Faustino Martinez Narvaes was 34 years old when he died on Sunday, March 5, 2006, in Highland Park. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 100 E. Ave 45. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Northeast Division case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described him as "a 34-year-old Latino male" who "died Sunday, March 5, after being stabbed in Highland Park." That brief entry, drawn from coroner's records, is nearly the whole of the public record on his death.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Faustino Martinez Narvaes 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.
Faustino Narvaes is an uncommon name, and searches for it returned almost nothing at all, not even the usual namesakes in other states. The spelling of the surname may have varied in other records, and Narvaez is a more common form, so friends or relatives may have known him under a slightly different name. A man of 34 very likely left behind family and friends, in Los Angeles or elsewhere, who still remember him, but none of their words have entered the public record.
Highland Park is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Los Angeles, set in the hills northeast of downtown along the Arroyo Seco. It is known for its Craftsman houses and older bungalows, for the commercial strips along Figueroa Street and York Boulevard, and for a light rail line that connects it to downtown and Pasadena. In 2006 it was a dense, largely working-class neighborhood with many longtime families, small shops and apartment buildings, and it was patrolled by the LAPD's Northeast Division. Avenue 45 is one of the numbered avenues that cross the neighborhood. On a residential street like this one, someone may have heard an argument or seen a person leaving that day without understanding what it meant.
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 Faustino Martinez Narvaes 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 Avenue 45 in Highland Park in early March 2006, or who knew Faustino Narvaes 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).
