Emanuel Valenciano was 22 years old when he died on the night of Tuesday, January 23, 2007, in the Arlington Heights area of Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 1322 S. 5th Ave. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Wilshire Division case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report, in an entry written by reporter Jill Leovy, described Emanuel as "a 22-year-old man of Filipino descent" who "was stabbed repeatedly at 1322 S. 5th Ave." The report said: "His body was found in an alley and his time of death was listed as 9:57 p.m. Jan. 23." A version of the entry on the Times blog placed the address in "Los Angeles' Midtown area."
The report did not describe a motive, a suspect or any witnesses.
More than a year later, in April 2008, GMA News Online published an article by Pasckie Pascua of the Philippine News about Filipino Americans caught up in violence in Los Angeles. It named Emanuel as one of four Filipinos who died violently in the area in 2007, and it repeated the details of his death: "Valenciano, only 22, was stabbed repeatedly in an alley at 1322 S. 5th Ave. in Midtown." The article placed his killing in a broader story about street violence in the city, but it did not report any new information about who killed him or why.
Beyond those two accounts, almost nothing about Emanuel has been made public. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser for him could be found. Other people named Emanuel Valenciano appear in records from Texas and elsewhere, but none can be connected to the young man who died in Los Angeles. The record does not say where he lived, what he did for a living, whether he knew his attacker, or what brought him to that alley on a Tuesday night.
Arlington Heights is an older neighborhood in central Los Angeles, west of downtown and close to the Mid-City area. Many of its streets are lined with early twentieth century houses, including Craftsman homes, along with apartment buildings and small businesses on the larger boulevards. Like much of central Los Angeles, it has alleys running behind rows of houses and apartments, and those alleys are often poorly lit at night. The neighborhood falls within the Wilshire Division of the Los Angeles Police Department.
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 Emanuel Valenciano 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. A young man was stabbed many times and left in an alley, and the people who did it have never been publicly identified. Anyone who lived near 5th Avenue in Arlington Heights in January 2007, who heard a disturbance in the alley that night, or who knew Emanuel and the people around him, may hold a piece of what happened. 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).
