Orlando Bardalez was 22 years old when he died on Friday, November 22, 2013, after being stabbed. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Culver City Police Department, which suggests that he was attacked within Culver City, though the published record does not give an address or even a street.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 22-year-old black male" who "died Friday, Nov. 22, after being stabbed." No news release, follow-up story or police appeal for information about his death could be found.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Orlando Bardalez 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. Bardalez is an uncommon surname in Southern California, which makes the silence around his death all the more striking. Searches for the name turn up only unrelated namesakes, none of whom can be tied 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. Because the place of the attack was never published, it is not even clear in which part of the city he was hurt.
Culver City is a small independent city on the Westside of Los Angeles County, surrounded almost entirely by the city of Los Angeles. It is best known as a center of the film and television business, home to Sony Pictures Studios on the historic MGM lot. Its compact downtown is filled with restaurants, theaters and offices, and residential neighborhoods of single-family homes and apartment buildings spread out from there. Ballona Creek runs through the city on its way to the ocean. The city has its own police department, which handles homicides within its borders.
Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Orlando Bardalez could be found in news archives or public records. More than 12 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew a 22-year-old man named Orlando Bardalez, or who saw or heard about a stabbing in or near Culver City around November 22, 2013, may hold information that could help. 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 contact the Culver City Police Department, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
