Coby Joe Mcbee was 36 years old when he died on Thursday, July 20, 2006, in Venice, on the Los Angeles coast. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at Ocean Front Walk and Dudley Avenue. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's Pacific Division.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded only that Mcbee, "a 36-year-old white male," died "after being stabbed in Venice," according to the coroner's records. No follow-up story appears to have been written. That is striking, because the place where he died is one of the most crowded stretches of waterfront in Southern California, especially in the middle of summer.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Coby Joe Mcbee 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.
Coby McBee is an uncommon name. Two obituaries from a funeral home in Missouri mention a son named Coby McBee who died before his parents, but nothing in them says where or how that man died, so they cannot be tied to this case and were not used here.
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. It is not known whether he lived in Venice, was visiting the beach, or was one of the many people who spent their days and nights along the boardwalk.
Ocean Front Walk is the famous Venice Beach boardwalk, a paved promenade that runs along the sand past vendors, street performers, cafes, the outdoor gym known as Muscle Beach and the basketball courts. On a July day it draws crowds of tourists and locals, and it stays busy into the evening. Dudley Avenue is one of the short streets that meet the boardwalk. Many people who lived or slept near the beach in those years knew one another by sight, and some of them may remember a man named Coby.
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 Coby Joe Mcbee 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 the Venice boardwalk near Dudley Avenue on July 20, 2006, or who knew a 36-year-old man named Coby Mcbee, 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).
