Antonio Valencia was 57 years old when he died on Wednesday, February 24, 2021, in the South Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after being stabbed near 990 1/2 E. 46th St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's Central Bureau Homicide unit.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described him only as "a 57-year-old Latino male" who "died Wednesday, Feb. 24, after being stabbed near 990 1/2 E. 46th St. in South Park." The half-number in the address suggests a rear house or a second unit on a lot, a common arrangement on the older residential streets of South Los Angeles, but the record does not say whether he lived there or whether that was simply where he was found.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Antonio Valencia 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 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.
Antonio Valencia is a very common name. Searches turn up a famous Ecuadorian soccer player, contractors, workers and many obituaries for other men who carried it, none of whom can be connected to this death. That commonness has made it even harder for any trace of this particular man to surface in public records.
South Park is a neighborhood in South Los Angeles that takes its name from the city park of the same name. It is a densely built, working-class area of small houses, older apartment buildings, corner stores and churches, cut by long east-west streets numbered in the 40s and 50s. Many families have lived in the neighborhood for generations, and neighbors on blocks like East 46th Street often know one another by sight. A stabbing on such a street may have been heard or noticed by people who never spoke to detectives.
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 Antonio Valencia 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 lived on or near East 46th Street in South Park in February 2021, or who knew a 57-year-old man named Antonio Valencia who spent time there, may hold information that could help. 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.
