Kosta Dimitrios Kritikos

Kosta Dimitrios Kritikos was 30 years old when he died on Thursday, January 28, 2021, in Long Beach. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after being stabbed near 2677 56th St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Long Beach Police Department case.

The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described him as "a 30-year-old white male" who "died Thursday, Jan. 28, after being stabbed near 2677 56th St. in Long Beach." A short report in the Long Beach Post added a little more. It said the coroner had identified "the man who was fatally stabbed by his roommate during a dispute Thursday morning as 30-year-old Kosta Kritikos."

According to the Long Beach Post, police were called to an apartment on the 2600 block of East 56th Street at about 8:30 a.m. The paper reported that Long Beach police were "still investigating what exactly happened" before that call, and that they were "trying to determine if the suspect, only identified as a man, was also the victim of a crime." A police spokeswoman said that meant "the possibility of the stabbing being in self-defense is being investigated." Officials also said the suspect "was cooperating with the police investigation."

That is where the public record stops. No later story could be found saying whether the roommate was arrested, whether prosecutors filed charges, or whether investigators concluded that the stabbing was an act of self-defense. The reports did not describe what the dispute was about, how long the two men had lived together, or whether anyone else was in the apartment. The coroner's office classified the death as a homicide, a medical finding that one person died at the hands of another, which by itself does not settle whether a crime was committed.

No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser for Kosta Kritikos could be found for this story. Searches for his name turn up a music producer, a businessman in Massachusetts and donors to unrelated fundraisers, none of whom can be connected to this death. A man of 30 almost certainly left behind parents, siblings or friends who remember him, but none of their words have entered the public record.

The address lies in the northern part of Long Beach, a largely residential area of single-family homes, apartment buildings and neighborhood shopping streets, far from the downtown waterfront and the port that the city is best known for. Long Beach is the second-largest city in Los Angeles County and has its own police department and homicide detectives.

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 Kosta Dimitrios Kritikos 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 56th Street in Long Beach in January 2021, or who knew Kosta Kritikos and the circumstances of his home life, may hold information that could help explain what happened that morning. 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.