William Joseph Harris was 48 years old when he died on Tuesday, April 12, 2005, in Long Beach. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 1401 W. 15th St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Long Beach Police Department case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 48-year-old white male" who "died Tuesday, April 12, after being stabbed in Long Beach." The entry gave a street address on West 15th Street, but it did not say whether that was his home, the home of someone he knew or simply the place where he was found. No follow-up story about his death appears to have been published.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about William Joseph Harris 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. William Harris is one of the most common names in the United States, and even with the middle name Joseph, searches turn up many other men who share it, including defendants in court cases in other states and a lawyer in England. None of them can be connected to this death.
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.
He was 48, in the middle of his working life. A man of that age may have had a job, a home, children or grandchildren, and friends who had known him for decades. The record says nothing about any of that, but the people who knew him may still remember the spring he was killed and may still be waiting to learn who was responsible.
Long Beach is the second-largest city in Los Angeles County, a port city on San Pedro Bay with more than 450,000 residents. It is known for its busy harbor, one of the largest in the country, for the Queen Mary ocean liner docked across the water from downtown, and for its long beachfront.
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 William Joseph Harris 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 knew a 48-year-old man named William Harris in Long Beach, or who lived on or near West 15th Street in April 2005, 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 Long Beach Police Department's Homicide Detail at 562-570-7244, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
