Robert Jaramillo

Robert Jaramillo was 24 years old when he was stabbed to death on Saturday, March 10, 2012, in Lawndale, in the South Bay area of Los Angeles County. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds after an attack near Hawthorne Boulevard and Marine Avenue. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau case.

The coroner's records describe him as a Latino man. The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report gave a short account based on information from sheriff's homicide Det. G. Sloan. At about 10:50 p.m., witnesses saw Robert being assaulted. After he collapsed, they called 911. Paramedics arrived and took him to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

That account shows that people saw at least part of the attack, and that they stayed long enough to call for help. But Sloan, citing the ongoing investigation, "declined to provide a description of the assailant." The report does not say how many attackers there were, whether there was an argument first, whether anything was taken from him, or whether Robert knew the person who hurt him. It does not say whether the attacker fled on foot or in a vehicle. There had been no arrests at the time the report was written.

Beyond these details, almost nothing about Robert's life has been made public. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this story, and no news outlet appears to have followed up on the case. Robert Jaramillo is a fairly common name, and searches turn up many other men by that name in other states, none of them connected to this death. He surely had family, friends and neighbors who remember who he was, but none of that has entered the public record.

The fact that witnesses were present and that detectives chose not to describe the assailant may suggest that investigators had at least some information about who was involved. If so, it has never been made public, and no later report has said whether a suspect was ever identified.

Lawndale is a small city of about 30,000 people in the South Bay region of Los Angeles County, between Hawthorne and Redondo Beach. Hawthorne Boulevard is its main commercial street, lined with shops, restaurants, auto businesses and apartment buildings, and it stays busy with traffic into the night. The city contracts with the Sheriff's Department for police services, which is why sheriff's homicide investigators handle killings there.

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 Robert Jaramillo 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 was near Hawthorne Boulevard and Marine Avenue on the night of March 10, 2012, including the people who called 911, 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.