Yolanda Isabel Franco Urbina was 36 years old when she died on Saturday, June 16, 2007, in South Gate, in southeast Los Angeles County. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died of stab wounds at 9726 Deeble St. 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, which identified her as Yolanda Franco, said that she was "stabbed more than 30 times in the neck, torso and left arm at 9726 Deeble St. in South Gate. She died at 4:54 p.m. Saturday, June 16." The same entry reported that "Yaskara Comacho, 13, a Latina girl, died in the same incident," and that "a third person was wounded." It closed with the words "More to come," and added that "Police described it as a possible domestic-violence case."
A later note corrected the date of her death, which had first been given as June 15.
A separate Times entry for the girl, whose name it spelled Yaskara Camacho, said she "suffered stab wounds and cuts to her extremities in the same attack" and gave Franco's age as 34, not 36. It said that "Authorities described the attacks as domestic violence." Neither entry said how the two victims were related to each other or to the person who was wounded, who the attacker was believed to be, or whether anyone was taken into custody. The promised follow-up does not appear to have been published.
Those are the only details on the public record. The description of the attack as domestic violence suggests that investigators may have believed the person responsible knew the household, but no public source names a suspect or describes an arrest.
Beyond her name, her age and the place where she died, almost nothing about Yolanda Franco Urbina has been made public. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found, and no news story beyond the Times entries appears to have been written. Yolanda Urbina and Yolanda Franco are both shared names, carried by women in New Jersey, Texas and Arizona whose obituaries can be found online, none of whom can be tied to this death. She surely had family, friends or neighbors who remember who she was, but none of that has entered the public record.
South Gate is a city of about 90,000 people in the southeast part of Los Angeles County, along the Los Angeles River. It grew in the twentieth century as a factory town, and it remains a dense, working-class community of modest single-family homes and small apartment buildings.
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 Yolanda Isabel Franco Urbina 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 lived on or near Deeble Street in South Gate in June 2007, or who knew Yolanda Franco or the people who shared that address, 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 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).
