Obdulio De La Cruz was 37 years old when he died on Monday, Aug. 9, 2021, in Van Nuys, in the San Fernando Valley. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds near 14612 Wyandotte St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case handled by detectives of the department's Valley Bureau Homicide unit.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Obdulio De La Cruz 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 Latino man, and the Los Angeles Times entry says only that he died "after being stabbed near 14612 Wyandotte St.
in Van Nuys."
The name Obdulio De La Cruz appears in many public records across Latin America and the United States, on government lists, social media pages and obituaries of other people. None of those records mention a death in Van Nuys in 2021, and none can be tied to him with confidence. The combination of a less common first name with a very common surname means that someone who knew him would recognize the name at once, even though a stranger searching for it finds little.
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.
Van Nuys is one of the oldest and most densely populated communities in the San Fernando Valley. It is home to the Van Nuys Civic Center, with its city, state and federal government buildings and courthouses, and to Van Nuys Airport, one of the busiest general aviation airports in the country. Away from those landmarks, much of Van Nuys is made up of apartment buildings, small houses and commercial strips along busy boulevards such as Van Nuys and Sepulveda. Wyandotte Street is a residential street in the area. Neighbors in buildings like these often know one another by sight, if not by name, and may notice who comes and goes.
Los Angeles recorded about 260 homicides a year in 2018 and 2019, among the lowest yearly totals in more than half a century, yet many of those killings still went unsolved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Obdulio De La Cruz 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 lived on or near the 14600 block of Wyandotte Street in August 2021, or who heard talk afterward about a man stabbed there, 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 call the Los Angeles Police Department at 877-527-3247 or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
