Eva Alta Tice was 60 years old when she died on Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011, in San Pedro, the port community at the southern tip of Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died of stab wounds at 1115 1/2 S. Pacific Ave. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Harbor Division case.
Eva was a mentally disabled woman who, friends and detectives said, had the understanding of a child. According to police, she became a ward of the state as a young person after her parents were killed in a car accident, and her roommate told ABC7 that her husband had died about a year earlier. She had found a home at Hope Chapel, where she served as an usher and volunteer. "She was always participating in church events," Pastor Vince Ornelas said. A church friend, Becky Aldape, recalled her eagerness: "'Can I help, can I help?'
Always wanted to help."
On Christmas Eve she left the evening service at Hope Chapel to walk to her apartment about three blocks away. At about 7:15 p.m., passersby found her on the sidewalk on Pacific Avenue between 11th and 12th streets. She had been stabbed multiple times in the chest, and she died shortly afterward at a hospital. Her Bible lay beside her, with her name written inside, which helped police identify her. "She never had cash on her," Detective David Alvarez said. Passersby told police they had seen people running from the area. The suspect was later described as a white or Hispanic man, about 30 to 35, with a shaved or bald head and dark baggy clothing; one account said he carried a backpack.
In May 2012, Councilman Buscaino and the Los Angeles City Council announced a $50,000 reward. Hope Chapel later began the Eva Tice Memorial Toy Drive for the children she loved. In 2015, Detective David Cortez released surveillance video showing her walking home that night, with a person walking behind her moments before the attack. "Somebody will watch this and have courage and have a heart for Eva," he told NBC Los Angeles. Her Bible, he said, sat on his desk.
San Pedro is a close-knit, largely working-class community beside the Port of Los Angeles, long home to fishermen, dockworkers and their families. Pacific Avenue is one of its main north-south streets, lined with older apartment buildings, small businesses and churches a few blocks from the waterfront and downtown San Pedro.
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 Eva Alta Tice could be found in news archives or public records. More than 14 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was on Pacific Avenue near 11th Street on Christmas Eve 2011, who recognizes the person in the surveillance video, or who heard someone talk about the killing afterward, may hold information that could help detectives. The Times asked tipsters to call Harbor Area homicide Detectives David Alvarez at 726-7889 or Patty Batts at 726-7879. 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.
