Dennis Joseph Cauterucci was 60 years old when he died on Wednesday, June 22, 2016, in the Mid-City area of Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds in the 1800 block of South Cochran Avenue. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's West Bureau Homicide unit.
He was found because his neighbors noticed that something was wrong. According to the Los Angeles Times Homicide Report, LAPD Lt. John Radtke said "neighbors were concerned after they hadn't seen Cauterucci walking his dog, so they called police." About 9:30 p.m., officers from the Wilshire Division responded to the welfare check and found him in a room in his condo with stab wounds. Coroner's officials said he was pronounced dead at the scene at 10:13 p.m.
Police offered only one early clue.
"So far, police believe some sort of dispute occurred," the Times reported, and Radtke added, "People in the area did hear arguing." The Times did not say when the arguing was heard, how long he may have been dead before he was found, whether there were signs of a forced entry, or whether anything was missing from his home.
An obituary published through the Des Moines Register gives a glimpse of his life before Los Angeles. It lists him as Dennis J. Cauterucci of Los Angeles, born September 28, 1955, and says he "was born and raised in Des Moines." The dates match the man who died on Cochran Avenue. When his brother Louis Cauterucci died in 2020, his obituary in the same newspaper listed "brother, Dennis Cauterucci" among the family members who had died before him. Little else about his work or his years in Los Angeles appears in the saved records, but the detail that he was regularly seen walking his dog, and that neighbors noticed when he stopped, suggests a man with a settled routine who was known on his block.
Mid-City is a broad, mostly residential part of central Los Angeles, west of downtown. Its side streets are lined with duplexes, small apartment buildings and condominiums, close to busy east-west boulevards. It is a diverse neighborhood where many residents have lived for years and know one another by sight, which is part of why his absence was noticed.
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 Dennis Joseph Cauterucci could be found in news archives or public records. More than nine years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who lived on or near the 1800 block of South Cochran Avenue in June 2016, who heard the argument or saw someone coming or going from his building, or who knew him through his family in Des Moines or his life in Los Angeles, may hold information that could help detectives. In 2016, the Times asked anyone with information to call West Bureau homicide detectives at 382-9470. 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.
