Maria Refugio Mojarro was 84 years old when she died on Wednesday, March 9, 2005, in Reseda, in the San Fernando Valley. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died of stab wounds at 19240 Lanark St. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department West Valley Division case.
The coroner's record describes her as a Latina woman in her mid-80s. Beyond her name, her age and the place where she died, almost nothing about Maria Refugio Mojarro 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.
Searches for her full name turned up only genealogy pages listing women called Maria Refugio Mojarro who were born in the state of Zacatecas, Mexico, in the 1800s, along with obituaries for other members of Mojarro families in California, Arizona and Texas. None of those records mentions a death in Reseda in 2005, and none can be tied to her.
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 death of a woman in her 80s by violence raises questions the public record does not answer. The coroner gave a specific street address on Lanark Street, which may mean she was found in or near a home, possibly her own or that of relatives, but the record does not say so.
Reseda is a residential neighborhood in the west San Fernando Valley, built up largely after World War II with blocks of single-family ranch houses, later joined by apartment buildings along its larger streets. It is known to many people outside Los Angeles as the setting of the 1984 film The Karate Kid and as a place named in Tom Petty's song Free Fallin'. Reseda Boulevard and Sherman Way are among its busiest commercial streets, and quieter residential streets such as Lanark Street run between them. Neighbors on blocks like these often notice who comes and goes from the houses around them.
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 Maria Refugio Mojarro 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 Lanark Street in Reseda in March 2005, who knew Maria or her household, or who heard talk afterward about what happened to her, 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).
