Harry Lee Ollie was 49 years old when he died on Wednesday, September 20, 2006, in Vermont Vista. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 999 West Colden Ave. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Southeast Division case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described him as "a 49-year-old black male" who "died Wednesday, Sept. 20, after being stabbed in Vermont Vista." That brief entry, drawn from coroner's records, is almost everything that has been made public about his death.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Harry Lee Ollie 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.
He surely had family, friends or neighbors who remember who he was, but none of that has entered the public record.
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.
Ollie is an uncommon surname, yet searches still turn up other people with a similar name, none of whom can be connected to this death. A man of 49 had lived most of his adult life by September 2006, and there are surely relatives, friends, neighbors or former coworkers who remember him and wonder what happened.
Vermont Vista is a 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 a mostly residential area of modest single-family homes and small apartment buildings, with shops, churches and fast-food restaurants along the main avenues. Colden Avenue is an east-west street that crosses the neighborhood. The address in the coroner's records, at a round number on West Colden Avenue, may mark an intersection or a stretch of street rather than a particular home, which suggests that he may have been hurt outdoors, though the records do not say. In a neighborhood where many families have lived side by side for years, people often know more about a killing than they ever tell the police.
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 Harry Lee Ollie 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 on or near West Colden Avenue in Vermont Vista in September 2006, or who knew Harry Ollie and spent time with him in the days before his death, 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).
