Raymond Lawrence Ramos III was 39 years old when he died on Sunday, March 20, 2016, in the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds in front of 355 S. Alvarado St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart Division.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 39-year-old white male" who "died Sunday, March 20, after being stabbed in Westlake." No detective was quoted, no account of the attack was given, and no request for tips was attached to the entry.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Raymond Lawrence Ramos 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.
Raymond Ramos is a common name in Southern California, and searches for it turn up many other men, including people in New York, Texas and elsewhere, none of whom could be tied to the man who died on Alvarado Street. The "III" in his name shows that he was the third man in his family to carry it, but no relative has been publicly identified.
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.
Westlake is one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in Los Angeles, just west of downtown. It is built around MacArthur Park and its lake, and Alvarado Street is its main north-south commercial corridor, crowded with street vendors, small shops, apartment buildings and bus stops. The neighborhood is home to many working families and recent immigrants, and its sidewalks are busy at nearly all hours.
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 Raymond Lawrence Ramos III 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 was on South Alvarado Street in Westlake around March 20, 2016, or who knew a 39-year-old man named Raymond Ramos, may hold information that could help detectives. Because so little was ever released about his death, even a basic memory of who he was, where he lived or who he spent time with could help fill in the picture. 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.
