Roberto Lopez was 26 years old when he died on Thursday, February 25, 2016, in North Hollywood. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds in front of 6253 Laurel Canyon Blvd. 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 gave only a short account of what happened. Shortly before 7 a.m., officers from the LAPD's North Hollywood Division responded to a radio call of a stabbing, according to a department news release. "When officers arrived, they found Lopez suffering from a stab wound," the Times reported. He was pronounced dead at the scene, according to coroner's records.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Roberto Lopez 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.
Roberto Lopez is one of the most common names in Southern California and across the Spanish-speaking world, and searches for it return thousands of other men, including athletes, doctors and people in court cases in other states. None of those records could be tied to the 26-year-old who died on Laurel Canyon Boulevard.
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.
North Hollywood is a neighborhood in the southeastern San Fernando Valley, in the city of Los Angeles. It is known for the NoHo Arts District, with its small theaters, galleries and studios, and for the North Hollywood station at the end of the Metro B Line. Laurel Canyon Boulevard is one of the Valley's long north-south thoroughfares, lined with apartment buildings, auto shops, markets and other small businesses.
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 Roberto Lopez 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 Laurel Canyon Boulevard in North Hollywood in the early morning of February 25, 2016, or who knew a 26-year-old man named Roberto Lopez who lived or spent time in the area, may hold information that could help detectives. In 2016, police asked anyone with information to call Valley homicide detectives at 974-9550. 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.
