Arnold Salas Garcia was 46 years old when he died on Sunday, October 28, 2012, in Bellflower, in southeast Los Angeles County. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds near the intersection of Foster Road and Woodruff Avenue. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Arnold Salas Garcia 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 that he "died Sunday, Oct. 28, after being stabbed in Bellflower, according to Los Angeles County coroner's records." Because the place of death was listed as a street intersection rather than a house number, it may be that he was attacked outdoors, but the record does not say so.
Searching for him is made harder by how common his name is. Arnold Garcia is shared by many men in California and beyond, including a Los Angeles County probation officer who was killed in the line of duty in 1994, and obituaries for men of the same name in Texas and elsewhere. None of those pages has any connection to the man who died in Bellflower in 2012, and his full name, with the middle name Salas, does not appear in any news story that could be found.
Bellflower is a city of tree-lined residential streets in southeast Los Angeles County, between Downey and Lakewood. It grew up as a farming and dairy town and became a bedroom suburb after World War II, with rows of postwar houses, apartment buildings and small businesses along its main boulevards. The city does not have its own police force and contracts with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department for law enforcement, which is why sheriff's homicide detectives took the case.
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 Arnold Salas Garcia 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 him, or who was near Foster Road and Woodruff Avenue in Bellflower around the end of October 2012, may hold information that could help investigators. 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.
