Eduardo Antonio Morales

Eduardo Antonio Morales died on Thursday, January 12, 2017, in Panorama City. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds in the 8600 block of Cedros Avenue. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's Valley Bureau Homicide unit.

His age is not certain. The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described him in its text as "a 20-year-old Latino," but the same entry's data fields list his age as 25. The record does not explain the difference.

About 7 p.m., a passerby found Morales on the sidewalk with stab wounds, LAPD Det. Rich Wheeler told the Times. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. At the time, the Times reported, "Police are still trying to put together a description of a suspect." No follow-up story appears to have been written.

Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Eduardo Antonio Morales 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. Eduardo Morales is also a very common name in Southern California and across the Spanish-speaking world, and searches turn up many other men who share it, including a memorial fundraiser for a man of that name who worked at an airport in Denver, none of whom can be connected to this death.

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 whether he lived on Cedros Avenue or was only passing through. It does not say whether anyone saw what happened, how long he had been lying on the sidewalk before he was found, or whether investigators ever identified a suspect.

Panorama City is a neighborhood in the middle of the San Fernando Valley. It was built after World War II as one of the Valley's first planned communities, and over the decades it has become one of the most densely populated parts of the Valley, with many apartment buildings, small businesses and busy commercial streets. It is home to many working families, and homicides there are handled by detectives of the LAPD's Valley Bureau.

By the mid-2010s Los Angeles was recording roughly 250 to 300 homicides a year, among the lowest totals in decades, yet many of those killings still went unsolved.

No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Eduardo Antonio Morales could be found in news archives or public records. More than eight years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was on Cedros Avenue in Panorama City on the evening of January 12, 2017, or who knew a young man named Eduardo Morales from the neighborhood, may hold information that could help. The Times listed Valley Bureau detectives at 818-374-9550. 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.