Abraham Joey Montgomery III was 50 years old when he died on Friday, January 16, 2009, in the Exposition Park area of South Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 1640 W. 35th St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's South Bureau Homicide unit.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence, describing him as "a 50-year-old black male" who "died Friday, Jan. 16, after being stabbed in Exposition Park, according to Los Angeles County coroner's records." No further details were ever added. The entry gave no account of the circumstances and no quotes from detectives, relatives or neighbors, and no follow-up story appears to have been published.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Abraham Joey Montgomery III 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. His name is distinctive. The suffix "III" means he shared his name with his father and grandfather, a family tradition that suggests relatives who may still carry the name today. Even so, searches for it turned up no other record that can be tied to him or to this death.
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.
Exposition Park is a neighborhood in South Los Angeles that takes its name from the large park at its center, home to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the California Science Center and a well-known rose garden. The University of Southern California sits next to the park. Around these landmarks, the neighborhood's side streets are lined with older houses and apartment buildings.
Homicides in Los Angeles fell steeply in the late 2000s and early 2010s, yet many killings from those years were never solved.
At 50, Abraham Joey Montgomery III had lived a full half-century, and the people who knew him over those years, whether family, friends, neighbors or co-workers, may still remember where he was living and who he spent time with in January 2009. Any of them could help fill in what the public record leaves out.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Abraham Joey Montgomery III 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 Abraham Montgomery, or who was near West 35th Street in Exposition Park in mid-January 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).
