Roman Alvarado was 31 years old when he died on Tuesday, September 5, 2006, in Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 740 S. Broadway St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Central Division case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described him as "a 31-year-old white male" who "died Tuesday, Sept. 5, after being stabbed in Venice." That short entry, drawn from coroner's records, is nearly all that has been made public about his death. The location in the record is itself a small puzzle. The Homicide Report named Venice, but the case was assigned to the LAPD's Central Division, which covers downtown Los Angeles, and 740 S. Broadway is an address in the downtown area.
That suggests he may have been stabbed downtown, though the public record does not settle the question.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Roman Alvarado 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.
Roman Alvarado is a fairly common name, and searches turn up several other men who share it, including a man arrested in a 2016 stabbing in San Jose and a man tried years later in a Texas cold case. None of them can be connected to this death in Los Angeles in 2006.
If the address is downtown, it places the stabbing on Broadway, the historic heart of the city's old theater district. The street is lined with grand movie palaces from the early twentieth century, such as the Orpheum and the Palace, along with the Bradbury Building and Grand Central Market farther north. In 2006 the stretch was a busy shopping corridor by day, filled with discount stores, jewelry shops and street vendors, and it grew much quieter at night. Downtown also sits near Skid Row, and many people without homes passed through the area. Whatever the hour, a busy street like Broadway would have had people nearby who may have seen something.
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 Roman Alvarado 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 South Broadway in downtown Los Angeles in September 2006, or who knew Roman Alvarado 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).
