Manuel Navarro Franco was 44 years old when he died on Sunday, Oct. 26, 2008, in Wilmington, the harbor community at the southern end of the city of Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds in the 300 block of East Pacific Coast Highway. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's Harbor Division.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report gave only a short entry. It said that Navarro Franco, "a 44-year-old Latino male, died Sunday, Oct. 26, after being stabbed in Wilmington, according to Los Angeles County coroner's records." No longer article followed, and no police statement about the case appears in the public record.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Manuel Navarro Franco 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 follows the common Spanish-language custom of carrying two surnames, and records may list him as Manuel Navarro, Manuel Franco or Manuel Navarro Franco. Both Manuel Franco and Manuel Navarro are very common names, shared by a racehorse jockey, a public health researcher and many men whose obituaries appear in other states, none of whom has any connection 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.
Wilmington lies between the Harbor Freeway and the Port of Los Angeles, connected to the rest of the city by a narrow strip of land. It is a working community of modest homes, apartment buildings, small businesses and industrial yards, and many residents have long worked at the port, the nearby refineries and the trucking and warehouse businesses that serve them. Pacific Coast Highway is one of its main east-west roads, lined with shops, restaurants, auto businesses and older commercial buildings, and it carries steady traffic at all 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 Manuel Navarro Franco could be found in news archives or public records. More than 17 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew a 44-year-old man named Manuel Navarro Franco, or who was on or near the 300 block of East Pacific Coast Highway in Wilmington in late October 2008, may hold information that could help detectives. Family members, co-workers or neighbors who last saw him in the days before Oct. 26 may also remember something that never reached the police. 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).
