Ana Lopez Beltran was 33 years old when she died on Tuesday, September 20, 2011, in Van Nuys, in the San Fernando Valley. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died of stab wounds at 14508 Victory Blvd. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Van Nuys Division case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described her as a woman "identified by the coroner's office as a 33-year-old white woman" who "was stabbed to death Tuesday, Sept. 20, in the 14500 block of Victory Boulevard in Van Nuys." According to a Los Angeles police spokeswoman quoted by the Times, her body "was discovered near Hazeltine Avenue shortly before 4 a.m." The report went on to say that "Detectives were investigating, and no further details were immediately available." No later update was added to the entry.
The short account leaves almost everything unexplained.
It does not say who found her, whether she was found outdoors on the street or inside a building, or whether she lived nearby. It does not say when she was stabbed, whether anyone heard or saw the attack, whether she knew the person who hurt her, or whether a weapon was recovered. The early hour suggests that she may have been attacked during the night, while the street was quiet, but the record does not say so.
Beyond her name, her age and the place where she died, almost nothing about Ana Lopez Beltran 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. She surely had family, friends or neighbors who remember who she was, but none of that has entered the public record. Ana Lopez and Ana Beltran are both common names in Southern California and across the Spanish-speaking world, and searches turned up social media users, a researcher in Mexico, an author and obituaries for older women in other states, none of whom can be connected to this death.
Van Nuys is one of the older communities of the San Fernando Valley, and it holds a civic center with courthouses and government offices as well as Van Nuys Airport, one of the busiest general aviation airports in the country. Much of the area is made up of apartment buildings, small houses and commercial strips. Victory Boulevard is a long east-west street that crosses much of the Valley, lined in many places with apartments, shops and auto businesses, and it carries traffic at most hours of the day and night.
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 Ana Lopez Beltran 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 knew a 33-year-old woman named Ana Lopez Beltran, or who was on or near Victory Boulevard close to Hazeltine Avenue late on the night of September 19 or early on September 20, 2011, 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.
