Santiago Posada Polanco was 48 years old when he died on Saturday, May 19, 2001. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as an Inglewood Police Department case. The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report does not give an address or neighborhood for his death.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Santiago Posada Polanco 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.
Searches for the name Santiago Polanco turn up mostly a different case: a 15-year-old boy of the same name who was shot to death in Sun Valley, in the San Fernando Valley, in December 2001, and a Puerto Rico politician of an earlier era. Neither can be connected to the 48-year-old man who died in May 2001 in a case assigned to Inglewood police, so that material is not used here. His full name, with the middle name Posada, is the detail most likely to help someone who knew him.
Inglewood is a city of its own in the southwestern part of Los Angeles County, a few miles from Los Angeles International Airport. In 2001 it was best known as the home of the Forum arena and the Hollywood Park racetrack, and its neighborhoods were mostly working-class and middle-class areas of houses and apartment buildings. Its police department handles killings inside the city limits, separate from the Los Angeles Police Department and the Sheriff's Department.
Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest.
Because no location was published, the people most likely to hold useful information are those who knew Santiago Posada Polanco personally: relatives, friends, coworkers or neighbors who may remember where he lived, where he spent his time, and who he was with in the days before May 19, 2001. Even the simple fact of where he was last seen could help investigators.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Santiago Posada Polanco 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 in Inglewood who knew him in May 2001 may still remember something important. 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 Inglewood Police Department, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
