Yanshi Wang was 43 years old when she died late on Sunday, June 17, 2007, in Rosemead, in the western San Gabriel Valley. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died of stab wounds at 8849 Glendon Way, Apt. A. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report gave only a brief entry. It said that Wang, "a 43-year-old woman of Asian descent, was stabbed multiple times at 8849 Glendon Way, Apt. A, in Rosemead. She died at 11:33 p.m. Sunday, June 17." Her name was the last one on that week's list of victims drawn from coroner's records, and no longer article followed.
The address in the record is an apartment unit, which suggests that she may have been attacked in or near a home, possibly her own, though the record does not say whether she lived there.
The time of death, close to midnight, is the only detail given about when the attack happened.
Beyond her name, her age and the place where she died, almost nothing about Yanshi Wang 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. She surely had family, friends or neighbors who remember who she was, but none of that has entered the public record. Her name is shared by several scientists and researchers in China whose work appears in medical journals, 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 she was stabbed during a fight or a robbery, attacked by a stranger or by someone she knew, or hurt indoors or on the street. It does not say what time of day she was hurt, whether she died at the scene or later at a hospital, whether anyone saw what happened, or whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
Neighbors in the building, relatives and anyone who knew her in the weeks before June 17, 2007, would know far more about her life than the few lines kept by the coroner.
Rosemead is a small city in the western San Gabriel Valley, east of Alhambra and San Gabriel and along the San Bernardino Freeway. It is a largely residential community of single-family homes and apartment buildings, with busy commercial strips along Valley Boulevard and Garvey Avenue. Like a number of smaller cities in the county, Rosemead contracts with the Sheriff's Department for its police services, which is why sheriff's homicide detectives handled the case.
Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Yanshi Wang 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 Yanshi Wang, who lived on or near Glendon Way in Rosemead in June 2007, or who saw or heard anything unusual there on the night of Sunday, June 17, 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 contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
