Mario Reyes

Mario Reyes was 20 years old when he died on Saturday, May 28, 2005, in Whittier. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 16111 Hornell Street. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Whittier Police Department case.

The coroner's record describes him as a Latino man of 20. Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Mario Reyes 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. His name is one of the most common in Southern California and across the Spanish-speaking world, and searches turned up only other men called Mario Reyes: a former town mayor in the Philippines, a construction worker killed in a Miami car crash, young soldiers who died overseas, a motorist killed in Long Beach years later, and defendants in court cases in several states. None of them is the young man who died in Whittier.

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.

The coroner gave a street address on Hornell Street, which suggests he may have been found at or near a home on a residential block, though the record does not say whether he lived there or how he came to be there. He died over the Memorial Day weekend, a time when many families gather for parties and barbecues, but nothing in the record says whether that had anything to do with what happened.

Whittier was founded by Quakers in the late 1880s and named for the poet John Greenleaf Whittier. It is home to Whittier College and to the historic Uptown district, and it is known as the city where Richard Nixon spent much of his youth. Today it is a largely residential city of tree-lined streets, older houses and newer tracts spreading toward the Puente Hills, with its own police department. Its neighborhoods are close-knit, and on blocks like Hornell Street many families have known one another for years.

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 Mario Reyes 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 near the 16100 block of Hornell Street in late May 2005, who knew Mario or the friends he spent time with, or who heard talk afterward about a young man stabbed in Whittier that holiday weekend, 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 contact the Whittier Police Department, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).