Jonathan Morales was 17 years old when he died on Tuesday, October 23, 2007, in Hollywood. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds near North Van Ness Avenue and Virginia Avenue. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Hollywood Division case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report, which drew on coroner's records, contains only one sentence about him. It said that "Jonathan Morales, a 17-year-old Latino male, died Tuesday, Oct. 23, after being stabbed in Hollywood." The entry gave no time, no account of what happened and no description of a suspect, and no follow-up entry appears to have been published. The location listed in the record, an intersection rather than a house number, suggests that he may have been attacked on the street, although the record does not say so.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Jonathan Morales 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.
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.
Jonathan Morales is also a very common name. Searches turn up a banker, a real estate agent, a doctor and a high school athlete in Southern California, defendants in cases in New York, Texas and Florida, and obituaries for many other men who shared it. None of them can be connected to the teenager who died in Hollywood in October 2007, and the shared name makes it hard for anyone searching today to find a trace of his life.
The intersection of Van Ness Avenue and Virginia Avenue lies in the eastern part of Hollywood. The area is a dense mix of apartment buildings, small homes, auto shops and corner businesses, home to many working families. It is far from the tourist strip of Hollywood Boulevard, and it is the kind of neighborhood where teenagers walk to school, to friends' homes and to stores.
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 Jonathan Morales could be found in news archives or public records. More than 18 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew a 17-year-old named Jonathan Morales in Hollywood in 2007, who went to school with him, or who heard about a stabbing near Van Ness Avenue and Virginia Avenue in late October 2007, may hold information that could help detectives. 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).
