Ricardo Merlo Contreras was 45 years old when his body was found on the evening of Saturday, July 18, 2009, inside an empty house in Westchester. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at a home in the 8900 block of Kittyhawk Avenue. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's Pacific Division.
Contreras, who lived in Lakewood, had worked as a real estate agent for 25 years, his family said. He was a husband and the father of five. Family members told ABC7 that he had an appointment on Tuesday, July 14, to show a foreclosed home to prospective buyers, and that he never came home that night. Neighbors said his white Toyota had been parked outside the house for several days.
On Saturday at about 7 p.m., another agent arrived to show the three-bedroom, bank-owned house.
LAPD Officer Karen Rayner told the Daily Breeze that the agent could not find the key in the lockbox and contacted the listing agent. "An employee was sent over to open the door, and that's when they found the body," Rayner said. He was lying on the living room floor. "You're going out showing houses, and working, trying to make a living, especially in this economy, and somehow this can happen to you?" said his nephew, Oscar Mireles.
LAPD Det. Mark Morgan told ABC7 that Contreras "could have been killed anytime between Tuesday night and Saturday afternoon. That would be the times the public should concentrate on." He said investigators were interviewing his employers, friends and family, and that finding a motive would be key. Reporters noted that his sister had been convicted years earlier in a 1998 San Pedro double murder, but the detective said he had no idea whether that had anything to do with the killing, and the Daily Breeze reported there was no immediate evidence tying the cases together.
Westchester is a neighborhood on the west side of Los Angeles, just north of Los Angeles International Airport and home to Loyola Marymount University. Much of it is made up of quiet streets of single-family homes built in the years after World War II. In 2009, at the height of the foreclosure crisis, bank-owned houses for sale were common across Southern California.
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 Ricardo Contreras 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 was on Kittyhawk Avenue in Westchester between July 14 and July 18, 2009, who noticed a white Toyota parked there, or who had arranged to see that house with him, 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).
