Eduardo Jorge Triana was 35 years old when he was stabbed to death in the early hours of Wednesday, April 13, 2011, in downtown Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 855 S. Hill St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's Central Division.
The Los Angeles Times reported what police had learned. Witnesses said Triana and two men were fighting near the Chase bank branch on Hill Street at about 2 a.m. when he "was stabbed at least once." Two men carrying trash bags were seen running from the scene, officials said. His body was not discovered until about two hours later, when a security guard from another building found him.
Lt. Paul Vernon of the Los Angeles Police Department told the Times that detectives could not yet say what had led to the attack. "We don't know if this was a robbery or just a dispute," he said.
He also expressed confidence that the case would be closed. "I'm confident we will solve this," Vernon said. "Someone on the street knows what happened."
A few days later, a man was found beaten to death in a downtown residential building, and the LAPD went out of its way to say in a news release that the two cases were not connected. That investigation, the department said, "is not related to the stabbing murder of 35-year-old Eduardo Triana, which occurred on April 13, 2011, near 9th Street and Hill Street." The release did not add any new details about his death.
Little else about Eduardo Triana's life has been made public. No verified obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this story. Eduardo Triana is also a name shared by many people in the United States and Latin America, and searches turn up others with the same name, none of whom can be tied to this death.
Hill Street runs through the heart of downtown Los Angeles, a few blocks south of Pershing Square. By day the area is crowded with office workers, shoppers and people heading to the stores and businesses of the historic core. At 2 a.m. the same blocks are far quieter, with closed storefronts, a scattering of people living on the street and only occasional passersby, which may explain why no one found him for two hours.
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 Eduardo Jorge Triana 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. The two men seen running from the scene with trash bags have never been publicly identified. Anyone who was on Hill Street near 9th Street in the early morning of April 13, 2011, or who heard talk afterward about a fight there, may hold information that could help. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. The Times asked tipsters to call Det. Al Marengo of the Central Homicide Unit at (213) 972-1249. Anyone with information can call the Los Angeles Police Department at 877-527-3247 (877-LAPD-24-7), or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
