Vrezh Bazikyan was 58 years old when he was found dead on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2020, along Agoura Road in Agoura Hills. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau case.
The coroner's record describes him as a white man, and news reports said he lived in Glendale. The Acorn, the local newspaper for Agoura Hills and the surrounding communities, reported that the coroner found he "died of stab wounds to the neck." His body was discovered "lying 15 yards into the brush on Agoura Road just west of the Liberty Canyon overpass," the paper said, near Vendell Place. KTLA placed the spot in the 27500 block of Agoura Road, about 15 yards off the roadway.
According to The Acorn, the body was found by a city landscaper in the early afternoon.
Paramedics from the Los Angeles County Fire Department pronounced him dead at the scene, and investigators closed Agoura Road until 10 p.m. that night while they worked. It took about a week for the coroner to release his name.
The paper wrote that for some residents, the discovery "brought back memories of the summer of 2018," when two other bodies were found in the Malibu Canyon area and a camper was shot to death at Malibu Creek State Park. In a later story about a different body found by hikers in the area, The Acorn noted that the Sheriff's Department has said it is not unusual for bodies to be left in the unincorporated hills around Agoura Hills, Calabasas and Malibu by people who killed elsewhere. In that story the paper recalled his case and wrote plainly: "His killer has not been arrested."
Nothing has been made public about how a Glendale man came to be at a roadside in the western end of the county, whether he was killed there or brought there, or whether he knew the person who stabbed him. Those questions lie at the center of the case.
Agoura Hills is a small city in the Santa Monica Mountains foothills along the Ventura Freeway, near the line between Los Angeles and Ventura counties. It is known for quiet residential neighborhoods, open hillsides and hiking trails. Agoura Road runs parallel to the freeway on its south side, and the stretch near Liberty Canyon passes brush-covered slopes and open land, with few homes close by.
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 Vrezh Bazikyan could be found in news archives or public records. More than five years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who saw a vehicle stopped along Agoura Road near Liberty Canyon around Sept. 24, 2020, or who knew Vrezh in Glendale and saw him in the days before his death, may hold information that could help investigators. 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 Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
