Francisco Batres-Lopez was 29 years old when he died on Saturday, Feb. 4, 2012, in Valley Glen, in the San Fernando Valley. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds on the east side of the Tujunga Wash, south of Victory Boulevard. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Van Nuys Division case.
The coroner's records describe him as a Latino man. The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report gave a brief account of his death. Batres-Lopez "had been stabbed in the chest," said Sgt. Trina Bluff of the Los Angeles Police Department's Van Nuys station. Authorities were called, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. "The victim is believed to be a transient who lived in the area," Bluff said, according to the Times. The post asked anyone with information to call Van Nuys homicide Detective R. Bub at 374-0040.
That is nearly all that has been made public.
The reports do not say who found him, what time he was hurt, whether he had been arguing with anyone, or whether anyone saw what happened. They do not describe a suspect, a vehicle or a weapon. Because police believed he lived in the area without a permanent home, it is possible he was known to other people who stayed along the wash, but the record does not say whether he had a camp there or how long he had been in Valley Glen.
No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser for him could be found for this story, and his name appears online only in lists of people killed in Los Angeles County in 2012. Both of his surnames are common, and the hyphenated form may have been written differently in other records, which makes it harder to trace his life before February 2012. He surely had family somewhere, perhaps people who did not know where he was living, and friends who remember him, but their memories have not entered the public record.
Valley Glen is a residential neighborhood in the central San Fernando Valley, made up largely of single-family homes and apartment buildings, with Los Angeles Valley College on its eastern side. The Tujunga Wash is a concrete flood-control channel that runs south through the Valley toward the Los Angeles River. Parts of the land along it have been planted as a greenway with walking paths, while other stretches are fenced and lightly watched, and people without housing have sometimes sheltered along its banks.
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 Francisco Batres-Lopez 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 spent time along the Tujunga Wash near Victory Boulevard in early February 2012, who knew Francisco from the area, or who heard talk afterward about a fight or a stabbing near the wash, may hold information that could help detectives. Relatives who lost touch with him around that time may also be able to help identify the people he knew. 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.
