Lisa Rene Christy was 44 years old when she died on Monday, Dec. 26, 2005, the day after Christmas, in San Gabriel. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died of stab wounds at 159 S. Burton St. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described her as "a 44-year-old white female" who "died Monday, Dec. 26, after being stabbed in San Gabriel." That brief entry, taken from coroner's records, is almost all that has been made public about her death.
Beyond her name, her age and the place where she died, almost nothing about Lisa Rene Christy 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.
She surely had family, friends or neighbors who remember who she 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 she was stabbed during a fight or a robbery, attacked by a stranger or by someone she knew, or hurt indoors or on the street. It does not say what time of day she was hurt, whether she died at the scene or later at a hospital, whether anyone saw what happened, or whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
Her name is shared by a number of other women, and searches turned up a mortgage loan officer, women listed in state licensing records in Oklahoma and Arizona, a college graduate in North Carolina and women whose obituaries or fundraisers were posted in other states. None of them can be tied to the woman who died in San Gabriel. A woman of 44 would very likely have had parents, siblings, friends or children, and her death came at a time of year when families gather.
San Gabriel is a small, long-established city in the western San Gabriel Valley, east of downtown Los Angeles. It grew up around the Mission San Gabriel Arcangel, founded in 1771 and one of the oldest Spanish missions in California, which still stands near the center of the city. Today San Gabriel is a mostly residential community of single-family homes and apartment buildings, with busy commercial corridors known across the region for their restaurants and shops. The case is listed with the sheriff's homicide investigators, who handle killings for many communities across the county.
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 Lisa Rene Christy could be found in news archives or public records. More than 20 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who lived on or near South Burton Street in San Gabriel at the end of December 2005, or who knew Lisa and the people in her life during that holiday season, may hold information that could help investigators. 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).
