Andrew Morlett III was 38 years old when he died on Sunday, April 5, 2020, in the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds near 6944 Kester Ave. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's Valley Bureau Homicide unit.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described him only as "a 38-year-old Latino male" who "died Sunday, April 5, after being stabbed near 6944 Kester Ave. in Van Nuys." His name also appears among the faces on the Homicide Report's gallery of victims, with a single word beside it: "Stabbing." Beyond that, nothing about his death has been made public.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Andrew Morlett III 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.
Morlett is an uncommon surname, and searches for his full name turn up nothing beyond the Homicide Report itself. The "III" after his name shows that he carried the name of his father and grandfather before him, which suggests a family that kept the name across three generations. Those relatives, or others who shared the family name, may be the people most likely to remember who he was and how he spent his last days.
Van Nuys is one of the oldest communities in the San Fernando Valley, and it serves as a civic center for the Valley, with government offices, courthouses and the Van Nuys Airport. Its neighborhoods mix apartment buildings, single-family homes, auto shops and commercial strips. Kester Avenue is one of the north-south streets that run through the area.
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.
His death came on a Sunday in the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, when stay-at-home orders had closed most businesses and kept many people indoors. Neighbors who were home during those weeks may have heard or seen something on Kester Avenue without realizing that it mattered.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Andrew Morlett III 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 on or near Kester Avenue in Van Nuys in April 2020, or who knew a 38-year-old man named Andrew Morlett, 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.
