Hugo Renee Godinez was 38 years old when he died on Thursday, June 14, 2001, in Long Beach. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma near Stanley Avenue and Anaheim Street. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Long Beach Police Department case.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Hugo Renee Godinez 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.
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 surname Godinez is common across California and Latin America, and searches for his name mostly turn up other men named Hugo Godinez in other cities and other years. None of those records could be tied to the man who died in Long Beach in 2001, so none of them are used here. His unusual middle name, Renee, is the detail most likely to help anyone who knew him recognize him.
Long Beach is the second-largest city in Los Angeles County, a port city on San Pedro Bay with a long waterfront, a busy downtown and dense residential neighborhoods spreading inland. Anaheim Street is one of the main east-west corridors crossing the city, lined with small businesses, apartment buildings, auto shops and restaurants, and it carries heavy traffic day and night. An intersection along that corridor is a place where many people pass, which means someone may have seen or heard something on the day Hugo Renee Godinez was hurt.
Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest. In a case like this one, where no news story appears to have been written, the only public trace may be the coroner's entry and the case file that still sits with the Long Beach police.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Hugo Renee Godinez 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. Someone who was in or around Stanley Avenue and Anaheim Street in Long Beach in June 2001 may still remember something about what happened, or about who was with Hugo in his final days. 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.
