Josue Jesus Sanchez was 4 years old when he died on Thursday, May 18, 2000, in Long Beach. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 1233 Daisy Ave. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Long Beach Police Department case.
He was a Latino boy of preschool age. Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Josue 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 who remember him, but none of that has entered the public record. His name is a common one, and searches turned up only other people who share it, including a university researcher, a football player and men named in obituaries and fundraisers in other places. An unrelated man with a similar name was convicted in a separate case reported by a Santa Monica newspaper, and nothing connects that case to this child.
Because so little has been released, even the basic circumstances remain unknown to the public. The record does not say whether Josue was hurt at the Daisy Avenue address or elsewhere, whether he was struck by a vehicle, injured in a fall that was later found to be no accident, or beaten, all of which can lead to a finding of blunt force trauma in a young child. It does not say whether he died at the scene or later at a hospital, who was caring for him, or whether investigators ever identified anyone they believed was responsible.
The death of a small child from blunt force injuries usually begins as a call for help from a home, and the people who know what happened are often the adults who were there. If no charges are filed, the case can vanish from public view almost at once. A 4-year-old leaves behind only a small trail in the world: a preschool, a doctor's office, a few neighbors who saw him playing outside.
Long Beach is the second-largest city in Los Angeles County, a port city on San Pedro Bay with its own police department. Daisy Avenue is a residential street in central Long Beach, north of downtown, in an area of older homes and apartment buildings that is among the most densely populated parts of the city. Many families with young children live in these blocks, often several relatives to a household, and neighbors frequently notice when something is wrong next door.
Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest. The death of a 4-year-old boy in Long Beach does not appear to have drawn any news coverage.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Josue Jesus Sanchez could be found in news archives or public records. More than 25 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who lived on or near Daisy Avenue in May 2000, or who knew the boy and his family, may hold information that could help detectives. 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.
