Brenda Joyce Deon was 33 years old when she died on Sunday, July 3, 2005, in the Westlake district just west of downtown Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died of stab wounds at 735 S. Hartford Ave. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Rampart Division case.
The coroner's record describes her as a Black woman. Beyond her name, her age and the place where she died, almost nothing about Brenda Joyce Deon 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. A genealogy listing records that a Brenda J. Deon died at the age of 33 on July 3, 2005, matching the coroner's record, but it gives no details about her life, her family or where she grew up.
Deon is an uncommon surname, yet searches for her name turned up mostly other women with the first name Brenda whose married or family names happen to include Deon, none of them connected to this case.
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.
The coroner's record gives a precise street address rather than a general location, which may suggest she was found at or near a residence or building on South Hartford Avenue, although the record does not say whether she lived there or was only passing through. It also does not say whether she was alone, or whether neighbors called for help.
Westlake is one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in Los Angeles. Built up in the early 1900s as a fashionable district around the lake at MacArthur Park, it later became a crowded area of older apartment buildings and residential hotels, home to many working families and newcomers to the city. Its side streets, including South Hartford Avenue, sit close to the towers of downtown, and they are busy with foot traffic at most hours.
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 Brenda Joyce Deon 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 or worked near the 700 block of South Hartford Avenue in early July 2005, who saw Brenda in the days around the Fourth of July holiday weekend, or who knew her friends and family, may hold information that could help detectives. 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).
