Armen Hakobyan was 38 years old when he died on Sunday, Aug. 15, 2021, in Glendale. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds near 333 N. Verdugo Road. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Glendale Police Department case.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Armen Hakobyan 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. The coroner's record describes him as a white man, and the Los Angeles Times entry says only that he died "after being stabbed near 333 N. Verdugo Road in Glendale."
His name makes the search for him especially hard.
Armen Hakobyan is a very common name, shared by many people in Southern California and around the world, including business owners, public officials, athletes and artists. Searches for the name turn up professional listings, court filings and news stories about other men, none of which mention a death in Glendale in August 2021. Without a middle name, a photograph or a published obituary, it has not been possible to tell which public traces, if any, belong to the man who died that day.
Because so little has been released, even the basic circumstances remain unknown to the public. The record does not say whether he was stabbed during a fight or a robbery, attacked by a stranger or by someone he knew, or hurt indoors or on the street. 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.
Glendale is a city of about 200,000 people just north of Los Angeles, bordered by the Verdugo Mountains and the San Gabriel foothills. It is known for its busy downtown along Brand Boulevard, the Americana at Brand and Glendale Galleria shopping centers, and residential neighborhoods that climb into the hills. Verdugo Road is one of the city's main north-south streets, passing apartment buildings, small businesses and homes. Glendale is generally considered one of the safer large cities in Los Angeles County, and a stabbing death there is the kind of event that neighbors and local businesses tend to remember.
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 Armen Hakobyan could be found in news archives or public records. More than four years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew him, who was on or near North Verdugo Road in mid-August 2021, or who heard talk afterward about a man stabbed there, may hold information that could help investigators. Friends, coworkers, landlords and neighbors are often the people who know what was happening in someone's life in the days before a death like this one. 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 Glendale Police Department, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
