Mark John Duyck was 51 years old when he died on Thursday, December 21, 2006, in the Vermont Vista neighborhood of South Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 815 W. 105th St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's Southeast Division.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 51-year-old white male" who "died Thursday, Dec. 21, after being stabbed in Vermont Vista." The entry gave a street address, but it did not say whether he lived there, whether he was visiting someone or whether that was simply where he was found. No follow-up story appears to have been written. He died four days before Christmas.
One genealogy listing adds a small detail.
It records that a Mark Duyck "died at age 51 years old on December 21, 2006," and that he was buried at Riverside National Cemetery, in Section 58B. The name, age and date all match. Riverside National Cemetery is a national cemetery for military veterans and their eligible family members, which suggests that he may have served in the armed forces, though the record does not say so.
Beyond that, almost nothing about his life has been made public. No obituary, family fundraiser or news story about him could be found. Duyck is an uncommon surname, and searches turn up a large Duyck family in Oregon that includes a brother named Mark, but nothing in the saved records ties that family to the man who died in Los Angeles.
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.
Vermont Vista is a small residential neighborhood in South Los Angeles, named for Vermont Avenue, one of the long north-south streets that run through the southern part of the city. It is made up mostly of modest single-family homes and small apartment buildings on numbered east-west streets, and it lies within the area patrolled by the Southeast Division.
Los Angeles still recorded roughly 480 to 520 homicides a year in the mid-2000s, and many of those killings were never solved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Mark John Duyck could be found in news archives or public records. More than 19 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who lived on or near West 105th Street in December 2006, or who knew a 51-year-old man named Mark Duyck, possibly a veteran, 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 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).
