Agustin Edgar Garcia-Arango was 28 years old when he died on Thursday, May 9, 2013, in Westmont, an unincorporated area of South Los Angeles County. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 1104 W. 87th St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department case.
The coroner's record describes him as a Latino man. The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report entry says only that he "died Thursday, May 9, after being stabbed in Westmont." Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Agustin Edgar Garcia-Arango 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, with two given names and a hyphenated surname that joins two family names, is fairly distinctive, yet searches for it turned up only short listings copied from the Times entry.
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's record gives a specific street address on West 87th Street. That suggests he may have been found at or near a particular home or building rather than on an open roadway, although the record does not say whether he lived there, was visiting someone, or was simply passing by. It also does not say whether he was taken from that address to a hospital or was pronounced dead where he was found.
Westmont is a densely settled unincorporated community in South Los Angeles County, bordered by neighborhoods of the city of Los Angeles. Its blocks are lined mostly with single-family homes and small apartment buildings, many built in the middle of the twentieth century, with churches, corner markets and small businesses along the larger streets such as Vermont Avenue and Normandie Avenue. Because it lies outside any city, the area is policed by the Sheriff's Department, and homicides there are investigated by the department's Homicide Bureau.
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 Agustin Edgar Garcia-Arango 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 lived on or near the 1100 block of West 87th Street in May 2013, who knew Agustin or the people he spent time with, or who heard talk afterward about what happened to him, 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 contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
