Steven Edmund Brown was 53 years old when he died on Friday, Aug. 9, 2013, in Canoga Park, in the west San Fernando Valley. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at a location described only as north of Sherman Way and east of De Soto Avenue. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Topanga Division case.
He was a white man in his early 50s. Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Steven Edmund Brown 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 name makes the search for him especially hard.
Steven Brown is one of the most common names in the United States, and searches turned up obituaries, rosters and records for many other men named Steven Brown across the country, none of whom can be connected to the man who died in Canoga Park.
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.
The coroner gave a description of an area rather than a street address. That suggests he may have been found outdoors, on a street, in a parking lot or along a sidewalk, rather than inside a home, although the record does not say so directly.
Canoga Park is one of the older communities of the west San Fernando Valley. It was founded in the early 1900s as the town of Owensmouth and took the name Canoga Park in the 1930s, and it later grew with the aerospace industry that once employed thousands of people in the area. Today it is a mix of apartment buildings, single-family homes, small businesses and light industry. Sherman Way is its main commercial street, lined with shops, restaurants and auto businesses, and De Soto Avenue is one of the large north-south roads that cross the Valley floor.
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 Steven Edmund Brown 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 was near Sherman Way and De Soto Avenue in Canoga Park around Aug. 9, 2013, or who knew Steven and where he spent his days and nights, 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.
