Gil Ordonez DeLeon was 53 years old when he died on Monday, Nov. 2, 2009, in Pico-Union, just west of downtown Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 1225 S. Union Ave. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart Division.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded only that he was "a 53-year-old Asian male" who "died Monday, Nov. 2, after being stabbed in Pico-Union, according to Los Angeles County coroner's records." A weekly roundup on the same blog listed him as Gil DeLeon and said he "was stabbed in the 1200 block of South Union Ave." No detective was quoted, and no follow-up report appeared.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Gil Ordonez DeLeon 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.
He surely had family, friends or neighbors who remember who he was, but none of that has entered the public record. Gil DeLeon is also a name carried by a number of other men, including a blues musician in Northern California and several people named in family obituaries in Texas and Colorado, none of whom has any connection to this case.
Because so little has been released, even the basic circumstances remain unknown to the public. The record does not say whether he was stabbed during a fight or a robbery, attacked by a stranger or by someone he knew, or hurt indoors or on the street. It does not say what time of day he was hurt, whether he died at the scene or later at a hospital, whether anyone saw what happened, or whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
The address on South Union Avenue is the only firm detail in the record, and it may have been his home, the home of someone he knew, or simply the place where he was found. The record does not say which. It also does not say whether he lived in Pico-Union or had come there from elsewhere in the city.
Pico-Union is one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in Los Angeles, a district of older apartment buildings, small houses and busy commercial streets just west of downtown. Named for the intersection of Pico Boulevard and Union Avenue, it has long been a first home for immigrant families, and it is widely known as a center of the city's Central American community.
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 Gil Ordonez DeLeon could be found in news archives or public records. More than 16 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew a 53-year-old man named Gil DeLeon or Gil Ordonez, or who was on the 1200 block of South Union Avenue in Pico-Union in early November 2009, 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. 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).
