Nicholas Dominic Longanbach was 47 years old when he died on Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2018, in the area where East Hollywood meets Koreatown in Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds in the 300 block of North Heliotrope Drive. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Rampart Division case.
He was found dead about 7:30 a.m. that Wednesday. A week later, the Los Angeles Times reported that "according to coroner's records, he had been fatally stabbed in the neck." The newspaper also reported that Longanbach "had been arrested Sept. 27 and released the next day on $5,000 bail, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department records," which means he had been out of custody for less than a week when he was killed.
In a Facebook post quoted by the Times, a man identified as his brother described him and asked for help.
"He was released from twin towers on a simple traffic ticket charge. He was mentally ill and had no idea where he was," the post said. "We are all pleading with you to report anything to the police that may help find his killer." Twin Towers is the Los Angeles County jail complex near downtown. The Times added that the LAPD was still investigating and listed a detective tip line.
Beyond those few lines, little about his life has been made public. No news report described what led up to the stabbing, whether anyone saw it, or whether investigators ever identified a suspect. The brother's words suggest that he may have been confused or vulnerable in his last days, and that his family was far from certain where he had been staying, but the record does not say where he lived or how he came to be on Heliotrope Drive that morning.
Heliotrope Drive is a residential street in a densely built part of central Los Angeles, lined with older apartment buildings and small houses. The surrounding area, often described as East Hollywood or the northern edge of Koreatown, is one of the most crowded parts of the city, home to many working families and immigrants, with busy commercial avenues, bus lines and small businesses close by. People move through these streets at all hours, which means that someone may have seen or heard something in the early morning of Oct. 3, 2018.
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 Nicholas Dominic Longanbach could be found in news archives or public records. More than seven years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was near the 300 block of North Heliotrope Drive in late September or early October 2018, who saw Nicholas after his release from jail on Sept. 28, or who heard later talk about what happened to him, 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.
