Chaz Micah Swayne was 23 years old when he died on Saturday, April 27, 2013, in Hawthorne, a city in the South Bay area of Los Angeles County. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 12523 S. Cranbrook Ave. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department case, investigated by sheriff's homicide detectives working with the Hawthorne Police Department.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report gave a short account of how he was found. "Police responding to an apartment building shortly before 3 a.m. found Swayne lying on a stairwell," the entry said. "He had been stabbed multiple times and was pronounced dead at the scene." It added that "Los Angeles County sheriff's homicide detectives are assisting Hawthorne police in the investigation," and asked anyone with information to call the sheriff's homicide bureau.
The account leaves much unknown.
It does not say who called police, whether Swayne lived in the building or was visiting, whether he was attacked on the stairwell or made his way there after being hurt, or whether anyone heard a fight before he was found. It does not say whether there was more than one attacker, whether he knew the person who stabbed him, or whether investigators ever identified a suspect. The hour, a little before 3 a.m. on a Saturday, suggests the attack happened late on a Friday night, when people in the building may have been coming home or still awake.
Beyond the Times entry, almost nothing about Chaz Micah Swayne has been made public. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this story, and searches for his name turned up only an unrelated man with the same surname in another state. His first name is uncommon, and his family and friends surely remember him, but none of that has entered the public record.
Hawthorne is a densely populated city in the South Bay, best known as the hometown of the Beach Boys and as the home of the rocket company SpaceX and the Hawthorne Municipal Airport. Much of the city is made up of apartment buildings and modest houses, and many of its residential streets are lined with multi-unit buildings whose stairwells and courtyards are shared by dozens of neighbors. In buildings like these, residents often hear or see things that never make it into a police report.
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 Chaz Micah Swayne 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 in or visited the apartment buildings on the 12500 block of South Cranbrook Avenue in April 2013, or who saw or spoke with Chaz in the hours before he died, 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.
