Wayne Allen Moyers

Wayne Allen Moyers was 35 years old when he died on Sunday, Nov. 19, 2006, in Van Nuys, in the San Fernando Valley. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 16056 Sherman Way. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's Van Nuys Division.

The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded that Moyers, "a 35-year-old white male," died "after being stabbed in Van Nuys." The paper's Homicide Report blog added that he "was hit and stabbed at 16056 Sherman Way in Van Nuys, and died at 10:28 p.m. Nov. 19."

The Daily News told more of the story a few days later. It described him as a Canyon Country man and gave his age as 36. "A near collision in a toy store parking lot led to death," the paper wrote. Moyers was maneuvering a pickup truck in the lot outside a Toys "R" Us when he "just missed a car shortly before 10 p.m.," according to Detective Craig Rhudy of the Los Angeles Police Department. Moyers had just left a 7-Eleven next door. He "quarreled with a group of men from the other vehicle, and one stabbed him in the chest," Rhudy said.

"A verbal dispute escalated into physical assault," the detective told the paper. "We don't know who was at fault."

A companion tried to rush Moyers to a hospital, but he died on the way. Police caught up with the pickup truck on Lindley Avenue in Reseda, where Moyers was found lying in the truck bed. The men who attacked him were described as being in their early 20s, and they drove away in a white SUV and a black Honda Civic or Accord. The Daily News account placed the confrontation on a Monday night, while coroner's records give the date of death as Sunday, Nov. 19, a difference the record does not explain.

The killing was, by every account, a chance encounter between strangers that turned deadly within minutes, which may be part of why no one was identified. No obituary or memorial page for Moyers could be found, and Wayne Moyers is a name shared by many men across the country, none of whom can be tied to this death.

Van Nuys is one of the oldest and most central districts of the San Fernando Valley. Sherman Way is a long east-west boulevard lined with shopping centers, fast-food restaurants, auto shops and apartment buildings, and its parking lots stay busy well into the evening.

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 Wayne Allen Moyers 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 was in the shopping center parking lot on Sherman Way in Van Nuys on the night of Nov. 19, 2006, or who knows of a young man who talked about a fight there, 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).