Anthony Hernandez was 19 years old when he died on Sunday, October 28, 2012, in Sylmar, at the northern edge of the city of Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 13304 Sayre St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's Mission Division.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Anthony Hernandez 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.
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 Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded only a single sentence about him: that he "died Sunday, Oct. 28, after being stabbed in Sylmar, according to Los Angeles County coroner's records." No police news release about the stabbing appears in the saved record.
Anthony Hernandez is one of the most common names in Southern California, and that makes his story especially hard to find. Searches for it return a well-known Los Angeles photographer, court cases from other years and other states, and obituaries of men of all ages, none of whom can be tied to this death. A 19-year-old who died in Sylmar in 2012 is easily lost among them.
Sylmar is the northernmost community in the city of Los Angeles, tucked into the top of the San Fernando Valley against the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. It is a mostly residential area of single-family homes, apartment complexes and a few remaining horse properties, and it lies near the point where the Golden State Freeway and the Antelope Valley Freeway meet. Many Angelenos know the name from the 1971 Sylmar earthquake. The community is patrolled by the LAPD's Mission Division.
At 19, Hernandez would likely have been only a year or two out of high school. Someone who knew him then, a classmate, a coworker, a neighbor on or near Sayre Street, may still remember the weekend he died and what was being said about it at the time.
Homicides in Los Angeles fell steeply in the late 2000s and early 2010s, yet many killings from those years were never solved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Anthony Hernandez could be found in news archives or public records. More than 13 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew a 19-year-old named Anthony Hernandez in Sylmar, who lived near Sayre Street, or who heard about a stabbing there at the end of October 2012 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.
