Herson Weneslao Garcia Gonzalez was 28 years old when he died on Saturday, September 5, 2015, in Winnetka, in the west San Fernando Valley. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at Sherman Way and Lurline Avenue. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's Topanga Division.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 28-year-old Latino male" who "died Saturday, Sept. 5, after being stabbed in Winnetka." No follow-up story appears to have been written, and no news release about the case could be found.
The location given for the attack is an intersection rather than a street address, which suggests that he was hurt outdoors, on or near the street, but the record does not say so directly.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Herson Weneslao
Garcia Gonzalez 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.
His full name is long and distinctive, but in everyday life he may have used a shorter form, such as Herson Garcia or Herson Gonzalez. Both surnames are among the most common in the Spanish-speaking world, and searches for those shorter forms turn up a Rhode Island pastor, a researcher in Paraguay and other men who share them, 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 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.
Winnetka is a largely residential neighborhood in the west San Fernando Valley, made up of single-family homes, apartment buildings and strip malls. Sherman Way is one of the Valley's main east-west boulevards, lined with small businesses, restaurants, auto shops and bus stops, and it carries steady traffic late into the night. Lurline Avenue is one of the residential streets that cross it. The neighborhood is patrolled by the LAPD's Topanga Division, which covers much of the west Valley.
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 Herson Weneslao Garcia Gonzalez could be found in news archives or public records. More than ten years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was near Sherman Way and Lurline Avenue in Winnetka in early September 2015, or who knew a 28-year-old man named Herson, 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.
