largest cities in the Antelope Valley, on the western edge of the Mojave Desert, about 70 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. It grew up along the railroad and later expanded with the aerospace industry, drawing workers to Edwards Air Force Base and to the aircraft plants in nearby Palmdale. The city is laid out along a grid of lettered avenues, such as Avenue J, and numbered streets. Lancaster has long contracted with the Sheriff's Department for police services, so homicides in the city are investigated by the department's Homicide Bureau.
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 David Lynn Parks 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 West Avenue J-15 in Lancaster in September 2001, or who knew a 40-year-old man named David Parks in the Antelope Valley at that time, 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 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.
