Richard Garcia was 47 years old when he died on Thursday, March 30, 2006, in Pico Rivera. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 4616 Rosemead Blvd. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department case.
He died on his birthday. The Los Angeles Daily News reported the next day that "minutes before he was stabbed to death, Richard Garcia was at his house celebrating his 47th birthday with family on Thursday night." Family members sang "Happy Birthday" and served cake, his sister, Christine Garcia, told the paper. "We told him we loved him and to be careful," she said. "He said: 'Careful is my middle name.' He always said that."
What happened next, detectives said, was "a mystery." Garcia often walked from his house to a bar near Pico Rivera Plaza on Rosemead Boulevard, and that was the route he took that night.
"He had a habit of going down there," his father, Aniceto Garcia, told the Daily News. "He always walked by himself."
About 15 minutes after he left home, at about 6:30 p.m., witnesses noticed him on the ground in a parking lot at Pico Rivera Plaza and thought he was having a seizure, according to sheriff's homicide Sgt. Dan McElderry. Paramedics found that he had been stabbed twice but believed the wounds were minor. He was taken to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. "We don't know where the incident took place because there's no blood trail," McElderry said. "We honestly don't know what happened."
A paid obituary in the Whittier Daily News noted that he was born on March 30, 1959, in Los Angeles, and died on the same date 47 years later. A vigil was held at a mortuary on Beverly Boulevard, and a funeral liturgy took place at St. Francis Xavier Church in Pico Rivera, followed by burial at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier.
Pico Rivera is a working-class city in southeast Los Angeles County, set between the Rio Hondo and the San Gabriel River and bordered by Montebello, Downey, Whittier and Santa Fe Springs. Rosemead Boulevard is one of its main north-south streets, lined with shopping centers, restaurants and small businesses. The city contracts with the Sheriff's Department for police services, which is why the case belongs to sheriff's homicide investigators. A shopping plaza parking lot at dusk is a place where people come and go, and someone may have seen Richard Garcia in the minutes before he fell.
Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Richard Garcia 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 Rosemead Boulevard near Pico Rivera Plaza on the evening of March 30, 2006, or who saw Richard Garcia walking that night, 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 contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
