Patricia Fay Salyer was 42 years old when she died on Monday, August 20, 2001, in Hollywood. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 1622 Wilcox Ave. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's Hollywood Division.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded her death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described her as "a 42-year-old white female" who "died Monday, Aug. 20, after sustaining blunt force trauma in Hollywood." The entry gave a street address on Wilcox Avenue, but it did not say whether she lived there, whether she was visiting or whether that was simply where she was found. No follow-up story appears to have been written.
Beyond her name, her age and the place where she died, almost nothing about Patricia Fay Salyer 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. A woman named Patricia Fay Salyer appears in a 1987 court listing in an Indiana newspaper, and other women named Patricia Salyer appear in obituaries in the Midwest, but none of those records can be tied to the woman who died in Hollywood. Salyer is an uncommon surname, which may make it easier for someone who knew her to recognize the name.
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.
Hollywood is one of the most famous neighborhoods in the world, home to the Walk of Fame, the old movie palaces on Hollywood Boulevard and the hills topped by the Hollywood Sign. Away from the tourist strip, its flat streets are lined with apartment buildings and older bungalows that house a crowded and changing population, including longtime renters, young people who came to work in entertainment, immigrants and people living on the margins. In 2001 the area was only beginning a wave of redevelopment that would bring new hotels and nightclubs. Wilcox Avenue is a north-south street in the heart of Hollywood, and the LAPD's Hollywood Division station stands on the same street, a few blocks away.
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 Patricia Fay Salyer 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 Wilcox Avenue in Hollywood in August 2001, or who knew a 42-year-old woman named Patricia Salyer, 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.
