Matthew Dowd was 31 years old when he died on Thursday, Sept. 10, 2020, in the Hawthorne area of the South Bay. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds near 4700 W. 118th St. 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 Latino man. A memorial website and an obituary listing kept by Green Acres Memorial Park and Mortuary in Bloomington give his full name as Matthew Juaderro Dowd and the nickname his loved ones used, "Lil Matt." They record that he was born on Nov. 13, 1988, and died on Sept. 10, 2020, the same day recorded by the coroner, and an age that fits exactly.
Beyond those details, the memorial pages that could be found do not describe his family, his work or the way he died, and no news outlet appears to have reported on his death.
His name is shared with a well-known political commentator and former presidential campaign strategist, and searches for it are crowded with coverage of that man and of other Matthew Dowds in Florida, Arizona, Montana and Northern Ireland. None of them has any connection to the man who died on 118th Street.
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.
Hawthorne has its own police department, yet the case is assigned to sheriff's homicide investigators. That suggests the address may lie in one of the unincorporated county neighborhoods that border the city, where the Sheriff's Department handles law enforcement, although the record does not explain the assignment.
Hawthorne is a working city in the South Bay, a few miles southeast of Los Angeles International Airport. It is known as the hometown of the Beach Boys and for its long ties to the aerospace industry, and the area around it is a patchwork of small cities and unincorporated pockets with dense neighborhoods of single-family homes and apartment buildings. Hawthorne Boulevard and the 405 and 105 freeways cross the area. In September 2020, like the rest of the county, the area was living under the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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 Matthew Dowd 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 lived near the 4700 block of West 118th Street in September 2020, or who knew Matthew, the people he spent time with and where he went 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.
